How Should We Then Give?

Sincere faith has often proved to be a soft target for less than honest and truthful means of raising money.  Jesus on one occasion, point blank, specifically accused the religious leaders of his day of “devouring widows houses” (Lk. 20:47).  The spark that ignited the Protestant Reformation was the church’s selling of indulgences, whereby believers, through giving to the church, could purchase merit for their departed loved ones, thus lessening their time in purgatory and hurrying them on to heaven, which the Reformers rightly saw as an affront to the work of Christ on the cross, and spiritually debilitating to our understanding and experience of grace.  Many Protestant traditions have and continue to teach the obligation of storehouse tithing, the requirement to give a tenth of one’s income to the local church, ensuring that giving for missions and charitable causes is over and above that, a practice which simply lacks any scriptural warrant or basis.  Given all that, the question remains, “How Should We Then Give?”.  In 2 Corinthians 8:8-15 we’ll take a close look at Paul’s honest and truthful answer.