Should We Tithe?
The question is a perennial one. Does the Bible require Christians to give 10% of their income to the LORD? There are those who insist on the affirmative.
I’ll never forget a dear elderly sister in my first congregation. I visited with her one day and she was so distraught. She’d been taught to give 10% of her income, but she was on a decidedly fixed income as a pensioner. Yet the cost of living was going up and eating more and more into her income. It had gotten to the point where she was no longer able to give 10%. She was so afraid she was doing the wrong thing. Sadly, she thought that even her salvation might be in jeopardy. I comforted her with the gospel of grace and encouraged her to know that, with Christ as her Saviour, her heavenly Father would never condemn her.
In his book The Deacon: Biblical Foundations for Today’s Ministry of Mercy, Dr. Cornelis Van Dam briefly tackles this question. He first lays out the arguments for the pro-tithing side. The Mosaic law required tithing. In Malachi 3:8-10, God accused Israel of robbing him by not bringing in the whole tithe. He promised that if they would, he would pour out blessing on them. Also, tithing was practiced even before God gave the law through Moses (Gen.14:20; 28:22) and therefore should be regarded as universally binding. Van Dam responds to these arguments and then sets forth the other side:
It has been correctly pointed out that these arguments are not convincing. Scripture does not mandate Christians to tithe today. Just because tithing was practiced before the time of Moses does not mean that tithing should be practiced today. Tithing was also part of the Mosaic law. That law has been fulfilled in Christ, so Christians are no longer under that obligation (Matt. 5:17; Hebrews 4-10). Similarly, animal sacrifice, another pre-Sinaitic ordinance that later formed part of the Mosaic law, has been fulfilled in Christ. No one would argue that such sacrifices are still required of us today. The same argument holds that tithing is no longer a divine requirement today. Furthermore, it is striking that although the New Testament says much about giving, it is silent with respect to tithing. When the Corinthian Christian is urged to set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income on the first day of the week (1 Cor.16:2), no mention is made of a specific amount, and certainly not of a tithe. Rather, the point is to give in accordance with what one is able to give and to do so on a regular basis.
When it comes to giving, the New Testament stresses that God’s people who have been redeemed of mere grace are obligated to put everything they have in God’s service. Scripture does not speak in terms of percentages for those living in the final age. Rather, it relates how members of the church at Jerusalem “sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need” (Acts 2:45). God’s grace enabled the Macedonian churches, which were in difficult circumstances, to give even beyond their ability (2 Cor. 8:2-3). Like the Macedonians, we can give sacrificially since everything we are and have belongs to the Lord. We are to present our bodies as “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God” (Rom.12:1). “Do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Heb.13:16). Calvin put it well: “God certainly always commands that we relieve our brethren’s necessities, but he nowhere lays down how much we ought to give, so that we can make a calculation and divide between ourselves and the poor. He nowhere binds us to specific times or persons or places but simply bids us be guided by the rule of love.” Indeed, and when we follow the rule of love, we do whatever we can for the needy. We are not limited to a certain percentage, so that once we have given that amount we can say that we have done enough. (pp.156-158)
That’s a good approach. Rather than focusing on a percentage, the New Testament teaches Christians to give what they can. That might work out to 10%, but it also might work out to more or less – and that’s fine.
P.S.: this book is highly recommended. Check out an interview with the author here:
