Giving and Evangelism

When institutions and organizations want to construct a new building, they often invite their supporters to purchase a single brick. The bricks are inscribed with the supporters’ names, and they serve as a reminder that many people contributed a small part to make a larger project possible.

Today we will consider how financial generosity is an important way that we participate in evangelism. Our reading gives us the specific example of the members of the Macedonian church who “gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability” (v. 3) to support the Jerusalem church. Though we may only have the equivalent of “two very small copper coins” (Mark 12:42) to give, we are contributing to something much larger: the work of the church in the world. Our gifts allow gospel ministers and evangelists to preach the gospel without distraction (1 Tim. 5:17–18), they send gospel labors to faraway places, and they maintain the ordinary ministry of the local church so that it can extend an invitation to people in our communities.

We may be tempted to approach our financial gifts with a grudging attitude, carefully measuring how little we can get away with giving and how much we can keep for ourselves. But the Macedonians encourage us to think differently about giving. These Christians saw the opportunity to give as a privilege. In fact, they “urgently pleaded” (v. 4) with Paul for his permission to give!

The Macedonian Christians knew that giving was a way for them to share in the work of the gospel, and so it was something they greatly desired. They wanted to imitate Christ, who “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).

Pray with Us

Ken Heulitt, chief financial officer, invites you to thank God in prayer for His financial provision for Moody that Ken and his teams witness year after year. All of us at Moody also thank you for your part in God’s plan for Moody Global Ministries

BY Megan Hill

Megan Hill serves on the editorial board for Christianity Today and is a regular contributor to CT Women and The Gospel Coalition website. She is the author of Praying Together: The Priority and Privilege of Prayer: In Our Homes, Communities, and Churches, and a graduate of Grove City College. She lives in West Springfield, Mass., with her husband and four children.