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Bible Studies Everyday Christian Life
Generosity
Giving in Scripture is cheerful, proportional, and frequently inconvenient.
Giving in Scripture is cheerful, proportional, and frequently inconvenient. All three of those are worth noticing.
What you’ll explore
- 01 The widow’s two coins
- 02 The early church’s sharing
- 03 “God loves a cheerful giver”
- 04 Proportion rather than amount
- 05 Giving to the church and giving to a neighbour
- 06 Generosity with time and attention
- 07 Giving when money is tight
The widow’s two coins
Read Luke 21:1-4; Mark 12:41-44
Jesus watches people give and singles out the smallest gift in the building, because it was everything she had. The measure is what it cost, not what it came to. This is the passage that makes the whole subject accessible to people with nothing.
The early church’s sharing
Read Acts 2:44-45; Acts 4:32-35; 2 Corinthians 8:1-5
They sold possessions as any had need, and there was not a needy person among them. The Macedonians gave beyond their means out of extreme poverty and begged for the privilege. Note that in Acts this is described, not commanded, and it is voluntary throughout — Acts 5 makes that explicit.
“God loves a cheerful giver”
Read 2 Corinthians 9:6-8
Each one should give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion. Paul rules out both guilt and pressure as motives. The decision is meant to be made in advance and gladly, which is a different act from responding to an appeal.
Proportion rather than amount
Read 1 Corinthians 16:2; 2 Corinthians 8:12-14
Paul’s instruction is to set something aside as you may prosper — a proportion, weekly, planned. He adds that the point is fairness rather than one church being burdened. Proportional giving means the widow and the wealthy can both give fully.
Giving to the church and giving to a neighbour
Read Galatians 6:6-10; 1 Timothy 5:17-18; Luke 10:33-35
The New Testament supports those who teach, and it also has a Samaritan spending his own money on a stranger with no institution involved. Both are commended. Treating congregational giving and direct help to a neighbour as competitors is a false choice.
Generosity with time and attention
Read Matthew 25:35-40; Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:2
The list in Matthew 25 is food, drink, welcome, clothing, visiting — most of it time rather than money. Practise hospitality; do not neglect to show it to strangers. For many people time is the scarcer resource and therefore the costlier gift.
Giving when money is tight
Read Mark 12:44; 2 Corinthians 8:2-3, 12
The Macedonians gave out of extreme poverty, and Paul also says the readiness is what is acceptable, according to what a person has. Both are in the same letter. Whether the tithe — a tenth — binds Christians is genuinely disputed: some hold it as a standing minimum, others hold that the New Testament replaces it with proportional, cheerful giving that may be more or less. Both are held by Baptists, and Mt. Pleasant does not publish a required figure.
Questions to sit with
- Do you give by decision or by prompting?
- What proportion is it, honestly, and did you choose it?
- Where could you give time instead of money this month?
Every passage in this study
Go deeper
Where this connects
This study sits inside a larger story. Read the passages above in their own books, and follow the thread back through Scripture as a whole.