I vividly remember a candid conversation with a friend some time ago. We were talking about life and challenges and he turned to me and said, “You know, the one thing I cannot do is to tithe.” He said that this had been his challenge in the Christian life from the beginning and he was admitting his failure in this area. 

I left that conversation feeling sad. Both because of the blessing that he was missing out on, but also because there is an intrinsic connection between our relationship with God and our desire to be generous with the One who gave up everything so that we could know Him. When we choose not to be generous with Him, we are saying, “Even though you gave up everything, I am unwilling to give up anything.” I might have been less concerned if my friend simply didn’t understand how foundational it is to be generous with God, but that was not the case.”

Jesus addressed this in the Parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12:13-21:

Someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “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.”

It is obvious that this is an important topic for Jesus, because He starts by a word of warning: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” He does not say that possessions are wrong. He does say, unequivocally, that we must guard against all kinds of greed because life does not consist of those possessions. Greed is a description that none of us want to think applies to us. 

This word “greed” is the Greek word philagyros which means “money loving.” And here we find the crux of Jesus’s warning. You cannot love money and God. It is one or the other. In this parable, the farmer in question loved his possessions more than he did God, so rather than being rich toward God, he chose to be rich toward himself. As if it would buy him happiness by being able to take life easy. Eat, drink and be merry. But Jesus says, you got it wrong: life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.

What does God expect? That we will be rich toward Him and use our resources for His purposes. That is what we do if we love Jesus above all else. According to Jesus, the farmer had built his ladder against the wrong wall and forfeited all that he had. I am glad that my friend recently said to me, “TJ, I realize that I was wrong and not only will I give God His ten percent moving forward but I am going to give Him 10% of my IRA because I have not been generous in the past.” I know God will bless him for that commitment because his decision reflects a deep heart change, that instead of living by greed, he will now seek to be rich toward God. How are you doing in being rich toward God?

PRAYER

Lord, I have struggled with greed, as all humans do. But I want to be rich toward You, rather than to save my riches for myself. Would You help me to be generous with You and with needs that I encounter around me? Help me to experience the liberation of extravagant generosity toward you. Amen.