How much money do you make? How much do you give? I really shouldn’t even ask those questions. You’d be right not to answer me. So here’s a better question: Why do you give? If I had to answer that question, I would first have to think for a moment. I guess I give because I know it’s the right thing to do. Maybe I give because I was taught to give. I give because I have to give. But I guess I don’t like to.

In the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 6, Jesus addresses three spiritual disciplines: prayer, fasting, and giving – each of these being things we do to express, or exercise, our spiritual life. Spiritual disciplines are important for two reasons: First, these outward acts express inward attitudes – your love for God is shown through action. Second, these disciplines grow us – obedience changes us. Jesus does not command us to give, instead He assumes that we are giving. He begins by saying, “When you give…” I wonder if that’s a safe assumption to make... According to George Barna’s research, only a quarter of evangelicals give regularly to the church. What about you?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses how we practice the spiritual disciplines. The General Principle: Don’t do good deeds publicly. More specifically, don’t do good deeds in order to be admired, so that people will think well of you. We have all kinds of reasons that we give. Some of them are good reasons. Some of them are not. A good thing done for a bad reason is still a good thing. But the bad reason is also still bad. We should do something about our motives. Don’t stop giving because your motives are wrong. We need to be giving… but don’t do it ostentatiously, marked by a vulgar display of wealth designed to impress people. Instead, “don’t let your left hand know what your right is doing.” In other words, give privately. (That’s why there’s no donor list published at church.) Giving purely because of the need, totally selflessly.