What the Bible Says About Giving

+ Enlarge

“Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” (Mt 6:21) These words of Jesus have resonated within the hearts of people for 2,000 years. What was Jesus talking about?

Scripture has no less than 2,350 verses having to do with money. Jesus speaks more about money than any other topic, including heaven, hell, prayer and salvation. The message is clear: What we do with our money is a very spiritual thing and an indicator of what is in our hearts.

In an often misquoted verse, St. Paul the Apostle writes, “The love of money is the root of all evil”. (1 Tim 6:10) St. Paul teaches that our Lord realizes we have needs that must be met to live and to carry out His work. God is, however, a loving God who desires our full commitment with nothing else taking precedence over Him. That is why the Apostle Paul warns his first-century congregation that the love of money is evil.

All that we have is a gift on loan from God. What we do with our time, talent and treasure will have to be given account of on the last day. The great sin of disobedience by Adam in the Garden of Eden was the abuse of his gift of stewardship.

In the book of Genesis, the mysterious paradigmatic priest of priests Melchizedek appears to perform one task alone: to collect the tithe from Abraham and to thus confer a blessing upon him on behalf of the Lord. This clearly shows that Abraham gave of his first (best) fruits unto the Lord and in turn was blessed. This is precisely what God is calling us to do. As faithful Catholics, we are called to give sacrificially of our best resources, not our leftovers.

When we become burdened with a mindset of materialism (i.e. non-stewardship focused giving) we become slaves to money instead of our money being our servant for the promotion of God’s Kingdom. This clearly is not what God intended. King Solomon, the richest and wisest man of all time, expressed his feeling of the emptiness of materialism when he said, “vanity of vanities, it is all a bubble that bursts.”

Principles of Christian stewardship apply not only to the individual Christian but to the life of a parish. Jesus is clear when He says that He would build and grow the Church, and the task of His followers is to do that by making disciples, which should be the ultimate focus of any and all monetary collections.

The Church is a missionary body, and its mission field is the whole world. The aim of its missionary activity is not merely to convey to people certain convictions or ideas, not to impose a definite discipline or a rule of life, but to introduce us into the new reality, to convert us, to bring us through faith and repentance to Christ. The Holy Father put it this way: “It is a journey that begins with a spiritual conversion.”

To know the spiritual state and strength of a congregation, look at its stewardship report. It tells it all, because what people do with their money reflects what is in their hearts. We make disciples by presenting Jesus to people through preaching, teaching, the sacramental life, and outreach ministries. It is to this end that our giving should be focused. If the Church does her job, Jesus has promised to be faithful and do His part. Sacrificial giving for the Christian is not an option, but a joyful privilege.

The essence of Church ministry is not buildings, budgets and bodies, but rather the building up of the family of God — making disciples. To be truly “the people of God” is to take up the mantle and responsibility of faithful Christian stewardship. Proper Christian stewardship for individuals and parishes includes the following principles: 1) acknowledging that everything comes from God  2) giving should be sacrificial; 3) giving should be of one’s first fruits.

If we incorporate these principles into our lives and the life of our parish, the Lord has promised to do mighty works in our life and in the lives of those around us.

John Kaloudis is director of the Diocese of Salt Lake City Office of Stewardship.