Luke 4-21:1 NIVUK
[1] As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. [2] He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. [3] ‘Truly I tell you,’ he said, ‘this poor widow has put in more than all the others. [4] All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.’ https://bible.com/bible/113/luk.21.1.NIVUK
Forgive me if I have told this tale before, but, when I read this verse, I am often reminded of something that took place in a large church in the Philippines. They were collecting money and food to provide for a youth conference – a worthy endeavour. But something about the way they were collecting made me feel thoroughly uncomfortable.
It was actually like a reverse auction. People who had the means stayed after church and each made a pledge – publicly – of how much they would give. One would give a certain amount of money, the other would exceed it. One would pledge a sack of rice, the other would pledge two sacks. And every pledge was met with raucous and enthusiastic applause.
It grated. It really did. This was a church that did not allow singing with a backing tape because it was ‘unspiritual’, but ran their giving in such a way that people were being robbed of their eternal reward, as Jesus explained:
Matthew 4-6:1 NIVUK
[1] ‘Be careful not to practise your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. [2] ‘So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. [3] But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, [4] so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
This passage is about giving – absolutely. But it is not about the absolute amount you give.
This is where so many legalistic Christian organisations make a huge mistake. It is more about why you give instead of what you give, and how you give as much as who you give to.
It is a small passage, but one with deep ramifications.
The first thing we see here is that giving is about Who You Give To.
Now, that might not seem like an obvious point. Both the rich and the poor widow were giving to God.
Or so it seemed.
But look at these verses from the Old Testament:
Psalms 12-50:8 NIVUK
[8] I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. [9] I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, [10] for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. [11] I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. [12] If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. https://bible.com/bible/113/psa.50.8.NIVUK
When we give, we are not giving to God for Him to consume our offering; not because He needs or wants it. We are not like pagans or Hindus or ancestor worshippers. We do not leave out food offerings for God to eat. Why? Because He does not need them! Our God does not eat!
More to the point, God does not need what we give. Why? Because He already owns it! It is already His!
So when we are giving, we need to get that part straight and get rid of any residual pagan ideas about what making a gift or a sacrifice to God really means.
What Jesus was wary of is the idea that people give in a worship setting, not so that God gets the glory, but so they get the glory. That is, they appear to be giving to God, but they are the ones who benefit from the gift, not God.
Hence Jesus’ uncompromising teaching in Matthew 6. The fact that Jesus noticed the rich gifts being placed in the box means that they were being given in a noticeable way. Jesus had already targeted those who give like this – to enhance their own reputation as spiritual and holy, or to try to bribe God so He would let them run their lives as they pleased, or so that God would return with some consequential material blessing.
In other words, this is aimed directly at the materialistic, prosperity Gospel that does not give to God because of who He is, but because of what they can get.
In contrast, we can almost imagine how this poor widow gave: shyly, quietly, shame-facedly, hoping no-one would notice because her offering was so little. Yet Jesus highlights her giving as an example, because it was from a heart of love. It was willing.
When Paul wrote to the Corinthians about giving to the church in Jerusalem, which was facing hardship, he wrote these words:
2 Corinthians 15-9:12 NIVUK
[12] This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. [13] Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. [14] And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. [15] Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! https://bible.com/bible/113/2co.9.12.NIVUK
So the offering is to meet a human need and God receives the glory from it.
This was actually part of the Jewish sacrificial system in the first place:
Deuteronomy 29-14:28 NIVUK
[28] At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, [29] so that the Levites (who have no land allotted to them or any inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Plenty of Christian groups are very strict on how giving should take place and what proportion we should give. I have yet to meet any that states clearly in their accounts that they used this money for the purposes in Deuteronomy 14. Yet that is what they should do.
A gift well given brings glory to God and joy to the Body of Christ.
So why do you give? Is it because it makes you feel good? Because you want to look good?
Because you will get a tax reduction if you do so?
These are by-products of giving. They are not the right reasons to give.
But if we give out of a humble, love-filled heart that seeks to lift others up and in doing so glorify God, not ourselves, then we are giving for the right reasons.
And that leads us on from who you give to. We now see What You Give From.
Jesus highlights her giving because she does not have much, and those two small coins were all she had. Commentators believe that this gift was around 1% of a daily wage. So her level of poverty was way beyond anything most of us will ever experience, yet she gave everything to God. In other words, her tiny offering was a way higher proportion of what she had available than that of the rich.
They gave large offerings, absolutely. But we must not get carried away with the monetary value. They could give a lot and still not miss it.
But that woman: she was all in. She gave everything.
Paul praised the Macedonian church for the same thing:
2 Corinthians 5-8:1 NIVUK
[1] And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. [2] In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. [3] For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, [4] they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. [5] And they exceeded our expectations: they gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.
Now, we need to be very careful here. This is sacrificial giving. But one thing it is not is self-destructive giving. God gave us all the resources we have. We should not give them away thoughtlessly. When we give, we should give responsibly and make sure that the money we give is being used wisely. We also should certainly not put ourselves in a dire position of need.
That is not what Jesus is commending here.
What He is commenting on is how His culture valued the amount of cash people were giving over how much people had left when they gave. They were obsessed with the pounds and pence, with the dollars and cents, rather than the effect the gift had on the giver and the receiver.
There is a concept in accounting known as ‘disposable income’. Simply put, it’s the amount of money you have left once all your bills are paid. There are those who live with a tiny margin of disposable income. They max out their income until they have very little left.
These are the people whose lives are jam packed with stress, who often have no idea if they will financially make it from one end of the month to the other.
If you are in that position because your income is small, I feel for you. I really do. Because I was in a family that was there, for many, many years.
But there are so, so many people, especially in the West, who are actually there by choice: whose extravagant lifestyle costs almost as much, and sometimes more, than the money they bring in. These are the apparently rich people who queued up for handouts during the Covid pandemic in their fancy cars and branded clothes because they could not cope financially with the salary reductions that took place.
That is an awful, and an utterly humiliating, situation to be in. But there is an easy way out: get out of debt as soon as you can and live within your means. Stop pretending to be something you are not. Accept who you are and live your life appropriately. It will take time to get there, but when you do, you will be glad that you did.
Why am I using these examples? Because we often judge people by their generosity, by the amount they give, but that is folly. We do not know their financial situation. We have not lived a moment of their lives.
What people give is between them and God. It is none of your business.
But tell me: is your giving at all proportionate to your disposable income?
Do you recognise Christ’s Lordship over your finances?
We have seen who you give to and what you give from. The last thing I would like is to consider is Who You Trust With What You Keep.
This woman gave everything she had. Her offering was likely nowhere near enough to buy food, or perhaps even water. Yet still, she gave it.
That took faith: faith to believe that she could give it all to God and that He would provide for her.
Let me tell you, it’s easy to trust God when you have plenty. It is a lot harder when you do not have plenty. However, when you do not have plenty, you often have no choice but to trust God. So when He comes through for you, your joy is so much greater than anyone who has plenty will ever experience.
And I say that from first hand knowledge.
There are many times, especially when I served on the mission field, both short term and longer, when I stepped out on faith with everything I had and owned. Let me tell you, God gave me lessons and experiences and people that were of far greater value than anything I put at risk to get them.
I believe that this woman’s giving – and that of the Macedonian church – was not just an act of generosity but an act of faith. They were giving God what they had in the calm, cool-headed assurance that He would not leave them destitute; that He would provide for them.
How do I know it?
Because the entire Jewish worship system was built on it.
Think about what they were supposed to bring to God: firstborn animals (Deuteronomy 15:19), trusting that God would provide more; the first fruits of their labour, in the hope that God would provide more (Proverbs 3:9-10). The principle was ingrained into them: give to God first and He will take care of the rest.
That is why we see these words of teaching from Jesus:
Matthew 33-6:31 NIVUK
[31] So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” [32] For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. [33] But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
When we give to God, we trust Him that He will use what is left in our pockets and our pocket books for His glory. We declare that He is Lord over it all: that He owns it, that it is all His. But we also trust Him that He will make up for the lack of whatever it is we have given to Him.
And He does. Oh, how He does:
Mark 30-10:29 NIVUK
[29] ‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus replied, ‘no-one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel [30] will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life. https://bible.com/bible/113/mrk.10.29.NIVUK
Psalms 37:25 NIVUK
[25] I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.
This woman gave all she had. She trusted God with what remained – which was her life.
What about you? Do you trust God with everything?
Or when you give, are you slipping Him a bribe so He will leave the rest of your wealth alone?
One of the most moving moments of my missionary career happened in a Romanian church in a poor area. I had just preached. After the service, a little old woman, who likely did not have much, came up and handed me a little money for the work of our mission agency. I faced a struggle inside. I knew she would likely need that money. I, on the other hand, was receiving financial support from a relatively rich Western church. I had all I needed. The organisation I worked for was well supported too. We had the resources we needed for our work.
Yet she would clearly be struggling.
She insisted I took that money. As far as she was concerned, what she was giving was to God and His work, not to me.
Often the models we have for giving in church are all wrong. If we need to persuade people by either legalistically hitting then over the head with Old Testament law, or twisting their arms by telling them they will get a tax break, or using the darkest emotional blackmail, then we have missed the whole point of giving.
What was it Paul told the Corinthians?
2 Corinthians 9:7 NIVUK
[7] Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
When was the last time your giving was cheerful? Be honest!
I hear that in African churches, there us a tradition for the church to dance during the offering, and to line up to boogie their way to the offering box, where they deposit their gift with a smile on their face.
That is Biblical giving. Not the way we do it.
This old woman, giving a miniscule amount of money, knew more of the rich blessing of Biblical giving than any of the rich people ahead of her in the queue ever would.
She was all in. Like Jesus:
NIVUK 8:9 2 Corinthians
[9] For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. https://bible.com/bible/113/2co.8.9.NIVUK
Are you?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, You own me and everything I will ever have. Help me not to withhold any of it from You. Guide me how to use it wisely for Your glory. Amen.
Questions
1. What errors do we often make about giving that are exposed in this short passage?
2. What is giving really about? How can you apply this to your giving?
3. How much of what you have should you give to God? What does this mean for you?
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