Often times giving into the Kingdom of God is seen as some type of insurance policy – if I faithfully give then the walls of protection stay up and all is good for me and mine. While faithful giving is Biblical, we are missing pertinent elements of God's truth if we solely depend on it to open heaven’s blessings in our lives and keep us from all harm. Far and above giving is the act of loving, and this exemplifies the heart of God.
Consider Matthew 5 , which deals with the person who is ready to give his offering but is reminded that giving while at ‘odds’ with a brother or an adversary is worthless giving. You see, God is looking for faithfulness to Him through the way we handle our relationships and treat one another more so than what we give into the offering plate. Far greater is love than faith where offerings are concerned, and in fact, faith for giving and receiving is under-girded by love, which makes faith operational and effective (Gal. 5:6, 1 John 3:18).
An interesting note on Matt 5 (seen also in Luke 12) is that the first mention of settling differences is with one’s ‘brother’ and the second is with one’s ‘adversary.’ Those born out of the same spiritual womb and into the Kingdom of God are surely brothers, but God sees it as important to settle matters with those who are not brothers – the unsaved. And perhaps one reason for this is that the witness of God will be given to adversaries as we work to settle differences through the Spirit of God.
A second note on this scripture is that the brother has ‘aught’ against the person who is ready to give his offering; it doesn’t say that the person giving the offering has something against his brother. This indicates that we have a responsibility beyond forgiving others, and that responsibility is to reconcile and settle our differences as far as it depends upon us. That doesn’t mean the other person is going to be willing to reconcile and settle differences, but as a bearer of the love of God it is our responsibility to earnestly try. We may have to say “We’ve talked this through, and I know we can’t agree on it, but can we agree to release the tension between us and understand that we think differently on it?” Then leave it in God’s hands to change the mind of the person who is not aligned with Him – we don’t have to be the Holy Spirit to those with whom we disagree.
A third note on this scripture is that we are not to physically give our offering to God until we’ve taken care of the differences between us and others. To ‘offer’ is to tenderly extend one’s gift through the heart more so than the hand; it’s a spiritual event which signifies our thankfulness to God for His unending forgiveness, faithfulness and love. A little angst mixed in with a love offering, especially if one is depending on their faithful giving to keep them under God’s protection, is like mixing a drop of mud into a gallon of water. It might be a wee bit of mud, and it might be hard to spot in that gallon of water, but it has soiled the purity of the water. Keep the giving pure: the heart that seeks peaceful, loving, relationships is the heart that offers an unpolluted gift.
In the end (Matt 5), the heart which extended God’s love (reconciled to his adversary before giving an offering) was kept from getting dragged into court, losing his earthly belongings and being tossed into prison; it wasn’t simply the heart that had faith to give and expect a return.
The reason we give is because we love - both God and others. In no way does that negate the promises of God - but it sets a priority for our giving.
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