Alms are examples of people giving freely to other people. This page reviews verses and related concepts.
• Asking John 9:8; Acts 3:2
• Commandments and practices concerning
– General references Lev 25:35; Deut 14:28-29; Deut 15:7-11; Isa 58:6-7; Matt 5:42; Matt 6:1-4; Matt 19:21; Luke 11:41; Luke 12:33; Rom 12:8; 2Cor 9:5-7; Gal 2:10; 1Tim 6:18; Heb 13:16; 1John 3:17 Beneficence; Gifts from God; Giving; Liberality; Poor
• Instances of giving:
– Instances of giving: Luke 19:8
– Dorcas Acts 9:36
– Cornelius Acts 10:2
– The early Christians Acts 2:44-45; Acts 4:34-37; Acts 6:1-3; Acts 11:29-30; Acts 24:17; Rom 15:25-28; 1Cor 16:1-4; 2Cor 8:1-4; 2Cor 9:1; Heb 6:10
The giving of alms or “free” gifts takes a few key concepts with it. Firstly, if a gift is given in order to adversely influence somebody, such as favor or disfavor against an enemy, that concept is actually a bribe. That is a sin. Secondly, a person gives freely to another person, as God wants, then this has to be out of love, that action is a spiritual action emanating from his heart. The only right reason for this is because God has blessed and given to the giver first, and even if it is very little that he has, he gives out of his heart.
2 Corinthians 8:1 Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;
2 Corinthians 8:2 How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.
2 Corinthians 8:3 For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves;
2 Corinthians 8:4 Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
2 Corinthians 8:5 And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.
So a gift is not necessarily from a “rich person” to a “poor person”, but a true godly gift is something that is a product of the love of God dwelling in the giver’s heart and soul.
Acts 20:35 I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Whereas almost every person wants to receive (consider the entire event of Christmas, for example), the truly blessed person in God’s eyes is the giver. He has received of God so that he has to give.
Psalms 41:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.
Alms are different from other types of giving because the motive is the need of the receiver. We are to be generous to our Christian brethren, and much more generous to our own family. But alms are to just anybody suffering. The motive is that as God has given to us when we were despicable, we should also give to others in need even if they are not good Christians. That is almsgiving.
Ephesians 4:28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Deuteronomy 16:17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.
2 Corinthians 9:7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
2 Corinthians 9:9 (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever.
Spiritual Principles involved in Giving
Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Galatians 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Luke 6:38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
Part of being a Christian (especially a good Christian) is understanding the omnipotent power of God over us. God always acts on the basis of his moral character. But God is always the only Creator, and He is thus our judge because He made us. What God sees in our lives as a reality, God gives back to us. When we are cheap, hugging our possessions and money tightly to our heart, God is meager in giving to such a person.
Giving is a spiritual activity that reveals the heart and soul of the giver. We need to always remember that, and our actions speak louder than our words.
A major purpose of God commanding man to work is so that he can sustain his own self along with his family. But while that is in itself a blessing, it also enables the worker to be able to bless others outside himself and his own family. To capture the importance of this, we consider that a primary essence characteristic of God is that God is love.
1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
1 John 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
God’s character is a pureness and saturation of love. For a person to be saved, he has to understand that love, and that God gave His own Son on the cross (John 3:16) for our benefit, so that we would avoid hell and live for eternity with God and his eternal blessings. Love can be defined as my sacrifice for your benefit. God paid a price in order to effect a benefit (gift) for man. That is totally a spiritual activity.
The Apostle John equates salvation (being born of God, John 3:3 “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God“) with comprehending the concept of divine love. At the base of that comprehension is to understand what love in general is (one person sacrifices for the benefit of another).
The spiritual activity or “sacrifice” offered to God by believers of “thanksgiving” is oriented around a giver having received from God, and he multiplies that blessing by giving to somebody else.
We must not pass by the obvious point here, that “forGIVING” and person is a form of giving, that means because we ourselves are forgiven, we forgive others.
–David Cox
Reference Works
Alcorn, Randy – Tithing, Training Wheels of Giving.pdf
Alcorn, Randy – Nineteen Questions before giving to any organization.pdf
Alcorn, Randy – Practice of Tithing as Minimum Standard of Christian Giving.pdf
anderson – Biblical Perspective on Giving – Giving Cheerfully and Sacrificially (Probe.org).pdf
Blankenship, Michael – Biblical Giving.pdf
DeLashmutt, Gary – Biblical Principles of Financial Giving.pdf
Griffith-Thomas, W.H. – The Grace of Giving.pdf
Kluth, Brian – 100 Passages that encourage Giving & Generosity.pdf
Mollegen, A T – Three Attitudes Toward giving.pdf
Rugh, Gil – Giving as a result of Grace.pdf
Sing – Bibles Teaching on Giving.pdf
Smethers, Steven – Do you have a giving heart.pdf
Spurgeon #1542 – Free Grace a Motive for Free Giving.pdf
TMF 980718 A Biblical Model of Giving: Giving is the Behavior.pdf