Proverbs 3:9. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce.
Honoring the Lord with our wealth is one way that we know the Lord in all our ways (3:6). God is by nature a giver, a sharer. Everything in creation comes from him and is for us. He doesn’t need it, does he? God exists free from all need of material or natural wealth. There is nothing on earth that he is in want of. And yet it all exists. Why? For our enjoyment and our training in faith.
Why does a God who needs nothing require our wealth in the law?
One thousand years after Solomon, Jesus will answer this question this way: You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve God and money.
Yet that is exactly what each of us is trying to do. Jesus talked about money more than he talked about anything else. Why is that? Because money (wealth) is something that has an inordinate power to control our hearts. Money is deeply connected to our heart’s need for security and status. More money, more security. More money, more status. These can be legitimate desires, but satisfying these desires with the accumulation of wealth is never a legitimate answer. Slowly the very thing meant to make us feel safe or valuable will destroy us. This is why Jesus warned us so sternly to “watch out” for greed. Of course greed is “everybody else’s problem” isn’t it and the greedy person rarely knows that they are greedy. Which is exactly why we need to establish the habit of honoring the Lord with the firstfruits of our produce.
Giving to God from your firstfruits isn’t only a law, it is wisdom. Remember, wisdom is skill in navigating life’s complexities that flows from the fear of the Lord. If guarding our hearts against the evil of greed is the complexity, then giving of our firstfruits is the simple solution. Don’t want to become greedy? Then make giving before spending a habit.
How difficult is it for you to give God your firstfruits instead of your left overs? What’s the last check you write? Do the poor get your money before Netflix does? What do you do with the other 90% that didn’t go in the offering plate?
Jesus gave us everything he had didn’t he? Not just the firstfruits and definitely not the leftovers. He gave up heaven. He set aside glory. He went from dwelling in the bosom of the Father to lying in a feed trough for animals. In his life he embraced poverty, relying on the provision of God through the kindness of others. In the end he would even give up his own freedom, his own security, his own status to save us.
2 Corinthians 8:9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
Christ became poor that we might become rich. By our union with Christ we literally share in Christ’s ownership of the universe. “The cosmos are yours!” Paul told the Corinthians. Knowing this makes giving and sharing more natural. Instinctual even. When you share the inheritance of Jesus then you can set it all aside just as he did for you and for me. Not just the firstfruits, but everything received becomes an offering.
You: In what ways do you fail to honor God with your wealth?
You in Christ: How does trusting that we share everything with Christ allow us to become more generous?
Christ in you: What specifically is the Christ in you nudging you to do with your wealth in this season of your life?
Pray: Father, you are the greatest giver and sharer in the world, giving even your son for me. I want to trust you and honor you with all I have in Christ. Amen.
To Live is Christ 