When Jesus calls Zacchaeus down from the tree and comes to his home and dines with him, Zachaeus is thrilled, yet convicted. Jesus is gracious and it drives Zacchaeus to repentance. He vows to give money to the poor and return the money he’s wrongfully taken from everyone else four fold.

This is in response to Jesus’ grace, not to attain Jesus’ grace. And, it’s a near perfect picture of grace-based tithing.

Tim Keller describes it like this:

If salvation had been something earned through obedience to the moral code, then Zacchaeus’s question would have been “how much must I give?” however, these promises were responses to lavish, generous grace, so his question was “How much can I give?”

We’re accustomed to thinking of tithing as giving our 10%. But, new-testament tithing is a grace-based institution. We’ve been given grace and we give in response to it.

I could learn from Zacchaeus’s tender heart in giving abundantly out of his abundant receiving.

The Church in America—me included—has a big problem with giving. Tithing I mean. I’ve talked about it before. The church in America, percentage wise, gives less than almost any other nation.

In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul writes to the Corinthian people about the generous giving of the Macedonian church. Out of their “severe test of affliction” and “extreme poverty”, they “overflowed in a wealth of generosity” (v.2).

Paul writes to the church at Corinth (a comparatively wealthy group), stirring them up to generosity using the abundant giving of the Macedonians to shame them.

What Paul writes just a few verses later I found interesting. 2 Corinthians 8:3-6:

“They gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.”

It would seem, taken the larger context, that Paul is saying that the Macedonians, although they were severely afflicted and extremely impoverished, sought to support the saints financially out of the overflow of their joy they had in the Lord. In “giving themselves first to the Lord”.

Although it may not be a direct correlation here, there’s clearly a principle worth observing. The Corinthians were true Christians, yet they needed stirring up in order to give of themselves financially. The Macedonians were also true Christians, but the Macedonians gave themselves to the Lord and as they did that were spurred on to give themselves to the Apostles—financially.

I’ve always struggled with the Church’s use of money. I’ve struggled with the church asking for money, given it usually seems squandered. But scripture makes clear that all we have belongs to the Lord and when we give, we simply give to God what is God’s—something we’re taught to do to exercise faith.

For a number of reasons, both common and uncommon, I find giving financially to be especially difficult. As I do it, It’s often not all that joyful, but more as my own disciplinarian (which is not altogether bad either).

But, It shouldn’t be this way for me, or for you.

Following the principle here, perhaps we should seek to prayerfully give ourselves to the Lord in new ways as the Macedonians did. Possibly embracing our own unique experience of affliction. Hopefully in that, the Lord will cause us to then give ourselves financially as well—which will inevitably lead to our Good and God’s glory.

Romans 15:1-2 says:

"We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up."

This is an interesting perspective on grace shared between believers. Unfortunately it’s not regarded very often.

The context of this verse, if you go back into chapter 14, Paul starts out exhorting them not to quarrel over opinions with those of weaker faith. He uses a standard example of Jewish dietary laws. He explains that the weaker in faith is still constrained under these laws, but for the sake of defending their faith, the stronger in faith ought to bear with them.

Later he goes as far as to say that we ought to constrain ourselves under their weakness for their sake (v.14:15).

Dietary laws might be the epitome of what some consider fringe issues. In a community of Christians, this is probably something akin to proper baptism procedures, or tithing issues.

But realistically, this should probably be applied to any non-salvation issue. Because people are not saved by good doctrine. They’re saved by grace, through faith in the work of Jesus Christ on their behalf. Therefore, there is only a minimal amount of doctrine actually necessary for faith.

Unfortunately, we’re not going to agree on who in the church would qualify as the "weaker" in faith. But we don’t necessarily need to. Because underneath what Paul is saying is that grace between us is really what’s important:

"For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord." (v.14:8)

Now, this doesn’t exclude discussing biblical truths, in some contexts even debating, for the sake of coming to deeper understandings of what we believe and why. But it does mean that we must do it with grace and love for one another and remember that good doctrine is not what makes us brothers and sisters, it’s faith in the one Lord, Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 8:1-15:

“We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you— see that you excel in this act of grace also.

I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. As it is written, "Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”

More than half of Christians do not give any money away. Americans who do give, average only about 1.9% of their income. It’s projected that we’ll spend more on our dogs and our weight loss, than our God.

I think I’d like to see us more concerned with our hearts, than our architecture. More interested in letting our lives prove our love for Jesus, than waiting for our awesome sound system and decorative fountain to do it. Does anyone take the scriptures about money seriously? Do I?