New Testament: Monetary Giving And Social Welfare

Introduction to New Testament Paper 2 One of the most disagreed upon ideas in marriages, in churches, and in politics today is money. Money has started wars, ended marriages, brought people into public office, paid my tuition, and much more. The global acceptance of currency is quite possibly one of the largest agents of change in the world today. This is however not new; at the time of Jesus the same things could be said. The bible has no shortage of passages dealing with the subject either. Giving or tithing is often the context that monetary possessions are viewed through. The modern church continues to uphold this focus on giving, but the motivation for giving is often skewed from the biblical meaning. The modern church community ought to view monetary giving as a spiritual discipline, rather than a social welfare program. It is important to distinguish the difference between monetary giving as a spiritual discipline verses a social welfare program. The social welfare model of giving would result in the thought that “we will give to the church because they need it.” This is a distortion of the biblical intention of giving. The social welfare model of giving would also explain giving as
The New Testament makes no causal claim between giving monetarily and receiving back monetarily. Specifically, the Love money is bad because it takes one away from a love of God (1st Timothy 6:10). The only real “return on investment” that comes out of monetary giving is a treasure in heaven (Matthew 19:21), however it is important to note that this is a result of giving, and not the goal of it. Giving is not transactional, and if the goal of giving was to have a treasure in heaven, that would not explain giving as a discipline (Matthew 6:21). There is no monetary return on investment from giving, and that is what differentiates it from an