Several years ago, a team at NCF got together to search the Scriptures for what the Bible says about money – not just the verses, but the stories and teachings that get at how our view of money can shape our hearts and help or hurt us on our lifelong journey with God. At the end, when we looked at what we’d created, we discovered something we hadn’t planned. The principles tell a story.
No one has told the story like Jamie Kuiper, who worked on the team that created these principles. As he explains it, the principles are comprehensive. What we can gather from looking at them as a whole can be healing, inspiring, and thought-provoking because they are all deeply rooted in Scripture.
Though they aren’t everything there is to say about giving in the Bible, they form a single narrative. We ordered them on purpose, but we didn’t realize how a single story would emerge. Here is how Jamie explains it:
We wake up every morning loved by a God who is good and who wants good things for us. This God is the owner of everything in the cosmos. Everything is at his disposal, and he has put us in his story for the singular purpose of bearing his image. If we wake up believing this, we can be sure that his Son Jesus is enough, and we can devote ourselves to worshiping him with all that we have.
Money is just a reflection of what we’re being motivated by. And the deeper we press into that idea and recognize this, the more we are transformed into his likeness. And so, giving brings transformation in us – in our families, our businesses, our communities, our churches, and our relationships. Yes, we know giving can feed hungry people, and it can bring the gospel to people who desperately need it, but it also transforms our lives.
So, we become more shaped into the image of this generous God.
Second Corinthians tells us that as we become more transformed into his image, he will continue to provide us with the resources we need to press even deeper into his story.
The last of our biblical principles is “time is of the essence,” because why wait? Giving isn’t about what gets you saved. It’s about getting as much of that John 10:10 life – that is truly life – as we can get. It’s about being as faithful and generous and as fully alive as we can be right now in the present kingdom of God, even as God prepares us to be who we will be forever.
That’s the eternal consequence of living according to God’s plan, and even God’s plan about how we use our money. There’s an order to the story our biblical principles tell, and it’s a story that we hope is developing in the lives of all of our givers.
To walk through a 10-day study of our biblical principles, visit our Generosity Library, or download them with the link below.
NCF thanks Jamie Kuiper for his eloquent contribution to this piece.
