Do we ever stop to ask ourselves what we are going to do when we get there?  I know what you’re thinking:  “Of course I do!  I am going to sleep in, spend time with my kids, stare at the ocean, and do something really significant with my time–you know, give back.”  We all have an endless list of things to do when “financial independence” finally moves into the guest bedroom.  However, the point I am trying to make here is that most of us never REALLY stop and think about what would come after reaching this elusive utopian destination.

If I had to boil it down into its simplest terms, I find that we usually go in one of two directions:  luxury or philanthopy.  Regarding the first option, the Bible speaks rather clearly.  Jesus told a parable about a rich man who had reached what we would call “financial independence”.

“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.  And he told them this parable: ‘The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’  Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.  And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’  But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’  This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:15-21, NIV)

Plain and simple:  The Bible teaches that a life long pursuit of wealth in the name of personal comfort, luxury, and ease is greedy and foolish.  Though it may seem appealing on the surface, this approach to life is nothing more than a self-revolving, self-indulging, pursuit of short-term and superficial satisfaction.  And, sadly, this person’s deepest hopes are placed in temporal things with no guarantee they will actually get to enjoy what they have stored up.  There is nothing wrong with working hard to enjoy some of the fruit of your labor, but the life dedicated only to this purpose is ultimately meaningless, self-absorbed greed.

The rest of us place our bets on door number two (philanthropy).  Often Christians aware of the parable above defend their pursuit of financial independence in terms like:  “Once I get there, I will serve and give, etc.”  We have dreams of using our adundant resources to help others…once we get our stockpile high enough.  We tend to be quite stingy now as we strive towards our goal, and push our generosity off to the day our ship comes in.  Let’s stop and think about that.  Will we really dedicate our life to something we never have the time for now?  Are fooling ourselves? 

Jesus told another parable along these lines, the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30).  “You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.” (23)  Would God be wise to bless our pursuit of financial independence if we don’t do what we are supposed to with the little amount we have?  I don’t think so.

In conclusion, I will leave us with two principles to consider:  First, supposed “financial independence” is not evil unless it is the only thing we are trying to define our life by (greed).  Second, we fool ourselves if we think we will be a different sort of person when our assets increase.  We should feel free to work towards this goal, but should never define our lives by it or convince ourselves we can wait until then to start acting like we ought.

“If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount.  But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great.” (Luke 6:34-35)

Christ gave quite a surprising twist to generosity–expect nothing in return.  This got me thinking about what types of “expectations” we bring to the table of generosity. [Intro previously posted]

HEAVENLY

This post will highlight one often overlooked portion of the passages we have used throughout this mini-series.  Each portion of scripture we have looked actually tells us what our expectation should be:

“and your reward will be great.” (Luke 6:35)

“your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” (Matt. 6:4)

“for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 14:14)

The Bible instructs our generosity to be motivated by a desire for heavenly reward.  In a sense, we are only to “expect nothing in return” in this life.  However, the expectation of return in the next life should in fact be a passionate motivation.

What exactly heavenly reward is, is never fully described in scripture.  To a certain extent, we don’t really know what heavenly reward is.  I believe this is intentional in order to call us to live by faith.  The only thing that we know for certain is that Christ, the author of our salvation, instructs us to seek after it. 

Taking an honest look at your expectations for generosity (because believe me, you do have expectations of some kind) can free us to give as the Bible instructs, and ultimately, to reap a bountiful harvest in heaven.

Expectation Series: Part 1- Repayment, Part 2- Praise, Part 3- Heavenly.

Check out the latest deals on Dollars and Doctrine here.

“If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount.  But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great.” (Luke 6:34-35)

Christ gave quite a surprising twist to generosity–expect nothing in return.  This got me thinking about what types of “expectations” we bring to the table of generosity. [Intro previously posted]

PRAISE

Accolade is another common expectation following a contribution.  People often, though perhaps not openly, expect praise for their generosity and philanthropy.

“So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men.  Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.  But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” (Matt. 6:2-4) 

Christ spoke plainly against this sort of motivation.  He explains that the only reward of “praise seeking generosity” is just what you hoped for–praise from men.  At first it sounds reasonable to get what you expect, perhaps even legitimate.  But we cheat ourselves if all we seek is the recognition of men.

A couple handshakes, a letter of appreciation, or a plaque.  These are nothing compared to the recognition and reward of God.  Christ encouraged us to seek greater things.  We cannot let our desire for praise and recognition rob us of true generosity.  Take time to reflect over how much you anticipate praise, recognition or appreciation.  How do you react when a contribution isn’t met with these things?

One mark of of true Christ-centered generosity is a freedom from recognition.  In fact, such an action actually aspires to secrecy in order to avoid this all to common snare.

Expectation Series: Part 1- Repayment, Part 2- Praise, Part 3- Heavenly.

“If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount.  But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great.” (Luke 6:34-35)

Christ gave quite a surprising twist to generosity–expect nothing in return.  This got me thinking about what types of “expectations” we bring to the table of generosity.

REPAYMENT

“But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 14:13-14)

As mentioned by Christ, the anticipation of “receiving back the same amount” destroys a pure-hearted sense of generosity.  When God’s people give or lend, it must be done with a certain level of detachment.  To a certain extent, we must separate ourselves from our contributions and credits.  This is how we love our enemies.  This is how we prove to the world that Christ is all we really need.  When we act in a manner completely opposite of the world, when we take the very paradigms of earthly existence and flip them upside-down, then we give weight to the idea that there really is something different about Jesus.

Before we let ourselves off of the hook too easily, we must think clearly about what type of “repayments” we expect for our generosity.  If we make a contribution to our church, do we expect certain services to be provided with the use of our money?  Do we expect certain “favors” to be called in by friends we have helped out in the past?  Do we expect a certain level of control in exchange for our contributions?

There are countless ways we expect repayment (other than a literal repayment of funds).  We are free from a moral standpoint to act as we choose, but Christ is speaking of something much deeper here.  He is speaking of a life lived for heaven (Part 3).

Expectation Series: Part 1- Repayment, Part 2- Praise, Part 3- Heavenly.

Check out the latest deals on Dollars and Doctrine here.

 I believe that God does this for two reasons:  1. He desires us to seek Him, His wisdom, His word, and His presence in a living and active relationship to gain insight for our financial decisions.  2. He desires our heart to follow His Spirit in our decisions not a lifeless, legalistic submission to any sort of “formula.”

While the New Testament does not give nearly as concrete instruction regarding financial decisions as the Old, it does give clear instruction.  A Christian is called to be radically generous, content in all circumstances, free from the love of money, and so on and so forth.  We should not let the New Testament’s lack of “formula” be an excuse to live thoughtlessly, irresponsibly, or irrationally.  Instead, it should drive us to prayer–to a living relationship with Christ that sharpens all facets of life, not merely the financial.

“Our God has a method in providence by which he can succeed our endeavours beyond our expectation, or can defeat our plans to our confusion and dismay; by a turn of his hand he can steer our vessel in a profitable channel, or run it aground in poverty and bankruptcy. It is the teaching of Scripture that the Lord enriches the liberal and leaves the miserly to find out that withholding tendeth to poverty.” – Charles Spurgeon (Morning and Evening)   

Spurgeon’s words are backed up by scripture and experiences in my own observation.  “The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered.” (Prov. 11:25) 

It would seem that God does tend to give generously to the vessels designed to flow outward instead of inward: His people who long to give Him glory by being generous in His name.  One important thing to remember is that even in Spurgeon’s scenario, GOD is still the determining factor.  Sometimes we think that people have the power to manipulate this “principle of success and generosity” to their advantage.  Not only is this backwards, it is unbiblical.  Spurgeon still leaves the power to give and take in the providence of the Almighty.  We cannot corner God into giving us success for our generosity.  What foolishness is this?  Sadly, it is the belief of many who read these passages of scripture.  Instead, we ought to be “faithful with a few things” and pray for the wisdom to handle the “many things” if God should so choose to give them to us.

“You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away Why?” declares the LORD of hosts, “Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house.” Haggai 1:9

“Churlish [Grudging] souls stint their contributions to the ministry and missionary operations, and call such saving good economy; little do they dream that they are thus impoverishing themselves. Their excuse is that they must care for their own families, and they forget that to neglect the house of God is the sure way to bring ruin upon their own houses.” – Spurgeon (Morning and Evening) 

The initial reaction to these selections is something like: “Ok, if I neglect God’s work in my financial plan, then my financial life will struggle.”  I think this is far from Spurgeon’s intent (or Haggai’s for that matter).  The challenge placed before us is of much greater scope.  As I mention in the introduction of Dollars and Doctrine, people “always have time and money for what matters most to them.”  I believe the correct “diagnosis” of the condition described by Spurgeon is an individual in which the things of God are only of secondary interest.  God’s work is only attended to with the funds, focus, and energy that are “left over” after primary concerns and interests are fulfilled.  In this light, the ruin coming upon such a household is much more logical.  On the other hand, the household in which the things of God are of first and primary importance will be blessed.  We do our households a great disservice when we put our interests before the Lord’s.