Three Motivations

God is much more interested in what motivates us to give than He is how much we give. In other words, it is far more important to God why we give than what we give. And what is so spiritually dangerous is that our primary focus routinely is on the amount we give, making our giving much more of a financial matter than a spiritual one.

Regardless of what our giving motivation might be, they all can produce exactly the same sized gift, at exactly the same time, and for exactly the same purpose. So, we cannot judge our motives merely by observing our actions.

If we are willing to do the hard work of self-examination, we might discover a much more profound and revealing way to evaluate our true giving motivation beyond simply looking at the size of our gifts.

I have been pondering this question personally and professionally for years and I have identified three quite distinct motivations for why Christians give. Allow me to share them with you so you can do some soul-searching of your own on what motivates you to deploy God’s resources that you steward to advance His Kingdom.

Guilt as a Giving Motivator

This first motivation is quite common among believers. Many have been taught since childhood that you owe God 10% of your income. And if you do not “pay up” you are going to suffer severe monetary and spiritual consequences.

Malachi 3:8-10 is often used as a sort of spiritual “sledgehammer” to bludgeon believers into giving. They are told,  “ Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ ‘In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse…”

So, many believers are motivated to give because they have been told that there is a payment that is due God and if they don’t pay the required 10% amount that is required, whatever they do give is insufficient to avoid the “curse” they are told will be upon them. Consequently, whatever giving is done is with a sense of guilt (and likely some degree of fear) knowing that they are not paying all they owe God. This guilt-motivation reduces God to being an unhappy and unpaid creditor.

Another form of guilt-motivated giving is described by Tim Keller,

Often books and speakers tell Christians that they should help the needy because they have so much. That is, of course, quite true. Common sense tells us that, if human beings are to live together on the planet, there should be a constant sharing of resources. So, when the statistics are brought out to show Americans how much of the world’s resources we use, it creates (rightly) a sense of concern for those with less than ourselves.

But this approach is very limited in its motivating power. Ultimately it produces guilt. It says, “How selfish you are to eat steak and drive two cars when the rest of the world is starving!” This creates great emotional conflicts in the hearts of Christians who hear such arguing. We feel guilty, but all sorts of defense mechanisms are engaged. “Can I help it if I was born in this country? How will it really help anyone if I stop driving two cars? Don’t I have a right to enjoy the fruits of my labor?” Soon, with an anxious weariness, we turn away from books or speakers who simply make us feel guilty about the needy.

This guilt-motivation for giving was even common in the Apostle Paul’s day, which is why he wrote in II Corinthians 9:7a, “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion…”

If your giving is being motivated by guilt, or external pressure or legalistic compulsion, no matter whether you hit the 10% goal or not, the motivation that produced the gift may spiritually be “off by a mile.”

Greed as a Giving Motivator

There is second quite common giving motivation that is common among certain groups of Christians and that is the idea that, “I give because I want to get back from God more than I gave Him.” So, this kind of giving is motivated by making a profit.

The purveyors of this greed-motivation will often quote such verses as Proverbs 3:9-10, “Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce; so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.” They suggest that the more you give the fuller your “barns” and “vats” will be for your personal use and enjoyment – missing the whole point of this statement – that God blesses you with more, so you can give more, not so you can spend more on yourself. Or, as my friend, Randy Alcorn says, God blesses us “to increase our level of giving, not to increase our level of living.”

They often will quote Luke 6:38, “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.” They rip this verse right out of its context of showing love to your enemies and twist it to suggesting that God will make you rich if you give money to the organization, church, or “preacher” that is quoting this verse.

The term that is often used to appeal to this greed-motivation is “seed faith” giving, which is defined by them as “to entrust money or goods or time to a ministry so you can receive special divine benefit in return: a financial investment will give you financial gain.”

So, this greed-motivation for giving becomes more of an investment strategy than a giving motivation. And, by the way, those who promote this greed-motivation giving themselves have become rich by promoting it.

Gratitude as a Giving Motivator

The first two motivations of giving are to avoid something bad (guilt) or to gain something good (greed) from God, but this third motivation wells up from within us, not because of what we want to avoid or what we want to gain from God, but because of what we have already received from God! Giving should be our way of saying “thank you.” Let me finish the rest of II Corinthians 9:7 that I quoted earlier, “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

There are so many compelling biblical examples of this overflowing gratitude-motivation for giving that I will allow the sacred texts to speak for themselves:

Paul’s account of the giving by the impoverished Christians in Macedonia:

Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. (II Corinthians 8:1-5 NASB)

David’s prayer for Israel’s offering to fund building the temple:

But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given You…O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build You a house for Your holy name, it is from Your hand, and all is Yours. Since I know, O my God, that You try the heart and delight in uprightness, I, in the integrity of my heart, have willingly offered all these things; so now with joy I have seen Your people, who are present here, make their offerings willingly to You. (I Chronicles 29: 14-17 NASB)

Israel’s joyful and abundant giving response to Moses’ call to build the tabernacle:

And all the skillful men who were performing all the work of the sanctuary came, each from the work which he was performing, and they said to Moses, “The people are bringing much more than enough for the construction work which the Lord commanded us to perform.” So Moses issued a command, and a proclamation was circulated throughout the camp, saying, “Let no man or woman any longer perform work for the contributions of the sanctuary.” Thus the people were restrained from bringing any more. For the material they had was sufficient and more than enough for all the work, to perform it. (Exodus 36:4-7 NASB)

What motivates you to give: guilt, greed, or gratitude? It matters much more to God why you are giving to Him than what you are giving to Him. If our giving wells up from overflowing gratitude for all that God has done for us, our giving will simultaneously be both joyful and feel inadequate at the same time, because we simply cannot give enough to fully show our inexpressible gratitude to Him for rescuing us from Hell and adopting us as His own children! Candidly, how can any sized gift we ever make adequately say, “Thank you” to Him?

Might it be time for a motivation upgrade in why you give? Such an upgrade will greatly increase the degree of joy you experience in your giving and the joy He will experience in the receiving!