STEWARDSHIP
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF A STUDY ON TITHE-GIVING                 George Salstrand

One of the most important relationships of life is the relation of a man to his money. Life is sacred, and since money represents a portion of one’s life, it, too, should be regarded as being sacred. Some think of money as being evil, but this is not true; it is “the love of money” which is the root of all evil.
 
Money in the hands of good men and rightly used can be of great blessing; but money in the hands of wicked men and wrongly used becomes a curse.
Money has been spoken of as the “acid test”‘ of a man’s character. It is the test of a man as to what he will do to obtain it, and it is the test of a man as to what he will do with it after he has it.
 
Henry Taylor in one of his Notes On Life has well said, “If you know how a man deals with money, how he gets it, spends it, keeps it, shares it, you know one of the most important things about him.” To acknowledge God with the tithe and to honor Him with our substance will help us to rightly value and use money.
 
Paul speaks of giving as a “grace” of the Christian life: “But as ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge and in all earnestness, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also (II Corinthians 8:7). From this passage we see that liberality is a crowning grace of the Christian life to be super-added to the other beautiful graces.
 
Giving on the part of the Lord Jesus Christ was also a grace . “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich (2 Corinthians 8:9) Well has it been said, “Of all the graces, giving is likest (sic) God within the soul.'”?
 
How can we become Christlike or Godlike unless we learn from the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father great lesson of giving? “God is the great giver. He never nor sells but gives unceasingly. It is the very essence of nature to give.”