The Cost of Giving

There's an interesting passage at the end of 2 Samuel 24:

David replied, “I have come to buy your threshing floor and to build an altar to the Lord there, so that he will stop the plague.”
22 “Take it, my lord the king, and use it as you wish,” Araunah said to David. “Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and you can use the threshing boards and ox yokes for wood to build a fire on the altar. 23 I will give it all to you, Your Majesty, and may the Lord your God accept your sacrifice.”
24 But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it, for I will not present burnt offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing.” So David paid him fifty pieces of silver for the threshing floor and the oxen.

I think this is an incredible passage when it comes to giving. David was the king- he didn’t need to pay for the threshing floor or for the sacrificial animal. In fact, it probably was an honor for Araunah to give it to the king. But David isn’t going to give God something that doesn’t cost him something.

The fact remains that very few Christians tithe (give 10% of their income). The last research I saw was 3% of Christians- all Christians in America- give 10% of their income to their churches. If you add in giving to other non-profits (food banks, United Way, other agencies), the number who give 10% of their income away jumps to 6% of Christians- an encouraging jump but still a depressing statistic.

Some will argue- correctly, by the way- that the tithe is an Old Testament principle never mentioned in the New Testament. And to counter that principle, prominent Christian leaders such as Tim Keller will argue- in my opinion, correctly- that “tithing is a minimum standard for Christian believers. We certainly wouldn’t want to be in a position of giving away less of our income than those who had so much less of an understanding of what God did to save them” (Counterfeit Gods, 62). Keller’s argument is that the Old Testament knew not of Jesus, a cross, a resurrection and gave 10% of their income to God. Today, we do know of Jesus, the cross, and the resurrection so his argument is that we ought to give more- not less- since we know the price God has paid for us.

When it comes to Christians and giving, there can be lots of energy placed spent the amount we give and not as much energy on whether our giving costs us something. Obviously, every time we give it literally costs us something, but does our giving represent a sacrifice being made in our life? And whether it’s our money or our time, I think the same principle applies to our lives. As the Matthew West sings, we can ‘throw a twenty in the plate but never give until it hurts’. And to circle back to where I began, the percentage or the amount one gives isn’t the point. For David, his gift had to cost something, even though he was the king. And when we give- be it to a church or nonprofit, it also should cost something.