Stinginess

One who has received so much from the Lord should never have a stingy attitude.  Stingy means “giving or spending reluctantly,” or “reluctant to give or spend; niggardly; penurious.”[1] We might think of miserly, tight, tightfisted, closefisted, ungenerous, and niggardly.  We must not confuse this with frugality and thriftiness, which are virtues.

Those who have received the abundance of God’s blessings in Christ Jesus should be generous in the use of those resources that God has given.  Paul speaks of the Christians in Macedonia, “that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality” (2 Corinthians 8:2).

These liberal givers were poor and this is what made their generosity even more significant.  Paul gives the basis of our generosity in 2 Corinthians 8:9: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” Since Jesus Himself became “poor” when He came to this earth so that we might be spiritually “rich,” we too should give much to bless the lives of others even to the point of self-sacrifice.

The apostle speaks of the “equality” that comes through mutual sharing: “At the present time your abundance being a supply for their need, so that their abundance also may become a supply for your need, that there may be equality” (2 Corinthians 8:13-15).  He also says, “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (9:6; cf. vv. 7-8).

Jesus noted how a poor widow only gave two very small coins (Greek, lepta), whereas the rich people have “large sums” (Mark 12:41-44).  How did our Lord look at this inequality?  He said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on” (vv. 43-44).  She was willing to be generous with all she had.

The stingy person holds on to his money since he is greedy and doesn’t have a heart of love for those in need or for the work of the Lord.  The stingy, miserly, tightfisted person who has an abundance but refuses to help another in genuine need is a shameful example of a Christian (cf. Luke 10:25-37).  Let’s renounce the selfish attitude of stinginess.

 

[1] The American Heritage College Dictionary and Random House Webster’s College Dictionary.