So how much do we love ourselves and how do we show it? Many, many ways, that start with thoughts of ourselves and end in actions. But let’s look at money, for an example. The first step financially as obedient Christ followers is to do our bare minimum duty of tithing 10% (Deut 14:22-29, Lev 14:30-31, Mal 3:8-10).
Mal 3:8-10 – “"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”"
If we obediently tithe, that leaves 90% for us. Most of us would feel good about that, and this obedience does feel good, especially since God rewards that faithfulness—look at v. 10 above. This is the only part of the Bible that I know of where God actually says to test Him. So what if you give an additional 10%? Now you’re giving 20% total, and we’re feeling really good about ourselves. But we’re still spending 80% on ourselves, family members, or saving for us. So what would loving your neighbor as yourself look like with finances? I think if I love my neighbor truly as myself, I would split my income 50/50 and give half of it away to those in need. Wow, what an inconvenient conviction.
But hold on: is that the extent of it? Let’s re-examine how we were loving ourselves: giving 10% and keeping 90%. Hmmm…so loving ourselves resulted in spending 90% on ourselves. So loving others at that level might actually be sharing 90% of our wealth and keeping only 10% for ourselves. Now that seems like a near impossibility for this self-loving man.
2 Cor 9:7 – “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
God loves a cheerful giver, and giving begrudgingly hardly meets both the action and intention of the heart that so pleases God. So I encourage you to find a way to give the maximum you can as a cheerful giver. If that’s 0%, then we’ve got some praying to do. Think about this: the tithe is an Old Testament law. Now realize that Jesus said, "I did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (Matt 5:17) In the same passage (the Sermon on the Mount), he describes several laws and broadens their application beyond strict legalistic obedience and into our very hearts. Meaning that Jesus came to fulfill both action and intent of the law, which is supreme Love. I think we can apply this easily to tithing and come to understand being a "cheerful giver" through the law being fulfilled by love. So let’s pray together that we would take on the heart to give in love, have the opportunities visible to our sight, and be able to do it joyfully. I long to be able to love my neighbor so joyfully, so fruitfully, so selflessly. I long to love the way Jesus invites us to, the way He loves us. No matter what we do with our finances, let’s look for every opportunity to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Jesus also said, “As I have loved you, so you must also love one another” (John 13:34). Jesus’ love was a perfect love, self-sacrificing to the point of grueling death that you and I might have the chance to be saved…the chance, not even the guarantee, that we would choose to be saved by believing in Him. So after we begin to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, let’s embark on learning to love them as God loves us. This is just the slightest glimpse at how deep God’s love is for us and how much we have to grow. Thank the Lord that He is with us to do the growing, if we’ll only ask Him with a sincere heart. Amen.
