My Money Is Not My Money

(Originally delivered at The Journey’s Friday Night Fuel on April 15, 2005, here abbreviated and edited for print)

One year Bob P. Taxpayer came down with a bad case of the (conscience-induced) post-tax-day blues. Knowing full well he had been a little less than honest with Uncle Sam in the twenty-plus years he’d been earning taxable income, he was moved by the Spirit to send a reimbursement check to the tune of 7000 big ones! Included with the check was a letter Bob had written in order to best explain the situation. It read,

Dear Uncle Sam,

Have been having trouble sleeping. This is your money, not mine.

Apologetically,
Robert P. Taxpayer

P.S. If most of the guilt doesn’t go away by next Tuesday, I’ll send the other $14000.


Too often the problem is not so much that we feel guilty about being dishonest on our tax forms, but that we would even consider it, and for many so nonchalantly. We might have a case if there were some reason to doubt that we ought to pay taxes. But it just so happens that Jesus did not leave us that option. His answer is clear. “Give to Caesar what belongs to him. But everything that belongs to God must be given to God” (Matthew 22:21).

The question we are left with is, “What belongs to God?” Of course, we know that “the earth is the LORD’S, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him” (Psalm 24:1). Clearly implied in Christ’s answer is this idea that we are made in the image of God and, therefore, we are specially His and owe ourselves to Him.

My Awareness
Have you ever wondered where the Sixpence None The Richer got their name? On the “bio” page of their website (http://www.sixpence-ntr.com/standard.jsp) the story is told.

"It comes from a book by C. S. Lewis...called Mere Christianity," she resumed. "A little boy asks his father if he can get a sixpence - a very small amount of English currency - to go and get a gift for his father. The father gladly accepts the gift and he's really happy with it, but he also realizes that he's not any richer for the transaction... C.S. Lewis was comparing that to his belief that God has given him, and us, the gifts that we possess, and to serve Him the way we should, we should do it humbly...realizing how we got the gifts in the first place."

My Attitude
That ‘little sliver of wisdom can be summed up in the phrase: “my money is not my money.” Think about that? My money is not my money. Does that concept seem foreign to you? Even the wise men who visited the young Jesus realized this principle was true. They gave him out of their own treasure (see: Matthew 2:9-11). Even these men, with their great wisdom and wealth recognized the need to give of their treasure to the Lord. They did not consider it out of place to offer gifts to this child. If that was the attitude of these “wise” men, what should be our attitude about money?

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be. (Matthew 6:19-21)

Our attitude toward money begins with the realization that money and possessions in this life are of limited value and very temporary. Many people put much effort into building up wealth and accumulating nice things. They want the big bucks so they can get the best car, the biggest house, the latest gadgets and the trendiest fashions. Jesus calls our attention to a more lasting sort of accumulation. He frames the discussion of money as an issue of the heart (see: Matthew 6:19-21). He gives us a way to test ourselves and see what we truly value most. What do we desire in our hearts? What is the preoccupation of our thoughts? The Message sheds some light on this, pointing out that, “It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.” Jesus continues explaining this, showing us that the things we have our eyes on become the things we live for and reveal the true desires of our hearts and, ultimately, whose servants we are (see: Matthew 6:22-24). The rest of the passage (Matthew 6:25-34) centers on the goodness of God and how we can and should trust Him.

My Actions
Okay, say we have all this down. We are living for Jesus. We are doing all the good things that children of God do. Why do we need to bring my money into this? The answer is simple. “All you are unable to give possesses you” (André Gide). As Jesus attested, “it is very hard for a rich person to get into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:23). Winston Churchill put it this way: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

If our money is not our money, and what we do with our money shows the condition of our heart and our spiritual allegiance, then it really does matter what where we are putting it. We cannot let what we have possess us. It is imperative that we are generous with what God gives us.

Go break to the needy sweet charity’s bread;
“For giving is living,” the angel said.
“And must I be giving again and again?”
My peevish and pitiless answer ran.
“Oh no,” said the angel, piercing me through,
“Just give till the Master stops giving to you.

C.S. Lewis lends his wisdom to this issue yet again saying, “the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. Our charities should pinch and hamper us. If we live at the same level of affluence as other people who have our level of income, we are probably giving away too little.” In fact, Jesus commended this kind of giving (see: Luke 21:1-4).

Money is not all we should be concerned about giving. Let me reaffirm the principle Jesus taught. Give to God what belongs to Him. We must give not only what we have but who we are. As even John D. Rockefeller, Jr. asserted, “giving is the secret of a healthy life. Not necessarily money, but whatever a man has of encouragement and sympathy and understanding.”

“Have you ever stopped to think that Christ never gave anyone money? The riches of the world were his for the taking and his to give away, yet when the poor and the hungry came to him, he didn’t give them money, and he rarely gave them food; he gave them love and service and the greatest gift of all—himself” (anonymous).

Jesus is, in fact, our model for giving in that he gave up the riches of heaven for us so he could share them with us (see: 2 Corinthians 8:9). In a letter to the Corinthians, Paul gives us some guidelines for giving:

“Give whatever you can according to what you have. If you are really eager to give, it isn’t important how much you are able to give. God wants you to give what you have, not what you don’t have. Of course, I don’t mean you should give so much that you suffer from having too little. I only mean that there should be some equality. Right now you have plenty and can help them. Then at some other time they can share with you when you need it. In this way, everyone’s needs will be met. Do you remember what the Scriptures say about this? “Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough” (2 Corinthians 8:11-15).

In the end, “God will not merely judge us on the basis of what we gave but also on the basis of what we did with what we kept for ourselves” (Erwin W. Lutzer). It is the world that “asks, ‘How much does he give?’ Christ asks, ‘Why does he give?’” (John Raleigh Mott). “There is no portion of our time that is our time, and the rest God’s; there is no portion of money that is our money, and the rest God’s money. It is all his; he made it all, gives it all, and he has simply trusted it to us for his service” (Adolphe Monod). In the end, my money is not my money.


All quotations taken from…
Draper, E. (1992). Draper's Book of Quotations for the Christian World (1st Ed.). Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.: Wheaton, Illinois.

Except where noted, all Scripture taken from New Living Translation.