Giving under Grace Part 2 -- By: Ray Charles Stedman

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 107:428 (Oct 1950)
Article: Giving under Grace Part 2
Author: Ray Charles Stedman


Giving under Grace
Part 2

Ray Charles Stedman

(Continued from the July-September Number, 1950)

{Editor’s note: Footnotes in the original printed edition were numbered 18–27, but in this electronic edition are numbered 1–10 respectively.}

The New Testament Doctrine of Giving

The above may be somewhat misleading if one should expect from it to find in the ensuing discussion a well-rounded treatment of giving in the New Testament. Such a treatment would require division into the following sections: Giving in the Period of Christ’s Ministry, Giving in the Church Age, Giving in the Tribulation Period, and Giving in the Millennium. Only the second—Giving in the Church Age—properly falls within the radius of this thesis. But in the wider sense of the term this may be called the New Testament doctrine of giving since the New Testament is primarily devoted to declaring church truth. It has already been seen that the tithe, which was yet in force during our Lord’s ministry and doubtless will be again in the tribulation and millennial periods, does not and cannot apply to the church. This is confirmed by the fact that the epistles, supported by scattered passages in the gospels, disclose a full-fledged, well-developed system of giving which relates itself to those grace-principles by which the church is divinely administered, and is diametrically opposed to the legal obligations of the tithe. It is now purposed to examine, classify, and exhibit the various principles which comprise this system of grace-giving.

This has been a completely neglected field of New Testament investigation. It was with no little amazement that the writer discovered not one single book or article, among the many examined, that was devoted to an exposition of New Testament teaching on giving for the church. A few

scattered passages were found which mentioned the subject, but these were invariably sandwiched in among scores of pages extolling the benefits of tithing, with no effort made to distinguish the varying principles involved. As shall be noted, tithing and grace-giving share but one factor in common—proportionate giving; in all other points they bear no resemblance. With this word of introduction, it will be proper now to proceed.

I. Teaching of the Major Passages

To attempt a careful survey of the many verses in the New Testament related to giving would be burdensome and, to a large degree, profitless. Notwithstanding, there are three passages of paramount importance which must be minutely studied. First of all, 1 Corinthians 16:1–2: “Now concerning the collection for the ...

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