20260503 Luke 11:37-42 Christian Giving

In 2023, the equivalent of 900 billion euros was given by Christians globally. 6.6% of all this money, $62 billion was lost to fraud or embezzlement. $62 billion is lost to fraud and embezzlement, and $57 B is given to foreign missions. So church treasurers, pastors, and board members, and external scams steal more money from the church than what is given to missions. Other numbers say 1 in 10 churches will be a victim of money theft through embezzlement or fraud.

There are many lessons we can learn from these numbers. One is that churches are vulnerable institutions and need better procedures to protect their finances. Another is that people struggle with their relationship with money. Money issues affect everyone. Tim Keller said, “Amongst the poor, the love of money creates crime. Amongst the middle class, the love of money creates workaholism and worry. And amongst the rich, the love of money creates superficiality.

The Bible repeats the problem of the love of money. Ecc 5:10 reads, “Whoever loves money never has enough.” Paul wrote in 1 Tim 6:10, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil … by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith.” Jesus said in Matt 6:24, “You cannot serve both God and money.”

Money is a recurring theme in the Bible, and it is also an awkward topic A sermon on money can seem very self-serving, and I suspect some of us are wary of being manipulated with a church money talk. There is something about giving, that when you are told to give, it feels more like taking than giving.

If you are visiting or exploring the Christian faith, welcome to one of the most awkward Sundays of the year! You have walked into a family meeting where we are discussing the household budget. The analogy continues, until you willingly choose to join the family, you get to look in with zero expectations and observe how this family talks about money. Welcome to you, I’m glad you are here.

For all of us now, part of the awkwardness and tension, the Bible warns of spiritual abuse concerning money. Paul warns that some teachers use godliness as a means of financial gain in 1 Tim 6:5. 2 Pet 2:3 warns of the greed of teachers who exploit. Now, just because talking about money is awkward, intrusive, and has the danger of being abusive, we still need to talk about it. It is too important of a topic not to be addressed. In Matt 6:21, Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Our relationship with money reveals our true treasure! A quote attributed to John Wesley is “The last part of a Christian to be converted is their wallet.” Talking about something as material as money is part of spiritual formation.

In Luke 11:37-42, Jesus talks about money and, particularly, giving. This is the incident that led to Jesus’ teaching. Jesus entered a Pharisee’s house, where he was invited to eat. The Pharisee is astonished that Jesus did not first wash before the meal. Jesus rebukes the Pharisee with, among other lessons, a lesson on giving.

For some of us, we need to realign our spending so that our budget and spending align with kingdom values. In this text, Jesus goes a step further than our budgets. As important as the act of giving is, our manner of giving and our motivation for giving are also important. In Luke 11:37-42, Jesus teaches us, (1) What Christians Give? (2) How Christians Give? and (3) Why Christians Give?

First, we look at what Christians give, with the phrase: “These you ought to have done” in Luke 11:42.

While we correctly identify the flaws of the Pharisees, we often come to the wrong conclusions about how to learn from their mistakes. We associate Pharisees with words like "hypocrisy, legalism, and religious." The Gospels show that they stress the outward over the inward and care about purity over people. We understand the Pharisees but can arrive at wrong conclusions and applications to our lives. We can tend to assume that because Jesus rebukes them for focusing on the external, the external does not matter. We can over-correct by prioritizing "heart and motives" to such an extent that we neglect the outward obedience the Bible requires. If we are so focused on intentions, motivations, right postures of the heart, that we do not obey, this is a problem as well. Because we don’t want to be hypocrites, if we feel our heart is not in the right place some of us justify not giving, not praying, forgiving, serving others, worshipping when God requires all these things form us. Often it is these practices that soften our hearts and purify our motives.

We will look at what this text reveals about what we give.

Teaching

In Luke 11:42, Jesus says, “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” By Old Testament standards, Pharisees went beyond what the law required. Early Jewish tradition even exempted rue from tithing. Jesus does not rebuke them for tithing, rather he rebukes them for what they neglect.

The Pharisees are tithers. The word tithe means a tenth. Lev 27:30 explains the practice in this way, “Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the LORD's; it is holy to the LORD.” God is saying, “Whenever you take anything from the land, give me 10%.” We cannot just take land that does not belong to us, farm it, and get income from it without giving anything to the person who owns it. God is saying, “Your income comes out of my land, so I ask for 10%.” Everything belongs to the Lord so we should view tithing as giving back what is his. Time belongs to God so he wants us to dedicate one day in seven to him. All possessions belong to God so he wants us to give 10% back to him. By almost anyone’s standards, that is an amazing deal. I did some googling to see in agriculture how much a tenant typically shares with the landowner – it ranges from 25% to the land owner to 50%. So, 10% is an amazing deal.

Deut 14:22-29 lays out what was done with this 10%. It was brought to the temple. Often the goods were exchanged for money to make it easier to bring to the temple. The tithe was used in three ways. The tithe supported the priests (Num 18:21-28) who did not own land to cultivate, it was offered as sacrifices, and the tithe was also used to provide for the poor (Deut 26:12-15). Jesus affirms the tithe when he says about the Pharisees’ tithe, “These you ought to have done.”

Application

Jesus is not picking internal realities over external. He wants both. He wants us to have the right attitude towards giving, and he wants giving to take place. So how much do we give? The question that often comes up is – Is giving 10% of your income a Christian obligation. Some say yes, some say no. The case for 10% for Christians would be to show that the tithe was established in the Old Testament as a standard practice among the people of God. It appeared before the law to Israel with Melchizedek in Gen 14:20, and Jacob in Gen 28:22, then in the law of Moses. It was the practice in Jesus’ day among God’s people, and there was never a reversal.

The case against the tithe would be to say that in the NT, there are instructions to Gentiles who did not have the Old Testament background about a specific percentage, and nowhere are Gentile Christians instructed to give 10%. Even in this view, all of our money is considered the Lord's, so we must give sacrificially. We give first to the Lord and then arrange the rest of our budget accordingly.

As far as our church is concerned, neither the Book of Church Order nor the Westminster Standards state specifically. So we say, God loves a cheerful giver. This is a less plain teaching than others so be gracious with people who hold a different opinion than you. As long as I've been a Christian, I have been aware of people giving 10%. 10% seems to be is a helpful and healthful biblical benchmark for biblical generosity. We want everyone to have liberty of conscience and pray for ongoing work of the Spirit in our lives to direct our steps as we decide how to give for the glory of God. If we followed the OT pattern for tithing the money the church receives should go towards running costs, salaries, giving to missions, and to charities that care for the poor, windows, and orphans. This was the first point, “What Christians give.”

Second, we look at how Christians give, with the phrase, “Without neglecting the others,” in Luke 11:42.

I think for us, the most shocking point was the first, that we have to give. For the Pharisees, and perhaps for some of us who do give a lot away, the more shocking point, will be this one, that that tithing or giving is not enough. The Pharisees who tithe were not doing enough, so Jesus says to them, “Woe to you, for only tithing.”

Teaching

Jesus is not saying “don’t give,” but rather that giving cannot just be a transaction. God wants us to have generous dispositions for all of life. In Luke 11:42, Jesus says, “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” They give, but they neglect justice and the love of God.

Zech 7:8-10 defines justice this way, “Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.” In Luke 11:39, Jesus says, “You Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.” Then he says, “Give as alms those things that are within you.”

Jesus is saying that what matters when it comes to giving is not just what is external, the act of giving, Jesus wants our whole inner-selves to be involved in our generosity. Paul puts it this way in 1 Cor 13: 3, “If I give away all I have,… but have not love, I gain nothing.”

I love John Piper’s definition of love which is, “Love is the overflow of joy in God that meets the needs of others.” So if we give as a way of checking a box, but are not generous with our home, our possessions, our time, and our energy, to our family members, fellow church members, neighbors, classmates, and colleagues, we are not giving the right way. If giving to God is just a duty, then “Woe to us!”

Application

The Christian faith is a relational faith and so even our giving is a relational activity. We don’t give blindly, or coldly, from a distance, we invest in what we give. We give to love God and to love our neighbor. If you give to a church, join a community group, volunteer, be involved, make friends, or host meals, if you can. These are not obligations or another checklist. Some of us are already overwhelmed as we speak. These are just ideas.

If you give to a charity organization, can you keep up with what they are doing? Can you live consistently with the mission of the charity organization? If they fight poverty, does your lifestyle take advantage of the poor? If you give to a missionary, can you read their updates and pray for them? Again, these are just ideas to live consistently with giving. I’m not trying to add a burden to those who are already struggling to keep their head above water with the endless demands of life. Jesus does call us to put our whole heart into our giving and to live consistently with our giving.

If the first point about giving was shocking, this second point is even more shocking. Tithing is not enough! Jesus rebuked the Pharisees who were tithers saying, “You tithe … and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”

Third, we look at Why Christians Give with the phrase, “Everything is clean for you” in Luke 11:41.”

Teaching

The exchange between Jesus and the Pharisee began with the question of purity. Jesus did not wash his hands and the Pharisee was astonished. The Pharisee was wrong about Jesus. He assumed that by not washing his hands he was impure and bringing impurity with him. We know that not only was Jesus pure, but he also kept the purity law perfectly. In Luke 11:41, Jesus tells the Pharisee who wanted him to be clean on the outside, that he was the one who needed inner cleansing. He says, “But give as alms those things that are within, and behold everything is clean for you.” In Luke 11:39, he said, “Inside you are full of greed and wickedness.” The Pharisees needed a cleansing. Though they wash their hands and give, their hearts must be cleansed to practice justice and love of God.

The way to give right is to get the love of God right. Focusing on the external is wrong. And, if focusing on the internal does not affect the external, it is wrong too. The love of God changes everything. When we experience the love of God, we will not be able to be kept from giving with a pure heart.

Application

In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul encourages the Corinthian church to give by telling the story of the churches in Thessaloniki. He writes to the Corinthians in 2 Cor 8:1 that he wants them to know the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. This grace in question was an opportunity to demonstrate grace. According to 2 Cor 8:2, these churches experienced extreme poverty but according to 2 Cor 8:4, they begged for the favor or grace to contribute to a fund to help other Christians in need. 2 Cor 8:9 connects human generosity with the gospel. Paul writes, “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 right.” Paul reminds Christians reluctant to give the reason they are Christians in the first place. It is because of God’s generosity so in turn, the gospel affects our wallets.

God gives us the gift of salvation. John 3:16“God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. We have a giving God who gives to forgive our sins. This is the greatest news at the heart of the Christian message.

When followers of Jesus are living with incredible generosity, and particularly financial generosity, it is a powerful way of substantiating the claim of God’s generosity in Christ. Christians have all experienced great divine generosity. Now in turn, our generosity testifies that we have known and benefitted from great generosity that transforms our hearts and minds, and actions.  This is why we give.  The Christian movement is a giving movement. A giving God created a movement of giving people.

Conclusion

Money and giving are hard topics to talk about. They are personal topics and they are dangerous topics. Religions have throughout history abused of people’s finances. And, it remains an important topic.

Jesus says in Matt 6:19, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust5 destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What Jesus is saying is that what we do with our money reveals what we truly believe about the gospel.

In Luke 11:37-42, Jesus teaches it is necessary to give. We saw that Biblical giving is giving back what God gives us. Jesus tells us how we give, not neglecting justice and love of God. We also saw that we love because God first loved us. We can show grace because he first showed us grace. We give because God first gave.