Spiritual Abuse

And He (Jesus) look up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So He said, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had." Luke 21:1-4

The phrase, widow's mite, is often used in reference to sacrificial giving. Though it is traditional for Bible teachers to use this passage for that purpose, John MacArthur challenges us to look at these verses in the context of the passage to understand what is truly being taught by Jesus. It's the Wednesday of Passion Week, the false religious leaders have attempted to trap Jesus with their questions, and He denounced them publicly. Beginning in verse five of that chapter, Jesus spoke of the judgment and destruction that will fall on Jerusalem and the temple. So how does this vignette about the widow fit between a diatribe toward the false religious leaders and the pronouncement of judgment?

These verses are not a glimpse of true worship as many would suggest, nor is it a lesson on giving. Common suggested lessons include self-denial, the cost to the individual giver, the attitude of the giver, even the call to take a vow of poverty. But none of these explanations make sense; they are all imposed on the text. Jesus never made any of these points about the rich or the widow. We are not told with what attitude the widow gave her last two coins. She is not commended, and the rich are not condemned. No conclusions are drawn, because none of that matters.

These verses are all about a corrupt religious system that is about to be destroyed and the observation that the widow's gift to that religious system cost her more than anyone else. She was manipulated into giving her last two coins, believing she would gain her salvation or a blessing. The Scribes and the Pharisees were lovers of money, and were positioned to extort money from the poor. In verse Luke 19:45-46, Jesus charged them with turning the temple into a "den of thieves." Whereas money is always at the heart of false religions, Scripture is full of commands for us to care for the poor and the widows. We are not to manipulate or abuse them.

A similar situation occurred prior to the Reformation when the Church of Rome sold indulgences to raise money to build St. Peter's Cathedral. And today, the health, wealth, and prosperity preachers solicit money by calling it "seed faith"...promising an abundance or specific blessing in return for the gift. Sadly, the largest percentage of contributors to the false prosperity gospel ministries is single women. So while these women (and others) may be giving out of their poverty or limited means, the false teachers are living in luxurious homes, traveling the world in private jets, and staying in $10,000 per night hotels. Woe to them.

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from this world. James 1:27