Abusing the Poor

Basic human needs come first with God before religious offerings. Listen, God's Law was never given to impoverished people, but to help them.

Man was not made for the Law, but the Law was made for man. Judge not, lest you be judged. The widow's mites, the parable of the prodigal son, you've probably heard a sermon or ten on all of those passages. But the fact is, a lot of people get the meaning of those verses wrong.

How about you? Is it possible that you've missed powerful truth that those passages convey? Consider that with John MacArthur here on Grace To You, as he sets the record straight on some verses that are often mishandled.

It's the title of John's study. John, the passages you'll be looking at in this series are certainly well-known and often quoted, even by unbelievers. And yet, these are some of the most misunderstood or misused verses of Scripture anywhere. And I'm wondering, what do you think causes that kind of misunderstanding? Is it poor teaching at church, or a lack of personal Bible study, or something else? I think it's all of the above. If you have a misunderstanding of Scripture, it could come from poor teaching.

There's plenty of that around. It could come from a failure to study the Bible carefully, thoughtfully, and correctly. Or it could come from some personal bias that you hold, and you want the Bible to say what you want it to say.

So it can be any of those things. But it isn't important how you got it wrong. What is important is how do you get it right, and how do you do what we're basically enjoined to do, and that is to be diligent to be approved of God's work when needing not to be ashamed because you rightly handle the word of truth. So correct interpretation is really critical. And I think where you have mishandled texts that yield a misunderstanding of the text, it's not just that it's wrong. It's that you miss the truth. You miss the truth of God's divine revelation if you don't get it right.

So this is going to be a great series. It's titled Mishandled. Subtitle, Setting the Record Straight on Frequently Abused Verses. A few of those that you would be familiar with, Matthew 7.1, Judge not lest you be judged. Or here's one that's used all the time in a wrong way, Matthew 18.20, Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. Or even the story of the prodigal, the parable of the prodigal in Luke 15 is, for some people, a lesson on parenting.

In Luke 21, the widow's offering is supposed to be a lesson on giving, and that's far from what it is. So these are fascinating, fascinating accounts that we've mentioned, those in the Gospels and elsewhere. We're going to get you to the truth of these and the correct interpretation so you know exactly what the Lord was really revealing. And we're going to start today looking at a correct interpretation of the Word of God, which is the only way you should ever handle Scripture. Stay tuned as we look at this compelling series called Mishandled.

Yes, and friend, I am really excited about this series. As you see what these verses mean, you will be strengthened, encouraged, and better equipped to interpret God's Word when you're studying it on your own. John begins today in Luke 21, so if you have your Bible, go there now and here's John to launch his study titled Mishandled. Luke chapter 21, and I want to read this somewhat familiar portion of Scripture to you to establish it in your mind and then we're going to look at it, I trust, in a beneficial way.

Luke 21 and verse 1, speaking of Jesus, the text says, and He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury and He saw a certain poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them, for they all out of their surplus put into the offering, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on. Now if you are beginning to say to yourself, here goes another message on sacrificial giving, you might be right to expect that because that is the universal application of this text. It is always used to tell us we ought to give the way this widow gave.

But let's back up a little bit before we look at the actual interpretation and remind ourselves where we are. This is Wednesday of Passion Week. This is the final week of our Lord's life.

On Monday He entered the city. On Tuesday He cleansed the temple. All day Wednesday He has been teaching the multitudes in the temple area and has been confronted by the false religious leaders of Judaism who have endeavored to trap Him in His Word so that they might have some cause to have Him executed. He has silenced them every time with His answer, thwarted them every time with His answer so that they're going to have to lie and fabricate a reason for the Romans to execute Him on Friday. They're done asking questions.

It's over. At this point on this Wednesday, after a long day of teaching, He no longer addresses the crowd, the fickle crowd that hailed Him as Messiah and will cry for His blood not too long after this Wednesday. He has no more to say to the crowds in general. He has no more to say to the false religious leaders. He has denounced them and given them His last invitation and given His last invitation to the crowds as well.

In fact, follow the flow here because in chapter 21, starting in verse 5, the theme is judgment. The time of invitation is over. The ministry of our Lord in these three years has come to its end. No more gospel invitations, no more clarifications to the crowds and to the leaders.

He's finished. And their final assessment is that He is not the Messiah they wanted and they reject Him, leaders and people. And so, starting in verse 5, comes a long message on destruction, judgment...judgment that will come in 70 A.D. with the destruction of the temple and the city and the nation, Israel, and a judgment of God beginning in 70 A.D. that will stretch all the way until the return of Jesus Christ through all these two thousand years and until our Lord comes. In fact, the last words of chapter 20 are clearly words of judgment, beware of the scribes, warning the people about how dangerous they are. And you remember that Luke only gives us a couple of verses regarding our Lord's warning concerning the scribes and the Pharisees. Matthew gives us the full account of His message on the danger of these false religious leaders.

It's chapter 23 verses 1 through 39. He is pronounced judgment on the leaders and therefore judgment on the nation for following those leaders and rejecting Him. So between the condemnation of the false leaders and the pronunciation of judgment that will last, and has lasted two thousand years until Jesus comes, is this little vignette about a widow dropping two copper pennies into an offering receptacle in the temple. The question is, what does this have to do with anything?

How does this fit? Why does Jesus inject this moment of reflection on a widow giving an offering in the temple into this section between a diatribe against false leaders and all the people that follow them and a pronunciation of judgment on the temple, on the city and on the nation and a judgment that will last until the Second Coming? Why is this here? Universally commentators tell us that our Lord is giving us a little glimpse of true worship in the middle of the false worship that dominates the temple. They tell us that it's a beautiful little story in the midst of ugliness, a little light in the midst of darkness, an illustration of giving till it hurts contrasted with the selfishness of the spiritual leaders. This is the traditional...this is the universal explanation of this passage. In fact, scholars agree that this is a lesson on giving but interestingly enough, they can't agree what the lesson is. And if you were to go through, say, twenty-five or thirty or fifty or a hundred commentators on this passage, they would suggest many lessons. They don't all agree.

Here are the options, or some of them. One, Jesus is teaching that the measure of a gift is not how much you give but how much you have after you give. But that's the measure of the gift. The measure is not the amount of the gift but the amount left over and that's the lesson the Lord is trying to teach us and many have waxed eloquent on that lesson. Another option, a second one, is that the true measure is the self-denial involved, the cost to the individual, which is just another way to say the first one, but that the percentage given is really what the issue is relative to one's expression of self-denial in that percentage. Obviously the woman gave the highest percentage, everything. So it's about the percentage you give. Third possibility, also related to the other two, is that the true measure of any gift is the attitude with which you give it. Is it selfless, humble, surrender, expressing love for God, devotion to God and trust in God?

The widow, we are told, had the least left behind, gave the highest percentage and must have had the best attitude. Fourthly, and this is another option that some have suggested, that the gift that truly pleases God is when you give everything and take a vow of poverty. And all of these and combinations of all of these are defended by virtually all those who write on this text.

Teachers have waxed eloquent on all of them. Now at this point, I will confess to you, in spite of the popularity of these views, in spite of the universality of these views, none of these explanations makes any sense to me...none. In fact, all of those interpretations are imposed on the text. And you know how I feel about imposing things on the Bible text.

Not good. You say, why do you say they're imposed? Because Jesus never made any of those points. Jesus never said anything about what's left behind, what percentage, what attitude, or do the same and give everything. He didn't.

Jesus never makes any of those points. He does not say the rich gave relatively too little, they had too much left over. He doesn't say the rich gave too low a percent. He doesn't say the widow gave the right amount. He doesn't say the rich had a bad attitude and the widow had a good attitude, or a good spirit.

He doesn't say that. In fact, He doesn't say anything about their giving, except that she gave more than everybody. He doesn't say why, or with what attitude, or whether she should have, or shouldn't have, or they should have, or shouldn't have. Her outward action is all that you see, it is no more or less good, bad, indifferent, humble, proud, selfish, unselfish than anybody else's act. There is no judgment made on her act as to its true character.

There is nothing said about her attitude or her spirit. She could be acting out of devotion. She could be acting out of love. She could be acting out of guilt.

She could be acting out of fear. We don't know because Jesus doesn't say anything, doesn't say anything about the rich, doesn't say anything about the widow, doesn't draw any conclusions, doesn't develop any principles, doesn't command anything, doesn't define anything. Why? Because none of that matters. The only thing I can conclude is, if Jesus wanted to say any of that here, He could have said it. If He wanted to say, now I need to give like the widow, she had a good attitude and she gave a maximum percentage and what she had left behind was little, this is the kind of sacrificial giving that we're after. He doesn't say that.

He doesn't say anything. The story then is not designed to teach any of those things. It's not designed to teach us about percentages, about how much you have left over, about attitudes. It's not designed to teach anything about giving.

If there is one thing apparent here, and this is the bottom line, if there is one thing apparent, it is that she gave everything. So if there's one lesson that would be obvious and wouldn't need to be stated, it is that God expects you to give one hundred percent of what you have. It's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. That's irresponsible.

That's foolish. It's not designed to talk about the principles of giving. There's only one comment that Jesus makes. She gave with her two copper coins relatively a great deal more than all the others because all the others gave out of their surplus, which means they had some left, she gave out of her poverty all she had to live on.

That's all there is. No comment that the Lord appreciated her. No comment that the Lord loved her, commended her. No comment that she was now in the Kingdom of God. No invitation to the disciples to reach into their little money bags and go up there and throw in everything they had cause it was good enough for the widow, it should be good enough for the disciples of Jesus.

If she was truly spiritual, they should be truly spiritual as well. And for these reasons, the traditional explanations of this text make no sense to me at all. One thing I do know is this, the Lord does not expect you to give one hundred percent of what you have so that you have absolutely nothing left. But that's the only obvious principle here if you're going to draw a principle. Besides, why would you inject a principle on giving in a context like this? This is no place to interject, oh by the way, a few words on giving. That sounds like a traditional Baptist sermon in the middle of everything you always have a few words on giving.

What in the world does that have to do with anything? The Lord makes no comment about giving, except that she gave more than everybody else relative to what she had. She is not commended, they are not condemned. No one's attitude or spirit in the giving is discussed and no principle regarding giving is drawn by our Lord.

The narrative is not intended to deal with any of those matters. The reason the Lord doesn't say anything about it is that's not what it's about. And if you look at the context before and after, this is all about the condemnation of wicked spiritual leaders and a corrupt religious system that is about to be destroyed.

In fact, in verse 5, the passage immediately after this, some were talking about the temple, that it was adorned with beautiful stones and votive gifts and He said, as for these things which you're looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down. This little vignette is in the middle of a diatribe against a false religious system and a pronouncement of judgment on that system...judgment that is still going on today. So what just exactly is this about?

Now one more comment, or two, before we look at it. It's not obscure. Anybody can read it and read exactly what it says. It's not profound. It's not got some deep hidden secret meaning. This is not one of the great spiritual insights in the Bible. This is not one of the great revelations of Scripture. This isn't one of the great brilliant things that Jesus said that has all kinds of deep meaning.

It's simple, clear. He saw a widow give more than everybody else. In other words, her involvement in religion cost her more than it cost anybody else because it cost her everything.

That's all, just an observation. And the disciples weren't confused about it. They didn't ask questions about it. It was patently obvious, another thing to think about. The assumption in interpreting this as a model for Christian giving is that Jesus was pleased with what she did. It doesn't say that, absolutely doesn't say that. It doesn't say that Jesus was pleased with her gift. It doesn't say Jesus was pleased with her attitude.

It doesn't say anything about His attitude. In fact, in fact, I think what she did displeased Him immensely. I think it was more than displeasing. I think it angered Him. I think what she did angered Jesus.

Let me put it this way. How would you feel? You're a person that loves the Lord.

You're a person that loves your brother and cares about people and cares about their needs. How would you feel if you saw a destitute widow who only had two coins left to buy her food for her next meal, give those two coins to a religious system? How would you feel? You would say, something is wrong with that system. When that system takes the last two coins out of a widow's hand. That's what you would say.

And you would be right to say that. Giving your last two coins to a false religious system. How would you feel if you saw a destitute, impoverished person give to her religion her last hope for life to go home perhaps and die? You'd be sick. You'd feel terrible.

You would be repulsed. Any religion that is built on the back of the poor is a false religion. What a sad, divided, woeful, poor, victimized lady.

It's tragic, painful. And I think that's exactly how Jesus saw it...exactly. He saw that corrupt system taking the last two pennies out of a widow's pocket in desperation, hoping that maybe in that legalistic system her two coins would buy some blessing, trying to be dutiful. The rabbis had said, with alms you purchase your salvation, trying to buy your way into heaven, trying to buy relief from your desperation, your destitution.

Contemporary quote-unquote evangelists call this seed faith. Give me your money and God will multiply it back to you. God doesn't want a widow to give up her last two cents. You couldn't find that in the Bible anyplace.

That's the last thing God would want a widow to do. Look at Matthew 15 for a moment and I'll show you this...Matthew 15. And here the Pharisees and scribes are again confronting Jesus and they're upset because the disciples don't go through certain ceremonial washings of the hands which they have invented. So they say, why do your disciples...verse 2...transgress the tradition of the elders? For they don't wash their hands and they eat bread. And He answered and said to them, why do you transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? See, what they had done is create a false religious system in the name of God, a false religious system that transgressed the commandment of God. And here's a perfect illustration of how they did it. This is so interesting. For God said...back in Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5, for God said, Honor your father and mother and he who speaks evil, a father or mother, let him be put to death.

Wow! But you say...follow this...whoever shall say to his father or mother, anything of mine you might have been helped by has been given to God. That's what they were saying. They were supposed to support their mother and father. Honor their father and mother boils down to making sure their needs are met. And in order to get around that and to parade their righteousness and to buy salvation, instead of giving to their mother or father, they would say, Oh, we're giving to God and leave their mother and father destitute. And so by the tradition of giving money to God that belonged to the needy, they violated the Law of God. Verse 6 he says, You invalidate the Word of God for the sake of your tradition, you hypocrites.

Verse 9 he says, You worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the traditions of men. The point that I want you to understand is this, God is concerned that people have their needs met. It is the responsibility in the Ten Commandments of children to provide for their parents when their parents need care and provision. To say we can't do that because we've given it to God is to violate the Law of God with your tradition. The system that had developed in Judaism abused poor people and it abused them on a spiritual level. Anyone who withholds money from needy parents in order to give it to God is in direct disobedience to God and is dishonoring God's Word and substituting a man-made tradition for God's Word. Basic human needs come first with God before religious offerings. Listen, God's Law was never given to impoverished people, but to help them. Man was not made for the Law, but the Law was made for man. We would conclude that this woman was part of a system that took the last two cents out of her hand on the pretense that this was necessary to please God, to purchase her salvation and to bring her blessing.

She was manipulated by a religious system that was corrupt. This is Grace To You with John MacArthur. Thanks for being with us. John's been Grace To You's featured speaker since 1969. He's also chancellor of the Master's University and Seminary, and today's lesson is the first in a series titled Mishandled.

It's a look at well-known passages that Christians often interpret the wrong way. Keep in mind you can get a copy of this series on CD, or you can download the messages in MP3 or transcript format. Pick up John's study titled Mishandled when you contact us today.

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By the way, that toll-free number translates to 800-554-7223. And thanks especially for your prayers. That's your most important ministry for us. Now for John MacArthur and the staff, I'm Phil Johnson reminding you to watch Grace to You television this Sunday, check your local listings for Channel and Times and be here at the same time tomorrow when John MacArthur continues his study on some of the Bible's most frequently abused verses. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace to You.