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Proper Incentive in Giving

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 6, 1913

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 90, No. 45.

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Proper Incentive in Giving

By E. K. Slade

Gospel Finance—No. 15

Proper Incentive in Giving

E. K. SLADE
Our financial responsibilities in furnishing funds for forwarding the Lord’s work in the earth should be recognized as a privilege rather than a burden. The arrangement constitutes a part of the gospel plan. The practise of giving for the salvation of others is to serve as a means of grace or as an agency to accomplish a transformation in our own characters. It is therefore of great importance that we shall be moved by right motives in the part that we are to perform in the work committed to us.
“God so loved the world, that he gave.” His nature would not permit the withholding of any gift that would be necessary for man’s salvation. He “hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.” 2 Peter 1:3. He has given us the opportunity to court and cultivate the divine love by acts of benevolence and by making sacrifices by giving for the salvation of lost men and women. The gift that will count most for our own good is that which is prompted by love and which calls for a sacrifice on our part. It is not a matter of sentiment, and we are not to wait to be moved by the stirring of our emotions; for this love is more than an emotion. It is a love that sees and responds to conditions of need. Such giving is not merely to perform a Christian duty or to conform to certain standards in the church, nor is it to make one’s own salvation more certain, but it is prompted by an incentive that is purer and nobler.
It is possible for us to be governed largely by selfishness in our gifts. Some may give liberally that they may be held in high esteem by their brethren. To give that we may have the approval of the church, or that our own salvation may be more certain, is coming short of our privileges and of God’s purpose in the plan. There is a vast difference between giving cheerfully and giving grudgingly. The cheerful giver is the one who enters into it not merely as a duty or a necessity, but who gives from principle as he sees the value of lost souls. The giver thus prompted is profited. The selfish giver is not being profited through the cultivation and acquirement of the love that leads God to give. No matter how great his gift, the experience does not rebuke covetousness and revive the spark of divine love as long as the incentive is wrong. “Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”
It is perfectly proper for us to labor for large results in raising funds for financing the work. It is commendable to manifest so great an interest in the church and conference quotas. Doubtless a much larger per cent of our earnings will be given to missions in the future. The purpose of this article is to emphasize the point made prominent in the text quoted above. Unless love for lost humanity prompts the gift, it is of no profit whatever to the giver. It is a love for the cause and a deep-seated desire to see God’s work prosper and speedily triumph that should cause our mission funds ever to increase, for the more we give the more fully will selfishness and covetousness be subdued, and the more completely shall we come into the spirit of benevolence. The transfer of our affections from temporal to eternal things will be accomplished more by this means than by any other if our gifts are properly incited.
At times gospel work has been cheapened and weakened by questionable methods of soliciting funds. It was my privilege to see a great money getter raise a sum of money at the dedication of a large popular church in one of our cities. He worked upon the emotions, the pride and the fun-loving propensities, of his congregation throughout the whole effort. Much of the time his hearers were convulsed with laughter from the many mirth-provoking stories of which he had a large supply. His effort was pronounced a success. The less we have of such methods in our work the better. How much better it is to hold up before the people the great and needy fields, the value God places upon a soul, and the glories of the triumphant finishing of the plan of salvation. This will beget incentives of the right character, and will lead to a permanency and a continuity in giving that will provide a larger and more lasting stream of funds.
“God designs that the exercise of benevolence shall be purely voluntary, not having recourse even to eloquent appeals to excite sympathy. ‘The Lord loveth a cheerful giver.’ He is not pleased to have his treasury replenished with forced supplies. . . . The plan of redemption was entirely voluntary on the part of our Redeemer, and it is the purpose of Christ that all our benevolence should be free-will offerings.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. III, page 413.
These words indicate that God purposes that our gifts shall be prompted by the same motive that led to providing the plan of redemption in the beginning.
Mount Vernon, Ohio.