The Gift of Giving

Question 4110

The gift of giving is the Spirit-given capacity to part with material resources for the work of God and the relief of others with a gladness and a liberality that go beyond the ordinary obedience asked of every believer. Paul names it in his list of grace-gifts in Romans 12, where he writes that the one who gives is to do so in generosity (Romans 12:8). The word translated give there is the Greek metadidomi, which means to share out or impart from what one has, and the word translated generosity is haplotes, a lovely term that carries the idea of singleness, sincerity and an open-handed simplicity of heart.

It helps to be clear from the start that the New Testament expects all Christians to give. The widow who put in her two small coins, the Macedonian believers who gave out of their poverty, the early church in Jerusalem who held nothing back from one another, none of these were waiting to discover whether they possessed a particular gift before they opened their hands. So the gift of giving is not an excuse for the ungifted to keep their wallets closed. It is something narrower and more wonderful than the general duty, a specific enablement that the Holy Spirit grants to certain members of the body so that the whole body might be provided for.

Where Scripture names the gift of giving

Romans 12:6 to 8 sets out a cluster of grace-gifts, and giving stands among them alongside serving, teaching and showing mercy. Paul roots the whole list in the truth that believers have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, the Greek word for grace being charis and the word for gift being charisma, a gift of grace. That single root tells us a great deal. The capacity to give in this special way is itself a thing received before it is a thing exercised. The giver gives because God first gave to him, and the open hand is the natural overflow of a heart that has understood the gospel.

The instruction that the giver should act in haplotes is doing real work in the verse. It rules out the divided heart that gives with one hand while calculating advantage with the other. The Lord Jesus warned against the giving that sounds a trumpet so as to be praised by men, and he promised that such givers have already received their reward in full (Matthew 6:2 to 4). The person with the gift of giving is marked by the opposite instinct. He would rather his left hand did not know what his right hand was doing. There is a holy simplicity about him, a freedom from the need to be noticed, and a quiet joy in seeing a need met whether or not anyone ever learns who met it.

What the gift of giving looks like in practice

The clearest portrait of this grace at work is found in the Macedonian churches of 2 Corinthians 8. Paul tells us that in a severe test of affliction their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity. They gave according to their means, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging earnestly for the favour of taking part in the relief of the saints. That phrase repays attention. They begged for the privilege of giving. Most appeals for money are met with reluctance that has to be coaxed and persuaded, but here were believers who pressed forward and asked to be allowed to contribute. That is the fingerprint of the Spirit. Where the natural heart clings, the gifted giver releases, and releases gladly.

Barnabas is another example. Luke records in Acts 4 that he sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet. The act stands out in the narrative, and it fits the man, for everywhere we meet Barnabas in the book of Acts he is encouraging, releasing, opening doors and resources for others. Often the gift of giving travels in company with a capacity to generate resources in the first place. The Lord entrusts some believers with the ability to work, to trade, to build a business or husband a farm, not so that they may accumulate, but so that they may have something substantial to give. You can read more about how the wider duty of generosity rests on every Christian in our answer to what the Bible says about giving, which stands behind this more specialised gift.

How giving differs from ordinary generosity

Since every believer is called to give, how is the person with the gift to be recognised? The difference lies in the proportion, the cheerfulness and the instinct. Paul tells the Corinthians that each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). All Christians are to grow towards that cheerfulness. The gifted giver seems to arrive there ahead of the rest, and to a degree that surprises onlookers. He gives larger sums, or smaller sums more frequently, or at moments of need that others have not even noticed, and he does it without the inner struggle that the rest of us know so well. What costs most of us a wrestle of conscience costs him hardly a thought, because the Spirit has set him free at exactly this point.

There is also a discernment that goes with the gift. The person who gives well learns to read where help will do good and where it will do harm, where a quiet gift will lift a struggling family and where money would only feed a destructive habit. This is part of the grace, and it keeps generosity from becoming naive. If you want to understand how a believer comes to recognise such a gift in himself, our piece on how every believer discovers and uses their gift walks through the process, and the broader survey of the different gifts listed in Scripture sets giving in its place among the rest.

Guarding the gift of giving from distortion

A grace this attractive is easily counterfeited, and the most common counterfeit in our day is the prosperity teaching that turns giving into a transaction. On that account a believer gives in order to receive a larger sum back, the gift becomes a seed planted for personal return, and God is reduced to a mechanism that pays dividends. This is a grievous corruption of the New Testament pattern. The gift of giving looks outward to the need of another and upward to the glory of God, never inward to a calculated profit. The Macedonians did not give to get rich. They gave out of their poverty and were content to remain poor for the sake of the saints in Jerusalem.

There is a quieter distortion too, the giving that purchases influence. A large donor can come to expect a controlling voice in a fellowship, and a congregation can come to court its wealthy members and shape its message to keep them happy. The believer with a true gift of giving will be the first to refuse this bargain. He gives precisely so that he will not own what he has given, laying it down as Barnabas laid his gift at the apostles feet rather than retaining a string attached to every pound. The same Spirit who frees him to give frees him to let go of control over the thing given. A close relative of this grace is the gift of hospitality, which spends the same open-handed spirit on the welcome of people rather than the relief of need.

So, now what?

If you suspect the Lord has given you this grace, the right response is not pride but stewardship. The more freely a thing has been given to you, the more carefully it ought to be handled, for you are managing what belongs to your King. Ask him to show you where the real needs lie, give in the simplicity that Paul commends, and resist every urge to be seen doing it. The reward that lasts is the one given by the Father who sees in secret.

And if you read this and conclude that you do not have any special gift in this area, do not let that conclusion close your hand. The duty to give rests on every disciple, and a heart that is being filled with the Spirit will always be moving towards greater liberality. You can read about that fuller life of yieldedness in our study of being filled with the Spirit. The gifted giver simply runs ahead of the rest of us along a road that all of us are meant to be walking.

Begin where you are. Settle a proportion before God, give it gladly, watch for the needs around you, and trust the One who multiplied loaves to multiply the good your giving does. The treasure laid up in heaven by an open hand is never lost.

“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:7