Thoughts on Tithing and Giving from a Reader

In Tithing and Comments, I made the following offer to readers:

If anyone who reads this post wants to write a piece on what they think the Bible says about giving (using scripture as proof) and email it to me, I'll review it. If it is well-done (it has to be well-written and logical, it does NOT need to agree with my point of view), I'll post it as a main post on a Sunday and let readers comment on it.

A month or so ago, I had a reader email the following:

I just wanted to give you some thoughts to consider.  When taken together, these thoughts shape my view on tithing.  Forgive the lack of exactness in quotes and citations – I don’t have a Bible in front of me, my memory of citations is weak, and I have limited time since this is being written during the day.

(1) The two most important commandments are to love God and love others.  That verse is oft quoted.  What is less quoted is Jesus’ point that the rest of the Law flows from those two commandments.  Idea #1 is that what Christians do to serve and glorify God should flow from those two commandments.

(2) Paul writes in both 1st and 2nd Corinthians that our giving should come from love and faith, and that it should be based on our means that God has blessed us with.  Again, sorry I don’t have citations.  Try chapter 15 or 16 perhaps.  The omission of a specific % or “rule” is pretty glaring.  If Christians are meant to tithe 10% no matter what, this omission would be like Paul saying that one should lovingly and faithfully forgive others to the extent that they have been blessed with the ability/means to do so without mentioning that you should ALWAYS forgive other no matter what.

(3) Combine the two ideas above to form my notion of tithing/giving.  Christians’ tithing should flow from their love of God and their faith in God, and one’s giving should be based on one’s means.  I could give you more details on my individual interpretation of this, but the details have little to do with Biblical verses and are pretty arbitrary.

(4) The most common verses cited in support of tithing, especially by the crowd that says that God will financially bless those who tithe, are found in Malachi.  Read the whole book when you get a chance, if you haven’t done so recently.  The book is addressed to disobedient Israelites, and commands Israel to obey the law so that they will be blessed.  The notion that a Christian should tithe based on these verses (and maybe be financially blessed) relies on the same logic that would imply that, again based on Malachi, Christians should sacrifice animals to God so that the proper amount of rain would fall on their property.  My take is that these old covenants were replaced by the new one.

(5) Late in the book of Matthew (maybe chapter 23 or 24) Jesus confronts some Pharisees who (loosely quoted) “give a tenth… but neglect the more important things of the law – justice mercy and forgiveness.  You should do the latter without neglecting the former.”  This is often used as a NT support for tithing a tenth.  Remember that the Pharisees being addressed were still supposed to be living under the Old Covenant, so Christ’s words to them do not necessarily apply to Christians – judgment must be used.  My take on the verse is rather opposite.  I think Christ is criticizing them for focusing in on the quantifiable and neglecting the “spirit of the law”, as was a theme of His.  I think that theme applies to Christians today who focus more on the % of giving than the spirit of giving.

I’ve got to move on to some work I must get done, so I’ll wrap up here.  The 10% number results from an Abrahamic example, and was later used to support the Levites ( 1/12th of pop in Israel).  Today’s “priesthood”, at least in my church, represents far less than 1/12th of the membership.  Whatever the practicalities that used to underlie the 10% number are substantially different now, a point that is emphasized by the gaudy extravagance of many US churches despite the oft-emphasize delinquency in tithing.  Focusing on an arbitrary % is very reminiscent of Christ’s critiques of Pharisees, including the above.

I think that if Christ had a financial message for today’s Church, it wouldn’t be about tithing.  It would be about the huge amount of Church money that is wasted on luxuries and indulgences (no religious pun intended) when there are starving people in the world who will die without hearing the good news.

There is a LOT I'd like to comment on in this post -- so much that I could probably write as much as is already been said here. But I've said most of it before, so I'll let that suffice for most of what I want to add, but I do want to list a couple thoughts:

1. I agree with much of the spirit in these thoughts. In particular, if you look at the quotes he uses in the New Testament, I think you can make a case for giving MORE than 10%. As great as the New Covenant is than the Old Covenant, our giving now should be greater than the tithe, correct? So, he's advocating giving more than 10%? Probably not, but I certainly can't use the above thoughts as rationale for giving less than 10%.

2. I don't think Christ would give a message on tithing either. I think he'd give a message on how his people need to give as they have been given to -- abundantly, over-flowing, and generously. If we did that, we could take care of all the starving people, share the good news with them, and have plenty left over.

Comments

[Brad Young]

I thought the same thing about tithing and tried to reason it out but through prayer & time with God I realized that the gospel takes money to be preached through out the world and if you give into God's kingdom and help with his cause he will bless your finances. I went from $500/mo. to over $7000/mo. within a year living in Bokchito, OK instead of Dallas, Texas where I lived before. It doesn't matter where you at located because if God is in it. It will grow but you must first give into his kingdom!

[annonymous]

What does God need with your or my 10%? Th gift from God to us is out of love and often taken for granted. Therefore, what is given monetarily SHOULD be given in response to the love from God.No response required.

[annonymous]

What does God need with your or my 10%? The gift from God to us is out of love and often taken for granted. Therefore, what is given monetarily SHOULD be given in response to the love from God.No response required.

[rocketc]

Brad, I am happy for your blessing, but the fact is, not everyone is blessed in that way. The promise of financial blessing in exchange for tithes and offerings is not in effect for today. The Apostle Paul has a great deal to say about stewardship and offerings, but never makes such a promise.
Anonymous, I strongly agree with your sentiments, but why are you "anonymous" and why did you spell it wrong?

[William Tanksley]

"The promise of financial blessing in exchange for tithes and offerings is not in effect for today."

Let's clarify that. The promise is not in itself limited; what's limited is the covenant in which the promise was given. The covenant was with the people of a nation. The blessings for keeping the covenant included prosperity for the nation (NOT always for every individual). The promises in Malachi are to an entire nation, not to a random group of individuals.

The same promises are NOT available to any random individual. God does not promise anywhere that if I give 10%, He'll make me wealthy. Nor does He promise that if I give sacrificially, I'll become wealthy.

This is not an argument against tithing. It's an argument against applying Bible verses out of context.

What about tithing?

It's important to recognize, first, that the only verses that explicitly regulate tithing are essentially a tax law for ancient Israel. They're absolutely certainly not applicable today; in fact, they stopped being directly applicable when Israel got their first king (who raised the tax rate). (This is not the only section of the Law that changed in Biblical times; consider the Levitical law that any animal to be slaughtered had to be brought into the tabernacle first; needless to say, this Law was altered later in the same book in order to allow the Hebrews to disperse through the Promised Land.)

It's also important to recognize that the tithe is more than biblical -- like marriage, it's pre-biblical. Abraham wasn't following any Bible verse when he gave a tithe to Melchizadek; but God honored him for it. Unlike marriage in general, of course, the tithe in specific isn't obviously required in order to support society; giving in general obviously is.

I think a good conclusion is that giving is one of the many ministries of a Christian. We should all joyfully do it; some of us will be better at it than others, and some of us will have a vibrant ministry of giving. None of us may ever dodge the responsibility; those who are better at it are not thereby better Christians than those who are not good (but those who are NOT giving are directly disobedient).

But giving won't make the giver rich. It won't fulfill the old covenant (and definitely not the new one). And very importantly, there is no prescribed amount or percentage.

[Dave]

My issue is not with giving, it's with all of these churches and non-profits and fund raisers and telethons, why is the government still taking our money and trying to fix social ills?

[Kyle M]

A mistake we often make in the Church is separating financial giving from all other acts and thoughts. Because we are dealing with numbers, in this case dollars, and the Biblical precedent of 10%, we do our math and make that the bar for being righteous or unrighteous in this particular area of discipleship.

Christ points out that the Pharisees met the letter of the law, but we must go beyond the righteousness of the Pharisees (Mt. 5:20) which is the heart and intent of the action. Just giving 10% of your money is not necessarily obedience or pleasing to God.

But the need to have a heart of giving does not mean an escape from giving and giving substantially. Jesus praised the widow who gave all she had (Mt. 12:41-44). The Early Church sold possessions so that no one was in need (Acts. 2:45). I would say while 10% should not be made into a bar to beat you down and feel unworthy, it is really a pretty reasonable amount for someone who professes to trust God with your whole life now and hereafter.

My belief is the Church should be calling us from the ways of the world, such as unnecessary luxuries and selfishness with money, to the ways of the Kingdom which are generousity to those in need and trust in Heaven and its rewards. The giving will take care of itself if we keep the God and his message of love and faith in front of us.

[William Tanksley]

Good post, Kyle M. One comment: after "the early church" (actually the Church in Jerusalem) sold possessions so that nobody was in need, the rest of the Church (in other cities and provinces) had to send money to them because they were all in need. Acts isn't clear on whether the Church in Jerusalem was doing a good thing or a bad thing by selling much of what they had; my suspicion is that their decision led to poverty and dependence. BUT, I may be wrong; they may have needed more because they were under persecution, with more persecution prophesied to come soon.

[LM]

Most of the money people give to these churches is used to build more buildings and to maintain them. I don't recall the Lord ever stating that the kingdom of heaven is real estate, but these churches operate as though that were the case.

I live in a city with one huge church after another. Most of these huge "education" buildings sit unused for the better part of six days a week and yet these building committees still insist on building more. They need to realize that just as an individual can build a house too big to afford to live in, a church can build more than it can afford to maintain. It may not happen in a year or in ten years, but it can happen.

A church cannot assume the congregation will always increase in size. I've seen a church that had 1,200 members 15 years ago shrink to less that 400 now, but it still has the huge buildings erected in its glory days to maintain. Where do you think all the "charitable" giving goes? To building maintenance, not to charity.

[Kyle M]

I think it is clear from the text that the giving to those in need was a good thing. I don't think their giving should be taken as a crutch to those in need. In Acts 11, the prophet Agabus indicated a famine would come across that land, and it was at that time that other churches gave back.

[plonkee]

Just wanting to add my 2p.

I agree with FMFs point on what he thinks Jesus' attitude to giving is/would be/was (never sure of the best tense to use). The most important thing to give generously - as we all know we should.

[garyatk]

Why do we always look at giving as money. I believe that God wants our everything, and not just on our chosen sabbath. So is a tithe a law that should be followed today? With all that Christ did for us (and is still doing), I hardly believe that we should be debating this issue.

Are you third? God first, others second, you third. If you are third, I believe that God thinks of you as a winner, whether or not you give a tithe. But then again, if you were third, you most likely be giving far more. I'd like to challenge everyone to try to be third and forget about debating whether the laws of the Bible are relevant today.

[Jake]

Great comment by garyatk.

As the writer of the original post, I'm a huge fan of the "I'm third" way of life. My point is that it truely is about your way of life and not about the numbers. I am against the Creflo Dollar -style megachurch tithe (tithing to get more money and support a church of luxury).

My post is not meant to imply that <10% is appropriate for most people. It is meant to make a few points:
(1) Giving is not defined by a number, and the mentality that defines it by a number is not only missing the point, it is also counterproductive towards exhibiting a Christian lifestyle (leads towards judging others and a works-based mentality IMO).
(2) Focus on how your money can have the greatest impact on others, in the service of God. Don't automatically plow it back into your local church to buy extravagances for you and your friends to enjoy. Consider where it will do the most good -- IMO, that is in evangelism and in alleviating extreme, extreme poverty in distant corners of the globe.

Thanks for your comments everyone, I have alot to learn from each of you.

[Cathy]

This post reminded me of how hypocritical I thought it was of the Catholic Church's Los Angeles diocese to build an extravagant church - actually, it's a cathedral - downtown (http://www.olacathedral.org/). I found it particularly disturbing b/c the area it was built in is filled with people who could have used the money (it's just a few blocks from skid row). The money used to built the cathedral could instead have done so much good if it had been directed elsewhere.

[Archer]

A couple of thoughts:

1. Tithing is not a salvation issue -- (you can't give your way into the Kingdom)

2. We don't own anything -- it's all God's. (we are just stewards)

3. You can't out-give God. (the more you give - the more he blesses you)

My family tithes 10% of our gain (following the Biblical example), as well as some occasional offerings, donations to charaties, etc.

As to much of the arguements on the board (and elsewhere) saying that tithing does not apply to Christians, remember this:

Mankind has the uncanny ability to rationalize anything.

Archer

[tokyowars]

My bible knowledge is slightly shaky despite being a strong Christian (to my shame), but didn't Jesus also state in Mathew give to Ceasar what is Ceasar's and give to God what is God's? The implication of course being that everything is given to us by God...

That still stands. As Christians we should take the attitude that everything belongs to God. Giving 10% is the least we should do in response to the ultimate sacrifice He made for us.