It might seem that questions about the financial life of Christians and Churches is unlikely grounds for family worship, but I would suggest that it is never too early to begin helping our children to understand the significance of money, and to train them in Biblical patterns of spending and giving. As they grow up they will face huge pressure to use money in ways that are not informed by the Bible’s teaching, so best to get in early.
At a more general level we should be teaching our children to support the ministry of their local Church, and of the Gospel throughout the nations of the world, as soon as they have money at their disposal. If they are recipients of pocket money, or gifts of money at birthdays or Christmas, or if they earn money for doing jobs either within or outside of the home, they can and should be learning how to handle that money as we are taught in Scripture. Regular and systematic giving to their Church and even one or two other organisations is simply standard Christian discipleship. Helping them to understand the principles involved, showing them from the Scriptures, helping them to see your own practise of giving and to understand the temptations not to, are all basic and fundamental aspects of our faith. Work with your children to bring them to the place where they joyful and excited givers (II Cor.9:5-7). That is the critical element to this week’s family worship. Really, everything else I’ve written here is about helping you get your children to that point.
It is also worth bearing in mind that alongside our regular giving we will have opportunity to give in a more ‘one-off’ capacity. How about this Christmas we budget not just for gifts for our family and friends, but also for our brothers and sisters in Christ elsewhere in the world? Maybe even decide – as part of the family worship this week – that you will deliberately celebrate Christmas in a way that frees up money to do that. You can use organisations such as Open Doors, Gospel for Asia, or Barnabas Fund to buy gifts for the Church in areas where Christians are persecuted, or suffering in the wake of ‘natural disaster’ (see below). Plan to sit down as a family during the Christmas period and buy gifts together, each member of the family perhaps choosing what to buy for whom?
People often suggest 10% is an appropriate level of giving. This might be a useful place to start, but I would encourage you – and your children – not to feel limited to that. There is not actual Biblical limitation to only giving 10% to support the work of the Gospel, and as we’ll see, Churches that give somewhat beyond that are commended in Scripture as models to follow!
If you are struggling to make sense of the Bible’s teaching on money, or aren’t sure you are aware of it, I’d recommend you revisit the material we produced during our recent ‘Money, Possessions and Eternity’ series. You can find the sermons and Bible Studies here.
More specifically we are looking at II Cor.8-9, and Paul’s teaching about our responsibilities to support the Church elsewhere as they face the very material difficulties that come in the wake of ‘natural disaster’ and persecution (though I think an argument can be made for the same principles for a Church caught up in a national conflict). The Churches in Judea have experienced all of these (you can trace that in the book of Acts), and the result is a Church that is financially impoverished. The response of the wider, international Church is to provide financially for their brothers and sisters in Christ. For Paul – and the other Apostles – this is non-negotiable. It is remarkable that this is seen as so central to Christian identity that it is part of the ‘DNA’ of the Churches Paul is planting. He sees it as foundational to the interconnectedness of the Body of Christ.
The Apostles never teach anything that cannot be rooted in the teaching of Jesus and the OT. And Paul is at pains to show that is the case in this matter of financial giving. He does it both implicitly and explicitly both here and throughout his ministry (e.g. Acts 20:35). Can you trace through these chapters and see all the places where Paul explicitly cites the Scriptures... and where there are hints and echoes that show us he has Jesus’ teaching in mind? (freebie: Matt.25:31-46).
Suggested activity?
Spend some time looking through adverts / magazines / websites with online ads... how are we being encouraged to spend our money? What are these various media appealing to as a way of trying to get us to spend money in certain ways? how is that different from Paul’s teaching about how we should use money and why in these chapters.
Tackling the text:
There are few key moments in this section of II Corinthians that we can focus on – that helps us not feel overwhelmed at facing 2 whole chapters!!
The first is Paul’s using the Macedonian Churches as an example (8:1-5). Try to get inside the mind of the Macedonian Christians and follow their thinking. How do they get to the point of ‘urgently pleading’ to give? Why is our experience of giving today so different? Do we see it as a burden, or a privilege we would contend for? How does giving ourselves ‘first to the Lord’ change our attitude to giving?
The second key moment is 8:9 – this is the hinge around which this hole section turns. Paul is simply applying in a specific situation the principle he has been exploring in the whole letter up to this point. We are being transformed into the image of Christ. A Christ who makes Himself poor so that others can become rich. This is not something that can remain at the level of ‘spiritual principle’ – it has to be worked out in financial specifics of how we actually spend money and structure our budgets. This is as true if we are 5 or 50. We don’t learn to ‘give’ when we are better off. Quite the opposite. We learn to give when we have little, and learn to apply the same principles when we have more. As Jesus said, if we can’t be trusted with little... (Lk.16:10).
Any activity that is about copying, imitating or replicating can be used to help children get the point here.
A third key moment is 8:19-23. In a world where financial impropriety – even amongst Christians – is rife, Paul’s commitment to absolute transparency is striking. He collects representatives from many of the Churches who will come with him to Jerusalem, and who will be part of a delegation who hand over the gifts from those Churches. In part this is so they can testify that all monies were used for the purpose for which they were given. Why does Paul work so hard at this? Why are temptations to mis-use the money God puts at our disposal so strong?
Another key idea is motive (9:6-14). We can give to poorer Christians in ways that are sinful (Matt.6:1-4). Can you help you child(ren) understand the importance of motive? What would be good motives..? What might be going on in our hearts that mean our gifts are not what God would want them to be?
For older children / young people you might want to set up a discussion about how what Paul is teaching here (and what we see modelled at a local level in e.g. Acts 4:34-35) differs from ‘left-wing’ / socialist economics. You’d be surprised how often I’ve heard this passage referred to as an early form of ‘communism’…
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even more interesting is the question of whether we should give money to support charities that are not focussed on the Gospel, and from which Christians do not benefit (9:12)? How does our giving fit into the wider devotional life of Churches – both giving and receiving Churches?
If you are using a Catechism, anything around the 8th Commandment is probably a good place to start e.g. To Be a Christian Q&As: 330-338 includes the question of giving, and of our relationship to what we ‘own’. Also - in the sermon I drew attention to the idea of our being part of the global Church… Q&As 92 & 100-104 might help with that!
In ‘My First Questions…’ the 8th Commandment is dealt with in Questions 83 & 84, which are rahter unhelpfully separated on pp. 176 & 180. Sections 98 & 99 on p.74 will introduce ideas about the Church as being God’s people.