As Christians we’re called upon in scripture to be generous both to our churches and to those in need. That giving is often codified into the tithe, generally interpreted to mean 10% of your income. There are many open questions in regard to tithing, including should you tithe based on gross or net income or whether or not the contribution should extend to include an equal portion of unearned income, such as capital gains.
We can spend as much time as we like debating the finer points of tithing, but perhaps the bigger question is the tithe itself—are we truly required to tithe and what troubles might be involved if that’s how we believe we need to handle our giving? Troubles? What kind of troubles?
Misinterpretations, first and foremost. That we’re to be generous in our giving is beyond question—the issue is whether or not that giving takes the form of a legal requirement with very specific guidelines, as the tithe is thought to represent. From that we can and often do open the door to even greater misinterpretations that take us still farther from God’s intended purpose for our giving.
What are some of the tithing misinterpretations and what troubles may they bring?
Tithing is NOT a requirement for salvation
Notice that the issue of tithing doesn’t appear in the Ten Commandments, nor does Jesus make mention of it in the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, in the New Testament, where lessons on money and giving abound, there is no command to tithe. Where “tithe” appears, it’s usually incidental to another teaching. For example, in Luke 18:10-14, Jesus seems to be taking us in quite a different direction:
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Clearly Jesus is telling us here that tithing—among other ritual acts—is not the key to salvation. The implication in the parable is that the tax collector didn’t tithe—he didn’t do anything except throw himself on God’s mercy—and yet he went home justified before God.
We should never measure our standing before God by our giving
In prosperous cultures, there’s often a tendency to belief that money is the highest good, that we can gain access to what ever we need simply by writing a check for the “proper” amount. To a large degree that may be how things work in the world, but clearly the Kingdom of God works on different rules. From an eternal perspective it could be dangerous to assume that we’re walking with God mainly on the strength of a faithfully given tithe.
In Matthew 9:13, Jesus tells the Pharisees:
“But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Tithing is a form of sacrifice (giving something we value to God), but Jesus is making it clear that at a minimum, mercy is more important. This doesn’t mean that giving has no place in the life of the believer—it is stressed elsewhere—but it does mean that we have to be careful not to elevate it just because it holds a special place in the human realm.
10% may not be the right amount for everyone to give
It’s generally believed that tithing is the giving of 10% of ones income to the Church and to other Kingdom activities. But is this percentage set in Eternal concrete? For many poor and even working class people, giving 10% of their income may be an unsustainable burden. Conversely, for many of the wealthy, giving 10% would hardly qualify as sacrificial.
We have an example of this in Mark 12:41-44:
“Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.’ ”
There’s an imbalance here that Jesus highlights as a message to his disciples and to us.
The corollary: Tithing is not some sort of “God Tax”
If we come to believe that the giving of a tithe—of 10% of our income—is a Christian obligation, then we have effectively created a tax. Now in the Old Testament, that’s exactly what the tithe was, a tax to support the clergy and even other societal functions. However that was a time when mankind was under law, not grace, and acts of obedience and obligation were part of what defined the people of God. Is that still true post-Calvary?
The problem with elevating the tithe to a tax is that no one likes to pay taxes! If we see the tithe as a requirement, then we’re unlikely to be “cheerful givers” (2 Corinthians 9:7). Is this how the God who looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7) wants us to give?
We will not become prosperous because we tithe
There too many hints that prosperity can be had as a result of tithing. The danger here is that we might be tempted to tithe primarily for the purpose of personal gain—and we know that can’t be right. The scriptural basis for the prosperity interpretation comes from Malachi 3:10:
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”
Now if we take that verse as a standalone declaration from God, the connection between tithing and prosperity is possible, but that’s not exactly what’s happening—in fact that isn’t remotely what’s happening.
There are two obvious facts missing from the popular interpretation of Malachi 3:10. The first is that the verse itself is part of a chapter that deals not with the individual, but with the entire nation of Israel. As we know from the Old Testament, God is constantly trying to draw a renegade Israel back to Himself. He points out their sins and shortcomings (in this case a lack of generosity) and offers promises if they’ll repent and come back to Him. I believe that is the central teaching of Malachi 3, not any sort of promises or guarantees of personal prosperity if only we tithe according to Old Testament law.
The other point of contention is the promise, and what is it that God promises? Blessing. There’s no mention of riches! Blessings can be all kinds of things, including health, long life, large families and even favorable weather! In fact, in the very next verse, God defines some of those blessings as keeping away pests and “vines that will not drop their fruit until it’s ripe.” Now we can interpret that to mean prosperity in an agricultural society and perhaps it is, but nowhere are riches of any sort even implied.
We should never judge others by how much they give
If we consider tithing to be a command from on high, we can easily find ourselves sitting in the judgment seat, feeling superior to others who are less generous than we are. Conversely, if we aren’t able to give as much as others, we might be judged by them or even feel inferior to them.
In a twisted way, this is a process of elevating money to a higher position than it deserves—which itself is a form of idolatry. We have a command—many of them throughout scripture—to give and be generous, but when we assign a percentage benchmark we’re also creating a fixed standard by which to judge ourselves and others.
Giving can also be in the form of time and effort
Giving can be done in ways that don’t involve the transfer of money. In fact in biblical times people often had no money at all! We can give of our time and talents, and that can be even more sacrificial than writing a monthly check to the church. In Matthew 9:37 Jesus tells his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” Jesus wasn’t calling for money—he was calling for workers!
That’s time and talent, and anyone can give those. There is no hierarchy establishing money as the preferred way to give, and by giving directly of our time and talent we can come that much closer to fulfilling a true command that is beyond interpretation:
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”—Matthew 28:19-20, “The Great Commission”
What do you think about tithing 10% of your income? Was it an Old Testament law that no longer applies? Does it still apply today? What are your thoughts—I could be all wrong about this!
I have always had a major problem with tithing. I think it wrong to make people feel like they have to pay to worship god properly. There are so many people who have nothing that this pressure just makes things worse for them. I think they should remove it from churches all together.
Yah, tithing is convoluted these days it’s sickening! At the end of the day, you should give according to how God is leading you. This looks different for everyone. Giving sacrificially should be our guiding principle and trusting that God will provide for our needs. The way I look at it, I’m on this Earth for a short time so the more I give the faster the gospel spreads around the globe.
I wouldn’t go so far as saying that tithing should be removed from the churches, but perhaps we need to get away from the idea of 10%. That’s a very specific requirement that creates a complulsion, rather than a sense of joy in giving. It’s fine to be a regular giver and even a percentage giver, if that’s what you feel led to do, but it shouldn’t be stated or even implied that it’s some sort of guideline for eveyone to follow.
For some tithing is a way of overcoming an infatuation with money. If we give up a certain percentage of it each week or month it can help us to release the infatuation and learn to let go and trust. But this is certainly not for everyone. I think what we really DO need to get away from is the notion that the 10% tithe is akin to the 11th Commandment. It should be pretty obvious that if that were the case, God wouldn’t have stopped at ten.
I completely agree with you, Kevin. Too many people today like to turn Christianity into a 10-step process to reach salvation i.e., if you give this much money, pray this many times, do this many good deeds, you’ll be saved. The truth is there is no magic number amount for tithing; people need to determine it on their own through prayer and not have it dictated to them. Tithing should be done with gratitude and joy, not with the same attitude one fills out their IRS income tax form every April.
The Bible makes it clear again and again that God isn’t interested in sacrifices or offerings as much as he is concerned for where our hearts are. When rich people give away a lot of money in order to not feel guilty about their obsession with it, they may be committing a good deed, but their hearts are not in the right places. Annanias and Sapphira are a good example. They gave money to the church, but tried to deceive them in the process. Or the rich young man in the Gospel of Matthew; the whole point of the story wasn’t that he was rich, but that he was unwilling to give his wealth up in order to follow Jesus, demonstrating where his highest value lay.
God also condemns Israel in the Book of Amos for its rampant injustice yet claiming righteousness because they performed all of the proper sacrifices and offerings (5:21-25).
Well put TJ! I also think that there are times in life when we can be more generous than others, and other times when we just don’t have the money to do so. And I think that’s OK! We can’t judge others by their giving any more than others should judge us. It also opens up other questions, such is it OK to tithe when you’re deep in debt? Isn’t that giving with someone else’s money, technically speaking?
There’s too much about tithing that looks more like compulsion than true, heartfelt generosity. Better to give less than 10% and do it joyfully, than to give 10% under a sense of obligation.
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Malachi ch 2 and three is written to the priests NOT the people…ministers dont tell their congregants this. and many are put off of christianity cos they cant keep up the tithes. We are living under grace and not under law. The new testament started with the book of Acts after Jesus had risen and went to heaven. So i totally agree with your reasoning. Thank you for your revelations of the tithing story.
Give the amount you purpose in your heart to give. God loves a cheerful giver. Also, I heard an interesting viewpoint from Dr. Gary North, who said the tithe is definitely after taxes. Reason being, you don’t have a choice how government spends your tax revenue. It may even be for programs that violate your principles. He likens that portion of your income to the crops that were devoured by locusts.
Incredible analogy and right on the mark. The after tax/before tax debate is complicated by non-payroll taxes too. Real estate taxes are a huge burden in some places, like California and the Northeast where tax bills exceeding $10,000/yr are hardly uncommon. How should we work around that? The answer is that we can’t! Or how about a household that’s paying 20-30% of their income in health insurance premiums? (Think of the person who makes $50,000 and has a private health plan costing over $1000/mo.)
I’m not making a case that we shouldn’t be generous because we have high expenses, but rather that everyone’s financial burdens are different. How can we say that 10% should apply accross the board?
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Kevin–You’ve handled the subject of tithing as well as I’ve seen. Thank you for the message and encouragement. This is particularly delicate and sensitive for many Christians during these economic times. However, it is in these hard times that we are offered the opportunity to depend less on ourselves (and our abundance, self-justifications, etc.) and to rely entirely upon God’s Grace.
Thanks Will, it is indeed a delicate subject! One of the giving issues we can miss during hard times is giving of our time and talents, which is to say that we can give even if we don’t have money to give. There’s also a tendency to fall back on the “I gave at the office” mentality when it comes to giving money, but we can give time and talent anytime. It’s a hurting world and any way we can give is a form of generosity that I’m sure God honors.
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My pastor did a 5 part series on money called God’s. He asked the whole congregation to put a post it on their wallets with God’s written on it for the duration of the series. It held us accountable for where all our money went. The truth of the matter is that all your money belongs to God. All good things come from the Father. Where you spend your money is where your heart is. The drunk spends it on booze, the drug addict spends it on drugs, the compulsive shopper spends it on material things and etc. Tithing shows discipline because at times you will have to do with out to provide for the church and others. It also shows that you trust God to provide. The fall in the garden was the simple fact that Adam and Eve did not trust God and tried to get what they wanted on their own terms. Tithing is the the only part of what God gives you that you can give back to him without the world getting its hands on it. I advise us all to ask God to show us what tithing really means to him. God bless!
Hi Brett–I agree, giving gets to the heart of where our hearts are (“Where lies your treasure, there too lies your heart”). There’s no issue with giving, it’s required. Giving is also about letting go, which is even more important in a culture where money has become the measure of all things. We have to let go of it, and be prepared to trust. God is our ultimate provider, not money. Having all the money in the world won’t save us on our death beds. We have only to look at the recent passing of the legendary Steve Jobs to see how that plays out.
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Thanks for the article on tithing. I am one who disagrees with your train of thought on this subject. You see, I belong to a church that encourages tithing and most of us do it readily, with understanding. What I mean “with understanding” is that our tithe supports pastors and their families who serve in underdeveloped countries where their congregations don’t have enough money to give to them for their support.
Not only that but we also understand that tithing does not save us or give us riches untold but does engender
greater trust because God did make a promise of taking care of us. Our trust is being built as we ask God
for our needs and watch him work in our behalf.
God is not a trickster and most of believe and operate in the idea that He will honor what He says. I can
attest that as I give according to my understanding that He gives back to me in so many ways. Bus passes,
favor with a bill, understanding among friends, peace in the midst of a storm, and so many other things.
No, I am not paying God to be God in my life but I am reaping so many benefits because I believe I am
following the instructions I have been given and am loving it. Please note also, that I have not always been
“able” as some would say, to give the 10% but gave it anyway. Then found out that the things I needed
were given to me in the place of the 10% I gave. From that I garnered an understanding that it remains a
matter of trust, trust that God will provide for all of my needs.
For that I am truly grateful.
Thank you for the opportunity to share. God bless!!