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Luke 21:1-4
As Jesus finishes speaking of the arrogance, greed, and self-centered ways of the scribes, He turns His attention to the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. He also notices a poor widow putting her gift into the treasury as well. Jesus comments that the poor widow has put more in the treasury than the rich people because they gave out of their wealth, but she gave all that she had out of her poverty.
This is an example of the heart; the rich gave their gifts so they would be recognized for their giving; the poor widow gave from her sincerity of heart, humility, and submission to God.
There is much debate today about giving to the Church, how much should be given and how often we should give. The normal amount to give has been determined as ten percent of our wages. This comes from Abraham giving this amount to Melchizedek (the priest of God Most High) in Genesis 14:18-20. The word “tithe” means ten percent. Once the priesthood was established through Moses and Arron (the first priest after the law was given to Moses), the Israelites were to give their tithe to support the needs of the priests and the temple. In Acts 4:32-37 we find the Church being established after Jesus was crucified and ascended into heaven. The whole community of the Church (those who believed in Jesus) came together and supported one another so that no one was in need. This is reflective of Jesus’ teaching in John 13:35-36 to love one another as He has first loved us.
This giving is meant to be in submission and humility to God and in thanksgiving for what He has done for us in sending His only Son to pay the penalty for our sins (John 3:16). The entire teaching of Jesus is based on having a pure heart in submission to God and obeying the new covenant that He brought forth in being the fulfillment of the covenant of the Law of Moses (Matthew 5:17-18). The new covenant is a transfer from doing things as required by the law to having a pure and sincere heart to God through salvation in Jesus (John 3:17).
The bottom line is that God desires us to have sincere hearts in submission to Him in whatever we do, whether it is in our giving of our tithes or in sharing the gifts He has given us. He desires that we all bring glory to Him in all that we do. The Apostle Paul states that we should be to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:12, 14).
Dear Lord,
We have had recent lessons from Your Word in being greedy and self-centered. Please help us to not portray these things in our lives, but to follow the kindness, compassion, and caring of our Savior Jesus in our giving of our tithes and gifts that You have so graciously given us that we too could be to the praise of Your glory. In Jesus name I pray, amen.