By Brad Locke
May 21, 2004

(AgapePress) - If you've watched even one NFL game on television, you've no doubt noticed the abundance of United Way commercials. Surrounded by little kids is a hulking player, reading to them or helping them on a project or just talking to them.

The NFL and United Way have a close and long-running relationship. It's the most prominent example in sports of athletes giving back time and money to the less fortunate.

It raises an uncomfortable and delicate question, though: Is their heart in it? I don't doubt that for many of them, it is. Those who give quietly and for unselfish motives are to be applauded and emulated by the rest of us. However, there is a dangerous, often subtle paradigm established by those who can write the check but can't cash it.

Let me explain.

Super-rich athletes tend to have slippery fingers when clutching a wad of cash, splurging on mansions, boats, cars, women, exotic vacations ... and charities. It can seem as if it's just another bill they're paying, something they do to fulfill a societal expectation or soothe a guilty conscience. Then they go out and get arrested or make fools of themselves on the field.

They can write the check, but they can't cash it. In other words, they can't live up to the supposedly selfless example they've set with their wallets. What good are you doing if you're reading Dr. Seuss to kindergarteners in the morning and fighting at the strip club that night? Mixed messages like that will be taken one of two ways by kids (or adults) -- it's OK to go to strip joints as long as you atone for it by helping someone; or, trust is lost and disillusionment sets in.

Fact is, giving back to the community doesn't make you a good person. It might make you a nice person, but public displays of charity are, under normal circumstances, sometimes nothing more than acts of self-indulgence. The Bible warns sternly against such behavior.

"Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others," Jesus said in Matthew 6:2. "Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward."

Giving charitably, as I just mentioned, can be done out of a sense of obligation or to be a salve for an unrepentant heart. I'm afraid some athletes are trying to buy their way into heaven, or at least post bail from the public condemnation that comes when they get in trouble. There can be other reasons: Pride -- look at the amount of that check! -- or investment -- giving time and dough in order, as Jesus said, to receive glory for themselves.

I knew a man who owned a large candy company, then sold it. He was extremely wealthy. And he turned the normal concept of tithing 10 percent on its head -- he gave away 90 percent of his income. He drove a Taurus.

We are instructed in Proverbs 3:9-10 to "Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine." Wait, that sounds like it's OK to expect healthy returns on your giving. Not quite. "Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver" (II Corinthians 9:7).

As the late Larry Burkett was fond of reminding us, Jesus addresses the subject of money more than any other topic. The attitude with which we handle our money says as much about our spiritual state as anything. Like the mouth, the wallet is a portal to a man's soul.

But as I said, it's not merely about giving. Any rich guy can give away loads of cash. But what real sacrifice is that? In Luke 21, Jesus observed the rich dumping large portions of their wealth into the offering plate. Following them was a poor widow, who had but two copper coins to her name. Both went in the plate. "Truly, I tell you this," Jesus told his audience, "this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on" (v. 4-5).

I could quote these kind of verses all day. The point is not necessarily that it's fruitless for the wealthy to be charitable -- "Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required" (Luke 12:48) -- but that there is an immeasurable amount of faithfulness that must undergird our giving spirit.

So what of those who are receiving? If one gives for wrong reasons, it's as sinful as if they gave nothing at all. Yet people still benefit greatly from their generosity. Therefore, how can any giving be bad?

I remind you of the story of Joseph, who told his brothers years after they sold him into slavery: "...you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good ..." (Genesis 50:20). God can use any person, the faithful or faithless, to accomplish His purposes, and so we must be concerned with one thing: honoring God with our giving, not honoring ourselves.