Rev. Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
August 21, 1983
Christian Tithing
Malachi 3:8-10 and Matthew 23:23-24 (NIV)
Have you ever noticed how churches are always asking for money? You turn on your television and the evangelist pleads for $25 million this week or he'll have to close down his Christian condominium vacation center in the Bahamas. When I was young I remember asking my Father why we didn't go to church. He said; "All they're really concerned about is getting more money from you."
There's no doubt that the church's need for money and our motive in giving it can become warped. Jesus knew about this. It really bothered him the way his religious enemies gave money. In Jesus' day all Jews were supposed to give ten percent of their money or crops to God. This is called the tithe. The Pharisees were so picky they even tithed mint, dill (or anise) and cummin. Why is this picky? All these plants were herbs that you grew in a small garden. You might only have five or six plants but if you were a Pharisee you took off every tenth leaf and gave it to God. The problem was they neglected more important matters in God's Word. Things like justice, mercy and faithfulness. In verse 24 Jesus gives a humorous illustration. He says they strain out gnats and swallow camels. Both gnats and camels are religiously unclean to Jews, so they can't eat them. To make sure their wine was pure; they strained it through cloth to remove the little buggies. Jesus says after they go through all that trouble they turn around and gulp down a camel. This was a great pun in the language Jesus spoke. In Aramaic a gnat is a gamla and a camel is a gamal. The Pharisees were a joke because their sense of proportion was way off.
Tithing is a gnat. It's not the most important thing to God, or even the second most important. To be faithful in religious practices, and yet omit the higher commands of God, is to be a hypocrite. You can attend church twice a week, be a diligent student of the Bible and be the biggest giver in the congregation but if your heart is full of pride, if you have no love in the way you treat other people, if you're unjust to those who work under you or dishonest to your boss, then you don't know what it is to follow Jesus.
Giving money to the church is not the most important thing to God. But notice what Jesus says at the end of verse 23: "You should have practiced the latter (justice, mercy, faithfulness) without neglecting the former (tithing)."
Jesus still believed in tithing, in regular giving to God, he just didn't want his followers to lose their perspective about it. His principle is that tithing doesn't make you right with God but once you're right with God you should tithe. I think Christians today need to think about the second part. We can get so upset about the wrong use of tithing that we neglect it all together. When this happens, Malachi 3:8 applies to us:
"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' In tithes and offerings."
Just what does the Bible teach about giving? I would like to stress five areas. The first is the amount that God expects. The Old Testament is pretty straightforward. In Leviticus 27:30 and 32 God tells Moses:
"'A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD. ... The entire tithe of the herd and flock -- every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd's rod -- will be holy to the LORD."
That means that a farmer would count each new animal with his rod, and the tenth one it touched would belong to God. God was satisfied with ten percent in the Old Testament.
The New Testament is not quite as clear cut. The upper limit is found in Mark 12:41. Turn there - it reads:
"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 fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, 'I tell you the truth, 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.'"
The upper limit on giving is all you have. This is a little steep for most people. Paul says we should give according to how God has prospered us. Maybe you can afford to give 90%. That's good. On the other hand, 2% may be your limit. That's OK, too. Just keep in mind that every example of giving in the New Testament is 10% or higher. Very few Americans can justify giving less to God.
The Bible also talks about the frequency of giving. Since Israel was an agricultural nation, they tithed once a year at the harvest time. I've known Christian farmers who do the same thing. For most of us Paul's instructions in 1 Corinthians 16:2 are more appropriate. He says:
"On the first day of every week [in other words, Sunday], each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made."
Christian churches have done this from Paul's day to our own. Don't give just when the urge hits you. It's best to give on a regular basis so that it becomes a habit. That's one reason we pass out boxes of envelopes. No law says you have to use them but they make good reminders.
We've talked about the amount and the frequency. Now we should talk about the attitude of the heart. First, give secretly. In Jesus' day rich people would blow a trumpet on a street corner and then announce how much they were giving to the poor. People still do this. Andrew Carnegie made billions of dollars in the steel industry. To be generous, he set up thousands of libraries in the U.S. One of them is in nearby Coshocton. You can tell because his name is in huge letters across the front, as it is on all his libraries. Even Christians get caught up in this. The Christian college I attended went so far as to name rest rooms after big donors. Trying to impress people by your giving can even be dangerous to your health.
In Acts 5 a couple named Ananias and Sapphira made a big deal out of donating money to the church from a field they sold. They said it was the whole amount but it wasn't. God killed them both. It wasn't because they didn't give everything -- Peter told them the money was theirs to do with as they pleased. They were struck down because they lied. They wanted to impress people.
We should also give without being under compulsion. If you feel pressured to give, keep it in your wallet. Some churches go house-to-house to round up pledges for the year but this church doesn't believe in that. We feel you should make up your own mind without any pressure. Turn to 2 Corinthians 9:7. Paul writes:
"Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
Christian giving should be something enjoyable. It should make you feel good, not bad. All of these things - giving secretly, freely and cheerfully - show the kind of attitude we should have.
What is the purpose of Christian giving? In the Old Testament the tithe supported the work of the Temple and all the priests and Levites who ran it. The tithe also was used to help poor people. Things are very similar today. This church and its ministry are all kept going by the offerings. We get no outside support. We even send some of the money away, to provide for missionaries in foreign nations and for work that is done in the U.S. Without money none of this would be here. Adoniram Judson, a Baptist missionary who was the first to evangelize Burma, never would have made it there if Luther Rice hadn't raised money throughout America. D.L. Moody was America's most famous and successful evangelist in the 1800's. He wasn't ashamed of his need for money. At the dedication of a 3,000 seat auditorium, Moody said: "When we stop trying to enlarge our work for the Lord and stop raising money for it, we shall become stale and stupid.... We must ask for money, money, more money at every meeting; not for the support of the Evangelistic Association - as it now is - but to enlarge its operations." Soon after they finished the building it burned down. Before the ashes were cool Moody had raised enough money to replace it! God's work requires money - and not just this church. There are hundreds of mission agencies, colleges and Christian hunger agencies that deserve our support. There are also the needs of people you run into every day, people who are unemployed, sick or just poor.
Finally, the Bible talks about the rewards for those who give faithfully. In 2 Corinthians 9:11 Paul says:
"You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God."
When we give, God enriches us spiritually. When we give, we cause other people to give thanks to God.
Many of these results are probably known just to God. When your quarter hits the plate you won't hear an angelic chorus. You may even feel that your offering does not good at all, or even worse, that it will end up with people who don't honor Christ. If this bothers you, just remember that Jesus approved of offerings given to the Temple in Jerusalem, even though many of the priests were corrupt and the worship was not pure. If an offering is given to God, he will see that it is used properly. We have received much. The Bible says we should give much.
Paul says that before the people in Greece gave money to him, they first gave themselves to God's service. Have you given yourself to God?
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Typed on March 28, 2007, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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