Luke 21:1-4

He looked up, and saw the rich people who were putting their gifts into the treasury. He saw a certain poor widow casting in two small brass coins. He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow put in more than all of them, for all these put in gifts for God from their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on.”

This passage reminds us of what Jesus said to His disciples back in chapter 12:

Luke 12:48b

To whomever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him more will be asked.

God expects more from those who were given more. In the same way, He doesn’t judge a gift by its size but by the percentage of the amount that you need to live on.

An important thing for us to remember is that God doesn’t need our money (no matter how many T.V. preachers seem to make it sound that way). God made the world and all of the wealth in it. I spend hours making programs for computers that look ridiculous compared to a single bacteria that God made. God is very capable and very wealthy! He gives us the opportunity to give and since He doesn’t need our money, the size of the offering is judged by the percentage of the amount a person needs to live on.

God doesn’t expect us to give all we have to live on, as we have discussed before. That was not the point of what Jesus said. He was simply exposing the “big givers” that happened to be there in the temple that day. I don’t believe anyone would have noticed the truth about this very poor widow unless He had pointed it out. Although God isn’t requiring us to give all we have to live on to our church, He does expect us to give up our entire lives as Christians to be His disciples and be willing to do whatever He has planned for us.