Does Jesus Teach Us to Sell All Our Possessions?
Chapters
0:04:21 Zacchaeus Was Commended for Giving Away Half of His Riches to the Poor
4:25 Giving Away Half of His Riches to the Poor
7:3 Let the Thief No Longer Steal but Let Him Labour
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Hello again, and thank you for listening
00:00:05.060 | to Ask Pastor John with longtime pastor
00:00:07.200 | and author, John Piper.
00:00:08.680 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:00:10.640 | While Jesus was never ashamed to tell his disciples
00:00:12.900 | or his potential disciples to liquidate all of their assets
00:00:16.260 | and to give away all of their cash first,
00:00:19.360 | giving rise to today's question
00:00:21.040 | from a college student named Noah.
00:00:22.360 | Hello, Pastor John and Tony.
00:00:23.960 | This program has encouraged and strengthened me
00:00:26.020 | for over a year now, whether I'm at the gym
00:00:28.440 | or walking back from class or folding my laundry.
00:00:31.040 | I am truly blessed by the wisdom you share.
00:00:32.920 | Thank you.
00:00:34.240 | I am a Christian hedonist at Stanford University,
00:00:37.120 | finishing my third year of undergrad work.
00:00:39.300 | I just finished reading the chapter
00:00:41.360 | that you wrote, Pastor John, on money in Desiring God,
00:00:44.520 | the book, and I am faced with this question.
00:00:47.240 | Why should I not give all or a significant portion
00:00:49.800 | of what I earned to the Lord?
00:00:51.400 | Most teaching I've heard on money and tithing
00:00:53.580 | have pretty much said give and give generously.
00:00:56.400 | I wanna give as generously as possible
00:00:58.160 | and invest eternally, but at what point
00:01:00.040 | does my giving to the Lord become irresponsible?
00:01:03.320 | Right now, I don't earn very much,
00:01:04.960 | but I also don't need very much.
00:01:07.000 | Of the $10,000 I earn, I only spend about $2,000 per year,
00:01:10.880 | and after giving over 20% to God and investing the rest,
00:01:14.840 | I still can't help but feel like my reward
00:01:16.840 | would be greater in heaven if I gave more,
00:01:19.080 | which I'd happily do.
00:01:20.560 | The problem is I think I would feel the same way
00:01:22.600 | after giving 30% or 50% or 80% to God too,
00:01:27.720 | but is that a problem?
00:01:29.000 | Wasn't the widow commended for giving everything?
00:01:31.480 | Are we told not to worry about what we will eat
00:01:33.360 | or drink or wear?
00:01:34.200 | Jesus said sell your possessions, give to the needy,
00:01:36.240 | provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old.
00:01:39.520 | And you said in Desiring God, the book,
00:01:41.560 | Jesus is not against investment.
00:01:43.320 | He is against bad investment,
00:01:44.880 | namely setting our hearts on the comforts and securities
00:01:47.760 | that money can afford in this world.
00:01:49.980 | Money is to be invested for eternal yields in heaven.
00:01:54.000 | So if God has given me a generous heart
00:01:56.640 | and blesses me beyond my necessity,
00:01:59.000 | why should I not give away everything?
00:02:03.200 | - Well, I'm not gonna tell Noah not to give away everything.
00:02:08.200 | I don't know what God may be calling him to do.
00:02:13.280 | Jesus certainly called on the rich young ruler
00:02:18.680 | to give away everything.
00:02:21.080 | In Luke 18.22, Jesus said to the rich young man,
00:02:24.800 | "One thing you still lack, sell all that you have
00:02:29.720 | and distribute to the poor
00:02:32.240 | and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me."
00:02:35.500 | And as Noah observed, he commended the widow.
00:02:41.440 | Jesus, it says, many rich people were putting
00:02:46.600 | in large sums of money as Jesus was watching in the temple.
00:02:50.440 | And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins
00:02:53.800 | which make a penny and he called his disciples to him
00:02:56.720 | and said, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow
00:03:00.840 | has put in more than all those who are contributing
00:03:05.400 | to the offering box for they contributed
00:03:07.680 | out of their abundance.
00:03:09.940 | But she out of her poverty has put in everything,
00:03:14.940 | everything that she had, all she had to live on."
00:03:21.600 | I don't know what measure of sacrifice financially
00:03:26.600 | Jesus may call Noah or anyone to undergo.
00:03:32.040 | I don't know.
00:03:34.760 | I'm not assuming he shouldn't give away everything.
00:03:39.200 | But here's what I will do.
00:03:40.740 | I will say that I cannot biblically tell Noah
00:03:47.680 | this is his duty, this is his biblical obligation
00:03:52.680 | from the Lord or that it is the biblical obligation
00:03:57.160 | or duty of Christians in general
00:04:01.040 | to give away all that they have.
00:04:03.880 | There are reasons and I'll just list several.
00:04:07.600 | Number one, Jesus and the apostles never made
00:04:11.800 | giving away all our possessions a duty
00:04:15.880 | for all followers of Christ.
00:04:17.880 | The command to the rich young ruler
00:04:19.440 | was not a command to all.
00:04:21.420 | Number two, Zacchaeus was commended
00:04:25.260 | for giving away half of his riches to the poor.
00:04:29.800 | Behold, the half of my goods I give to the poor
00:04:33.320 | and if I have defrauded anyone of anything,
00:04:36.080 | I restore it fourfold.
00:04:37.680 | And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come
00:04:41.720 | to this house since he also is a son of Abraham."
00:04:44.840 | In other words, he saw in that kind of generosity,
00:04:49.000 | namely 50% plus, salvation has come.
00:04:53.520 | He's showing he's really saved.
00:04:57.240 | Third, Barnabas was admired as a son of encouragement
00:05:01.920 | in the early church and when the believers
00:05:03.580 | were selling their lands and houses together,
00:05:06.560 | money for the poor, it says, "Thus Joseph,
00:05:09.240 | who was called Barnabas," which means son of encouragement,
00:05:12.800 | "A Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field
00:05:16.120 | that belonged to him and brought the money
00:05:20.200 | and laid it at the apostles' feet."
00:05:21.600 | So one field, no doubt a very significant gift,
00:05:25.400 | but not everything.
00:05:27.100 | Number four, when Paul was taking up a collection
00:05:30.140 | for the poor in Jerusalem among the churches,
00:05:33.320 | he said to the Corinthians, this is 1 Corinthians 16, 1,
00:05:36.960 | "Now concerning the collection for the saints,
00:05:39.360 | as I directed the churches of Galatia, so also you.
00:05:42.960 | On the first day of the week, each of you
00:05:45.120 | is to put something aside and store it up
00:05:49.560 | as he may prosper so that there will be no collecting
00:05:53.240 | when I come."
00:05:54.420 | So the idea seems to be in proportion as you prosper,
00:05:59.040 | put more aside, not everything, just more
00:06:03.400 | for those who earn more, less for those who earn less,
00:06:06.280 | put something aside.
00:06:07.980 | Number five, Paul says, "Aspire to live quietly."
00:06:12.040 | This is 1 Thessalonians 4.10, "Aspire to live quietly
00:06:16.720 | and to mind your own affairs and to work with your own hands
00:06:21.320 | as we instructed you so that you may walk properly
00:06:25.000 | before outsiders and be dependent on no one."
00:06:29.520 | So it seems that in the ordinary life of the church,
00:06:33.560 | day in and day out in the world,
00:06:36.200 | we should at least seek to have a stream of income
00:06:40.860 | that keeps us from lazy mooching.
00:06:44.900 | That's what he says,
00:06:45.740 | so that you will be dependent on no one, work.
00:06:50.260 | So that means you need to have enough to pay your bills.
00:06:53.540 | You don't give everything away.
00:06:54.940 | You invest and create a life that keeps you
00:06:59.540 | from being dependent on others.
00:07:02.380 | Number six, Paul said, "Let the thief no longer steal,
00:07:05.860 | but let him labor doing honest work with his own hands
00:07:09.660 | so that he may have something to share with anyone in need."
00:07:14.660 | Ephesians 4.28.
00:07:17.940 | So three options, you can steal, that's option one.
00:07:21.700 | Option two, you can work to have, that's option two.
00:07:25.060 | Or you can work to have to give, that's option three.
00:07:28.900 | The assumption is that as the money passes through our hands
00:07:33.300 | into productive uses, whether for the poor
00:07:36.900 | or invested in some way to help society,
00:07:39.820 | we are not dependent on others.
00:07:42.020 | Enough of our income is supporting us
00:07:45.180 | so that we can give and give and give
00:07:47.820 | as well as not being moochers off of others.
00:07:52.180 | And by the way, that does not mean it is a sin
00:07:56.580 | for churches to support missionaries.
00:07:59.500 | Paul, that's another whole, ask Pastor John,
00:08:02.580 | we can do how Paul in fact took money from churches
00:08:07.180 | in order to make it free for others.
00:08:09.700 | But that's a parenthesis and I'll just stop there.
00:08:12.940 | Number seven, Paul speaks of his own pattern
00:08:17.600 | of partially foregoing the right of support, quote,
00:08:21.280 | "By toiling night and day that we might not be a burden
00:08:24.900 | to any of you.
00:08:25.900 | It was not because we do not have the right,
00:08:28.900 | but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate.
00:08:33.500 | For even when we were with you, we gave you this command,
00:08:37.460 | if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
00:08:41.860 | For we hear that some among you are walking in idleness,
00:08:46.860 | not busy at work, but busy bodies.
00:08:50.440 | Now such persons we command and encourage
00:08:54.020 | in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly
00:08:57.380 | and to earn their own living."
00:09:01.700 | So the normal pattern in the early church
00:09:05.220 | and in Christianity, day-to-day life is make a living,
00:09:10.220 | pay your own way and turn your whole life into ministry.
00:09:15.020 | Now lots of other passages could be brought in
00:09:18.300 | to show that owning nothing and giving away everything
00:09:24.000 | was not in the New Testament the way Jesus
00:09:26.920 | and the apostles conceived
00:09:28.940 | of the ongoing corporate Christian life.
00:09:33.740 | And I'll just mention two things in closing
00:09:35.460 | that might give Noah some guidance against this background.
00:09:40.380 | Number one, don't just think of percentages
00:09:44.180 | for how much you give away.
00:09:47.060 | Think of concrete people, concrete needs
00:09:51.180 | as you live your life and as you see
00:09:54.600 | if your heart really loves people.
00:09:56.800 | Here's what I mean.
00:09:57.920 | The good Samaritan was commended that he stopped
00:10:02.920 | and he helped the wounded man on the road.
00:10:05.760 | He had some wine to give him.
00:10:08.400 | He had a donkey that he would let him ride.
00:10:11.920 | He had money for paying for his lodging.
00:10:15.120 | And Jesus didn't question, "Hey, why do you have a donkey?
00:10:18.840 | Why do you have wine?
00:10:20.400 | Why do you have money?
00:10:22.360 | You're supposed to give everything away."
00:10:24.560 | The point was, do you love the person in front of you
00:10:28.680 | at cost to yourself?
00:10:30.760 | So shift your way of thinking, not merely to think,
00:10:34.400 | oh, how much, what percentage can I get rid of,
00:10:37.000 | but rather do the people I deal with and that I'm aware of,
00:10:41.880 | do I love them as I ought with my resources?
00:10:44.920 | And here's the second thing I would say finally.
00:10:47.880 | Remember that all of your money is God's,
00:10:51.320 | not just what you quote, "Give to the Lord."
00:10:54.920 | This means that we should think of every expenditure
00:10:59.800 | in a kingdom advancing way, not just what we give away.
00:11:04.520 | It is all Christ's.
00:11:06.720 | He owns you, he owns it.
00:11:08.960 | And every single thing you spend and what you give
00:11:12.880 | is ministry and should be designed to magnify Christ.
00:11:16.960 | So Noah, I'm with you in the struggle,
00:11:20.200 | just as much now at age 73 as I was when I was 23.
00:11:25.080 | So let's pray for each other
00:11:28.120 | that we not be taken captive by our possessions.
00:11:32.280 | - Amen, same here.
00:11:33.640 | The really good example here, Pastor John,
00:11:35.080 | of explaining a truth by synthesizing
00:11:36.720 | a lot of other texts around it.
00:11:38.160 | Thank you for that model.
00:11:39.240 | Thanks for the question, Noah.
00:11:40.680 | Blessings on your studies.
00:11:41.680 | Thanks for listening on campus.
00:11:43.320 | And as always, thank you for listening wherever you are,
00:11:45.760 | whatever you're doing.
00:11:46.600 | Thank you for listening.
00:11:47.720 | You can search or browse our past episodes
00:11:49.240 | or send us a question of your own.
00:11:51.000 | You can do that through our online home
00:11:53.000 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:11:56.880 | On Monday, we look at the glorious text in Galatians 2.20.
00:12:00.240 | What does it mean that Christ is alive in me?
00:12:03.800 | And what does that mean for the stewardship of this life?
00:12:06.120 | Is this life really my life anymore?
00:12:08.720 | We look at that on Monday.
00:12:09.680 | I'm your host, Tony Reinhart.
00:12:10.800 | You have a great weekend.
00:12:11.640 | We'll see you back here on Monday.
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