Generosity and money used well

And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.

A harvest law. The corners of a field are left uncut and fallen grain and grapes are not gathered up. The cost falls on the landowner, and the poor and the resident foreigner collect it themselves. It is a share left standing to be worked for, not a handout.

And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not: And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.

Gleaning as it actually worked, in one field. Ruth is a foreign widow with the legal right to follow the reapers. Boaz tells his men to let her glean among the standing sheaves and to pull grain out of the bundles and leave it for her, without telling her he has done it.

At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD’s release.

The law of the seventh-year release, stated in two sentences: every creditor lets go what he has lent to a fellow Israelite. It is a cancellation rather than a postponement, and it falls on a fixed calendar rather than at the lender's discretion.

If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother: But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the LORD against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

The same law with its obvious loophole named. A lender close to the seventh year has every incentive to refuse, and the text calls that thought wicked before anyone acts on it. It also says plainly that the poor will never cease out of the land.

And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

Jesus sits opposite the temple treasury and watches what people put in. Two small copper coins from a widow are called more than the large sums, measured by what was left over afterwards rather than by the amount. The verses just before describe scribes devouring widows' houses.

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

A parable about a man whose land yields more than his barns will hold. His plan, bigger barns and then years of ease, is cut off by his own death, and the question asked is who gets the goods. What the story names as the failure is storing it up for himself alone.

Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem.

The administrative detail of a relief fund for poor believers in Jerusalem. Money is put aside weekly, in proportion to income, so that nothing has to be raised in a rush when Paul arrives, and the congregation itself approves the men who will carry it.

Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves; Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. 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.

Paul describes the Macedonian churches' part in the same collection. They were in serious trouble and deep poverty, gave beyond what they could afford, and had to press him to accept it. He reports it to a congregation that had pledged money a year earlier and not sent it.

But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

A warning in a letter to a young church leader. The King James wording is the root of all evil; the Greek behind it says a root of every kind of evil. Either way the subject is the wanting rather than the money, and the harm described is self-inflicted.