September 12; The Creator Owns It All; We Get To Keep 90%
MANAGEMENT BY THE BOOK:
365 Daily Bible Verse &
One-Minute Management Lessons For The Busy Faithful

Chapter Nine: Finance; September 12

Each of you should give

what you have decided in your heart to give,

not reluctantly or under compulsion,

for God loves a cheerful giver.

2 Corinthians 9:7

Tithe

The non-profit had “asked” its employees to donate 10% back to the company. My student, Wilma, asked me what she should do.

She was touching on larger issues. Can a company compel employee donations? Should a business donate to charity?

A company can encourage anonymous donations with company-wide fund-raising drives to support the community or a cause. But this should be done without exalting a large giver or embarrassing the low donor. Charity is an act of blind humility with nothing expected in return.

The Believer and Disciple of Jesus Christ should support his local community through his church. “The only investments I ever made which have paid constantly increasing dividends is the money I have given to the Lord,” says J. L. Kraft, founder of Kraft Foods.

If a business is privately held the owners can allocate or donate the profits in any way they wish; it’s their money.

Publically held companies with numerous owners should be very slow to make charitable donations from earnings. The profits of the concern belong to the shareholders who can donate them wherever they wish.

Management can encourage support of the local community with the social teaching of subsidiarity. Public companies can encourage employees to donate by allowing company time for non-profit work and matching company funds to the charity of the employee’s choice.

Donations should be voluntary and given happily.

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7

Bible scholar Randy Yeager explains this cheerful charity, non-intellectual, deep in the gut giving,

The heart must decide. The intellect may dictate a gift that the emotion would reject as too great a sacrifice. In such a case, let the heart rule. The gift out of sadness or compulsion is not good. God does not need the money. We cannot enrich Him with our paltry sums, but we can glorify Him with our willingness to give all that we have to Him on the proposition that if we do he will not allow us to suffer want. It takes great faith in God’s promise for us to give hilariously. It is important that we honor God with our attitude toward giving, since God is the source of all that is good. (Randolph O. Yeager 1983)

Cheerful is translated from the Greek hilarós from which we get hilarious. Writer RKBentley clarifies,

Strong (word # 2430) defines the word simply as “joyous, cheerful, not grudging.” HELPS Word Studies expounds on this a little: “properly, propitious; disposed because satisfied – describing someone who is cheerfully ready to act because already approving (“already persuaded”). hilarós (“won over, already inclined”) is only used in 2 Cor 9:7 where it describes spontaneously non-reluctant giving.”

Something different is meant by the word hilarious. Hilarious describes something that is extremely funny. Those pastors I’ve heard use this point try to suggest we should be happy to the point of laughter. It’s as though we should be rolling on the floor laughing when the offering plate goes around. Do you really think that is what Paul meant? Tithing is joyous but it’s not a joke.

***

Wilma was uncomfortable with charity being a condition of employment. Forced extraction like taxes is not charity (just try not to pay income tax). This is not charity; it is certainly not cheerful giving. Only people, individuals can be generous and giving.

Giving with someone else’s money is not charity. Charity is a function of the individual not of companies or countries. Shareholders should donate as they wish, but management should not donate directly company money or corporate assets.

Charity is from the heart.

###