Guidelines for Group Giving
The Bible is a very practical book, it teaches us how to live well. Reading through its pages we find specific teaching on a wide variety of subjects. That’s not to say that the Bible addresses every possible subject, but it does give us principles that can be applied to every situation you and I face in life.
For example, the Bible doesn’t give us a command, “Thou shalt not play the lottery.” But Proverbs 13:11 warns, “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.” And First Timothy 6:9 says, “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.” To me, those verses speak clearly about whether or not I should “play the lottery.”
Deuteronomy 22:8 commanded the children of Israel “When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring guilt of bloodshed on your household if anyone falls from it.”
Immediately, someone will say, “that’s Old Testament, we don’t need to follow that anymore.” Not so fast! It’s true that Jesus came to fulfill the Law and we don’t need to build railings around the roof of our house; unless, of course, it’s a flat roof we use as part of our living space. But there’s a larger principle here; it is to show proper care for those around you.
We follow this principle by removing hazards on our property, covering a ditch, or cutting down a dead tree. Most of us carry liability insurance to cover any injuries that someone might incur on our property. We’re concerned about the welfare of others, so we take steps to lessen their risks when they are on our property.
For the past few weeks on The Voice of Hope, we’ve been learning about giving from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. Today’s text is II Corinthians 8:16 to 24. These verses provide details of a gift that was being gathered by the Believers in Asia Minor for the poor and persecuted saints in Jerusalem.
These verses also provide practical guidelines on how a gift of this type should be managed. While this teaching may not seem so practical to our daily lives as Christ-followers, there are important things we can learn as we attempt to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us. I believe these final verses of this chapter apply especially to the recipients of financial gifts, like churches, evangelistic ministries, missionaries, Christian schools, and other Christian organizations.
I’ve titled our study, “Guidelines for Group Giving.” Listen carefully as I read our text, Second Corinthians 8:8 to 16. This is God’s Word to us.
This text gives several important DIRECTIVES that will help us use best practices in group giving.
The First DIRECTIVE is,
Engage Trusted Stewards
When Titus heard from Paul about the needs of the church in Jerusalem, he immediately set out to remind the Corinthians of that need and to receive a gift from them. The last chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians informed them of the need, but they hadn’t done anything ye...
