Should All Your Giving Be In Secret? With John Rinehart | FaithFi
June 8, 2023
Should All Your Giving Be In Secret? With John Rinehart
Faith & Finance with Rob West
Jesus told His disciples not to boast about their giving, but does that mean all of our giving should be done in secret? Put another way, are there times when talking about our giving is actually a good thing? John Rinehart joins us to talk about this intriguing topic.
Jesus told His disciples not to boast about their giving, but does that mean all of our giving should be done in secret? Put another way, are there times when talking about our giving is actually a good thing? John Rinehart joins us to talk about this intriguing topic.
John Rinehart, founder of Gospel Patrons, an organization with a unique mission for spreading the Gospel around the world.
Most would answer, “Yes, of course, because Jesus tells us in the book of Matthew.”
But let’s take a closer look.
The context is Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. And so it's three chapters, Matthew 5-7. And what's amazing about that is in that whole section, when Jesus says, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is given, he also talks about we should pray in secret, and we should fast in secret.
Well, churches do corporate fasts and pray in public, and people have prayer meetings where they actually pray out loud.
And so what we might glean from the context is that Jesus wasn't saying we should never share about our giving, we should never share about our praying and praying in public, and we should never talk about our fasting.
What is your motivation? Are you talking about it in order to be seen and glorified by others? Or is there a chance that we could talk about it in a way that's really helpful in building up?
So that's the first thing we see from the context. The second is in the very same sermon, Jesus says to His disciples, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
And so there is a time to not have your light under a basket but to let it shine before others not so that we get glorified but so that they see our good works and glorify him.
And third, Jesus publicly highlighted and celebrated generous people, so he didn't always keep it a secret Himself.
On this program, Rob also answers listener questions:
Can you move a 403B into a standard IRA without a tax penalty?
How do you determine the best way to use a lump sum of cash; pay off debt or build up your emergency fund?
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