For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem.
You’ve probably read or heard the phrase “Follow the money.” This phrase usually has a bad connotation. It means that someone is sneaky and trying to hide what they are up to. But you can find out what their evil plan is if you trace where their money came from and where it is spent.
Where we spend our money says a lot about our priorities and what we truly care about. A dear missionary friend of mine once said, “People use credit cards to buy all kinds of things they want, but they never use their cards to help missionaries.” The truth of his statement was a revelation to me. And, having been a missionary, I can say that his remark was true.
God Follows the Money
In today’s passage of Scripture, the Apostle Paul tells the church at Corinth how astonished he is by the generosity of the poor believers in the Macedonian churches. He was writing this to the Corinthians, who were affluent.
God does follow the money. He knows our hearts and our giving. Jesus watched the poor widow give to God all the money she had1. He didn’t stop her and say, “That’s too much!” God loves a cheerful giver2. And God allows us to give even when our gift means that we will have to give up things that we may consider “needs” – newer cars, nicer homes, better clothes. Ouch! But this is true.
I am not saying we should go into debt; that would be wrong3. But we should live as refugees because our homeland is not in this world. We seek a better place. Our treasures are in heaven, so that’s where our hearts need to be. From the time we wake up until we go to sleep, we need to think about God.
You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
Conclusion
I do not mean to be harsh. We each must decide in our hearts how much to give. I confess that I need to reduce my standard of living and increase my standard of giving. That I am more like the Corinthians than the Macedonians. So, perhaps I’ve written this post only for me. I am confident that God desires us to have a “refugee” mindset. We are escaping God’s judgment on the place we once called home. We, like Abraham, are “confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God4.”
Footnotes
- Bible Gateway passage: Mark 12:41-44 – New Living Translation. (n.d.). Bible Gateway. Retrieved May 17, 2024, from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2012%3A41-44&version=NLT ↩︎
- Bible Gateway passage: 2 Corinthians 9:7 – New Living Translation. (n.d.). Bible Gateway. Retrieved May 17, 2024, from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%209%3A7&version=NLT ↩︎
- Bible Gateway passage: 2 Corinthians 8:12 – New International Version. (n.d.). Bible Gateway. Retrieved May 18, 2024, from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%208%3A12&version=NIV ↩︎
- Bible Gateway passage: Hebrews 11:10 – New Living Translation. (n.d.). Bible Gateway. Retrieved May 17, 2024, from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2011%3A10&version=NLT ↩︎
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