Tithe (Photo credit: More Good Foundation)
A question that every Christian needs to ask themselves is: how much money should I give to the church? The Bible says a lot about it, but Christian leaders around the world seem to disagree on what The Answer is.
When I received my first pocket money (50p) I remember my Dad showing me how to budget, by splitting a little drawer into three: 10p goes into the ‘Giving’ bit, 10p goes into the ‘Saving’ bit, and the remaining 30p goes into the ‘Spending’ bit. Good lesson, clearly taught well seeing as I can still remember it.
When I first became a Christian, I was taught this principle using that key word: tithing. Whatever my income is, whether that’s my salary, student loan, or a Birthday present, I should give 10% of the gross amount to the church.
But then I came up against teaching that was specifically against tithing! Some said that under the New Covenant we’re under grace so shouldn’t ‘tithe’ but should give whatever’s on our heart to give. I even recently discovered someone saying that people who tithe can’t be saved! I certainly disagree with him on that. Edit: he’s corrected any misunderstanding here.
The thing is that ‘being under grace’ seems to mean, in practice, ‘give less to the church’. And that just seems wrong. When Jesus says ‘the law said don’t commit adultery, but now you’re under grace,’ he doesn’t conclude that we should all go and be more relaxed about committing adultery, he raises the bar infinitely higher: ‘if anyone looks at a woman with lustful intent he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.’
So is tithing a good or a bad idea? Well, it’s certainly an Old Covenant idea, and we’re under the New Covenant, so we’re not obliged to tithe. But more is required of us. CONCLUSION: 10% of our gross income is the bare minimum we should be giving to the church.
I think you should probably look more into pre- vs. post- tax, in light of gift aid, as I’m not sure it’s right to say that 10% gross is the outright minimum without such a discussion.
Ok
I pay taxes and get services in return, just like the rest of my spending. What do you suggest?
If gift aid is claimed on a donation, that donation is effectively made pre-tax, despite it’s value from the giver being post tax – in the example of a £1250 income from the giver, a 10% tithe should be £125. On a 20% tax rate, the net income (ignoring national insurance etc) to the giver is £1000. A 10% tithe taken here would be £100. However, it also gets £25 gift aid added, leaving the church with £125.
So where I’m coming from is that in both cases, the giver has made sure the church has £125. The difference is that the government ends up with less money in the second case. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t give a gross figure, but I also think that the effect gift aid has on this should be explored further before blindly saying the figure should be gross.
But thinking about it, if you’re saying that you pay taxes in return for a service, then surely a church/individual shouldn’t be claiming gift aid at all in the case of a gross donation?
Well, I reckon that if the Government wants to give tax money to a charity of my choice in addition to my offering, I should fully support that
I also think that I’d rather be accused of attempting to give too much to God than too little – if 10% is the ‘floor’ rather than the ‘ceiling’ and 10% of my gross not counting gift aid means I’m actually giving 12.5%, then that’s all for the better. In my personal experience I’ve found it far easier to come up with ways to justify giving too little rather than too much!
I am the “culprit” referenced to in the post. I did not say that anyone who tithe could not be saved. What I have instead said was that if you attempt to observe even a single part of the law you have fallen from grace. That isn’t my words but the words of Paul in Gal 5. Giving 10% of your income to the church is not the equivalent of tithing as defined under the law. The intent of my post however is not to discourage anyone from giving their 10% but rather to encourage them to detach themselves from the law in their giving. The truth is that a lot of people who tithe do so out of guilt and fear as a result of Mal 3 and that is clearly wrong. Perhaps when you say you “disagree” with me that it is your view that we should still follow the law? If we should tithe today should we also offer burnt offerings, heave offerings, waive offerings, wood offerings, etc? The same book of Leviticus which required tithing also required an eye for an eye under the law. Should we observe these things today? If not, why not? Why should we tithe based on the law but not observe the rest of the law by letter?
Hi Henry
I disagree with you but only in your reading of Galatians; Paul doesn’t say that people who observe the law have fallen from grace, but ‘you who would be justified by the law.’ If someone is saying that you need to tithe to be saved then, yes, they are preaching a different gospel.
I am not.
Tithing doesn’t justify anyone; faith in Christ does. But the question is then: should I give? How much should I give? And the answer to that seems to be that the New Testament expectation of believers is that they would (1) continue to obey the principles of the law; I’m sure you’d agree that adultery is still a sin, and (2) go further still! Hence pretty much the whole of Matthew 5.
Hope that clears things up!
Sam
Hi Sam,
On the contrary I don’t think I have read Gal 5 wrong. The context of my post is clearly to do with being “justified” by the works of the law. You wouldn’t “observe” a law unless you felt you were justified either in the eyes of God or in the eyes of the state for doing so. Now deriving a “principle” from the law is entirely a different matter all together since this is not an observance of the law in itself. Now I hope I have cleared up any misunderstandings.
Hi Henry
I think we may be talking at cross-purposes
but as a matter of interest, how much would you recommend that a Christian give?
Sam
I wouldn’t go as far as declaring that 10% is the bare minimum we should be giving to church. Nowhere in scripture do we find such a command. But if you are saying that you have decided that it should be the bare minimum you should give, then that becomes a completely different thing.
Scripture is clear on how we should give; anything we give is acceptable as far as it has been given willingly and cheerfully. Nowhere do we see an absolute minimum commanded.
God bless.
Well, here’s my logic. The Old Testament clearly states that god already owns the first 10% of whatever we earn, so as an acknowledgment of that the Jews always offered their ‘firstfruits’ back to him. Freewill offerings were then added on top of this. So that’s the baseline.
Allow me to compare it to the command ‘do not murder’. Jesus takes that command and says: you’re under grace now, you’re free to do whatever you want – so, do not murder, but also don’t insult anyone or even get angry at them, in fact being reconciled to your brother is more urgent than making an offering at the altar (see Matthew 5).
It therefore seems odd that we would therefore, with tithing, say ‘we’re under grace now, so can give as little as we want and that’s fine’; judging by the way Jesus approached every other law it would seem that being under grace should give us the freedom to at the very least do the same as the bare minimum that the Jews were given in the Old Testament!
The apostle Paul goes into this as well; ‘everything is permissible’ but does that mean I can now commit adultery? No! Should we sin so that grace may abound all the more? Certainly not! ‘You were called to freedom brothers’ but does that mean I should be giving less than encouraged in the Old Testament? No! ‘Do not let your freedom be an opportunity for the flesh’.
So, how much would you recommend someone who earns £10,000 to give?
To be honest most of what is believed about the Old Testament tithe cannot be found in the bible. And I can see you have made the general misconception of equating the firstfruits to the tithes; they are 2 completely different things.
Contrary to what is being taught, the Old Testament tithe was not 10% but the TENTH part of agricultural produce and livestock alone. This was because it was the TENTH that was holy and not the first ten or 10%. In order to determine their tithes, the children of Israel grouped their crops into ten equal parts and separated the tenth one as their tithe. The tithe of animals was a lot easier to determine as every tenth animal was separated as the tithe. If there was no tenth animal there was no tithe.
Another misconception is that money was not available at the time hence a tithe of agricultural produce was used in lieu, that is false. Money was available even before this time. Joseph’s brothers came with money to Egypt to buy food, one was allowed to buy back one’s tithe with money and one was also allowed to change one’s tithe into money if the place God had ordered the tithe to be eaten is too far for the individual.
With this in mind, we see that your logic may not be accurate; 10% was not the Old Testament baseline. But more importantly, there was no separation between church and state in Old Testament Israel, the tithe was their tax quite akin to the taxes we pay to our respective government today.
Jesus’ words in Mathew 5 were directed at the Jews and not the gentiles. He was trying to explain the spirit of the law to them. Before he spoke about not being angry with your brother, he started out by quoting the portion of the law that said they should not murder. On the other hand the gentiles were not given the law so this saying would have been irrelevant to them. And this was why the law had to be done away with because it alienated the gentiles. With the law gone, we all have been reborn by the Holy Spirit and now carry God’s nature. We do not need to be told not to be angry with our brother because it is no longer in our nature to do so, we do not steal because it is no longer in our nature etc. That is why those who are led by the spirit are God’s sons. Mandating a bare minimum is no longer grace.
You are definitely going off tangent now as the context of Paul’s saying about all things being lawful had nothing to do with tithing or giving. And if what you are proposing is correct why did Paul not say that to the Corinthian church? Would that not have been easier to say than say anything given would be accepted as long as it has been given willingly and cheerfully?
You sound like many Christian who believe grace is not enough and try to stealthily reintroduce the law. God definitely knew what He was doing when He introduced grace.
With regards to the person who earns £10,000, it will be grossly inappropriate to recommend the amount such a person should give. That is entirely up to the individual and God.
I appreciate what you’re saying, but it sounds to me like I’d end up giving less cash if I followed your guidance rather than mine, and that just doesn’t seem right to me! Jesus’ specific encouragement seemed to be that we should be like the poor woman who gave everything that she owned.
Your comment about the ‘tenth’ is a little weird – Jacob’s vow in Genesis 28 is ‘I will give a full tenth to you’…to me, ‘a full tenth’ sounds a lot like ‘a tenth’ as in 10%, rather than ‘the tenth one’.
If you simply disagree, fine. But as I said to an earlier commenter, I’d rather face my King of grace having to apologise for having obeyed his Word too radically, rather than having to apologise for not having given enough…I’m not saying that not observing the tithe is a sin, we’re completely under grace! But saying ‘I’m under grace therefore give 1%’ seems to me to be more of an excuse not to give – not many people with your attitude would say ‘I’m under grace therefore give 90%’!
I apologise if I sound rude, that is not at all my intention but what you are saying does not make any sense. If one has decided in one’s heart to give, how does encouraging the person to give what they want influence what they intend to give? You sound like I manufactured that portion of scripture; it is plainly stated in scripture so I don’t understand why you have an issue with it.
Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don’t have. 2 Corinthians 8: 12
All you have done is promote your personal opinion and tried to use personal logic to explain your premise. You have not once supported your stance with scripture except take a few verses of scripture completely out of context.
The amount you give is not nearly as important as the heart with which you give it. It was what marked the difference between Cain and Abel’s offering (though some will like to bring a tithe or firstfruit element to it)
So if you decide you want to give 10% to God, why should what I have said pose a hindrance?
My comment on the TENTH is a little weird? Sigh! Then how can one determine 10% of 9 sheep?
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