Churches of Christ -- Sermons; Sermons, American -- 20th century
Now, if you expect me to tell you exactly how much you should give, you
will be disappointed. I am not going to tell you because the Bible
doesn’t tell me. If I were to undertake to tell you, I might put it too
low. I would certainly be afraid to tell any one that he was giving too
much. A man once asked me a question which several other preachers had
been unable to answer. He said, “My wife and I make $150 per month. We
give $25 of that to the church each month. I want to know if we are
giving enough.” When I heard the question I knew why the other preachers
had not answered. He and his wife were giving more than a tenth. They
were giving 16⅔ per cent, but I was afraid to tell him whether they were
giving too much or not enough, because I didn’t know. Jesus Christ
watched the poor widow give away all her living, and He didn’t tell her
that she was giving too much. Some of our brethren today would probably
have said, “Just wait a minute, lady, we appreciate your motive and
admire your liberality, but you ought not give all you have. We wouldn’t
want you to starve to death or to do without the necessities of life.”
But Jesus stood there and watched her give away the very last thing she
had and He made no effort to restrain her. So, I can’t tell any one that
he is giving too much or the exact number of dollars that he should
give. Each one must answer for himself.
_How much is liberal?_ I can’t answer for you; you can’t answer for me.
You must answer for yourself and your answer must be a definite one,
expressible in terms of a certain number of dollars and cents. You must
decide how many dollars and cents you should give in order to meet the
requirement of liberality. How much have you studied the question? How
much have you prayed about it and investigated the word of God in your
search for an answer? How much time have you spent on the question? Are
you sure that you have reached a scriptural conclusion? You must not
merely decide what is liberal according to your own standard, but what
is liberal according to God’s standard. For, after all, God is to be the
final judge as to whether you are giving liberally. You must reach a
definite conclusion as to what God will consider a liberal amount from
you. I urge you to study the question of liberality. Search the
Scriptures, pray God to lead you to the right answer. Because the
question must be answered. It is a commandment of God in the New
Testament.
III
Abram
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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