Thoughts on Luke 12

Today’s reading: Psalms 92-94; Luke 12

Disclaimer: Today’s post is less specifically about Luke 12 and more just a scattering of my recent thoughts about a Christian’s relationship to money…

First off, the parable of the rich fool made me think of this episode of The Bible Project Podcast I listened to a couple days ago: Story: God & Money. I have really been enjoying this podcast, learning a lot, and also just feeling built up and encouraged by the way they talk through things, dive into things they aren’t sure of, go off script to address questions, etc. I always appreciate most the scholar with the humility to admit they don’t have a particular answer rather than those who present themselves as completely sure of everything. I think that was one of the reasons I enjoyed Dr. Heiser's Naked Bible Podcast so much, but I honestly like the conversational format of The Bible Project Podcast even more so far.

Anyway, that podcast episode I linked is the story of two young men, each on their way to become the rich fool of Luke 12 in their own way, whose lives are changed by a better understanding of what the Bible has to say about our money, and it’s a great, encouraging, and challenging story.

But what I’ve been thinking about is more in terms of how private or public our giving should really be. I was fortunate to come to faith through a church that highly prioritized faithful generosity, and was not afraid to challenge people to give generously. It was not at all like the many health-and-wealth type church’s out there today where people are coerced into giving more, or taught that a lack of giving “enough” is what is causing them to miss out on the “blessings God wants to give them if they will be faithful enough,” Instead, they taught what Jesus teaches, that where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also, and that an important part of the Christian life is faithfulness in financial giving. As a result, in the same way they were willing to call people to integrity in other areas of life, like relational and sexual faithfulness, they were willing to call people to integrity in generosity.

One thing that always made that a little more difficult though was the obscurity that surrounds our finances. When it comes to something like sex outside of marriage, God has given us hard and fast moral instruction, and we are to avoid it. So in such an area, if someone is having sex outside of marriage, you can and should, as a brother or sister in Christ, call them to stop in faithfulness to God. But what of money? We aren’t instructed how much we are supposed to be giving, and what it looks like to give generously can change significantly from person to person. Two people may make the same amount of money, but one has children or aging parents while the other does not, so the amount they generously give may be different. Or maybe both are in exactly the same financial situation, and one gives less today, in order to pay down student loan debt faster, wanting to be free of it in order to give more long term, while the other feels called by the Lord to give more now and take longer to pay off their loans. Which of them is more right than the other? But then toss on top of that the fact that we, in our culture, are very hesitant to speak of actual figures of income and giving, and it can become next to impossible to know if we should be encouraging someone or admonishing them in this area.

For a long time, Jesus’ own teaching has strengthened this obscurity in my thinking. When speaking about how the Pharisees do so much for public acclaim, He tells His hearers, “And when you give, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” Rather than making a show of your giving in order to get glory from men, give quietly in a way that gives glory to God. This, for a long time, said to me that whatever I am giving, the people around me shouldn’t know. That I am giving? Yes. But how much I’m giving? Clearly not!

But lately I’ve come to think that is a very misguided understanding on my part. Throughout the New Testament there is instruction on giving and collecting money, but how was that money given and collected? There were no bank transfers or Cash App donations back then, but people carried a bag of coins and gave it to the church. There was no hiddenness or anonymity even really possible in giving back then. On top of that, we have overt examples to the contrary, like Barnabas, who was called “Son of Encouragement” because of how his selling property and giving the money to a collection for the poor was such an encouragement to the church.

But when Jesus speaks of not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing in regard to giving, isn’t that pretty black and white? I don’t think so anymore. Partly for the reasons I just mentioned, that financial or giving anonymity would have been near impossible back in Jesus’ day, but also for the broader context of His words in that passage. Alongside those words about giving, He says similar words about praying, that, rather than praying publicly to be seen, we should pray privately where we are unseen.  Or that with fasting, it should be done privately and nobody should know that you’re doing it. Jesus says the same thing of each of these, and yet public prayer is exemplified, recorded, and even instructed in the New Testament. And while fasting is never commanded in the New Testament, there are examples of people fasting together, and where the fast is clearly publicly known. So either the New Testament authors just missed that part of Jesus’ teaching, or “don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” isn’t quite so black and white.

I have landed on thinking that Jesus is really focusing only in on whether our actions are done to glorify ourselves or if they are done to glorify the Lord in that section. That is clearly His focus, but I think, given that His instructions of prayer and fasting clearly don’t mean others shouldn’t know about them, His instructions about giving really shouldn’t be understood that way either.

So maybe we should be a little more open with one another about our finances; how much we’re making, how much we’re spending, how much we’re saving, etc.; and about our giving; how much, where it’s going, etc.; so that we can encourage, strengthen, challenge, admonish, or rebuke one another where it’s needed, and better spur one another on toward love and good deeds where our money is concerned.