Tithing: The Rest of the Story

This blog is the 4th in a series, "The Top Ten Questions People Ask Pastors."

The 8th most common question asked of Pastors involves money. "If tithing is never mentioned in the New Testament, why do we still teach it?" This query is is rooted in the thought that tithing is a complicated practice from the Old Covenant, and that it ceased with the end of the Old Testament. Indeed, if tithing were simply a requirement of Old Testament Law like the sacrifice of goats, we should not impose it on followers of Jesus Christ. However, that is not the case.

God delivers the Law as a gift to his chosen people, beginning in Exodus 20. First, Moses explains the crux of the Law- the Ten Commandments. Then over the course of the months that follow, he fleshes out the sacrificial system and all the other rituals that are integral to Old Testament faith. The Law has now been fulfilled in Christ. But the tithe is an integral part of worship and devotion in redemptive history long before the coming of the Law. In fact, tithing dates all the way back to Genesis, cropping up in one of the earliest chapters.

• In Genesis 14:20, Abram recognizes that a mysterious figure named Melchizedek is a priest of the Most High God. In reverence and gratitude, he offers the priest a tenth of the treasure he has just won in battle.


• Genesis 28:22 records this promise made by Jacob to God: "And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that you give me I will surely give a tenth to you."

For generations before the Law was established by God, people of faith worshiped the One True God in a fairly unstructured way. But returning a tenth reflected the prevailing assumption of faith that God owns everything and human beings are simply allowed to manage a share. One part in ten denotes it all belongs to Him, and we are returning a token of that underlying truth. Returning the tenth to the Lord reflects that my heart is in sync with his divine authority.

In the New Testament, Jesus never suggests that New Covenant faith is designed to make our lives more convenient or less rigorous. To the contrary, Christ doesn't lessen the commandment about murder. He raises the standard, teaching that we must not even tolerate hatred of our fellow man. Rather than diminishing God's command that we must not commit adultery, Jesus actually raises the bar: don't even look upon a woman with lust in your heart! In fact, one of the highest compliments Jesus offers anyone in the New Testament goes out to the widow who gives her last two coins in an offering at the Temple.

The claim that the tithe does not belong in the New Testament may sound appealing, even rational at first glance. But the claim should be followed by a question- "If that's true, do you plan to give more than a tithe to God's kingdom- or less?" Paul writes in Romans 14:23 that "Whatever is not from faith is sin." I always want to be sure than the prevailing choices of my life are based on faith, not fear.

Selah.