Reflection Questions: How and why did you start giving generously to the church?
Another way to help a young disciple take concrete steps in their devotion to the fellowship is to encourage them to start giving money to the church. Many Christians use the tithe (which means 10%) as their standard for giving which means that they are giving 10% of their gross income as an offering to the church before they give to anything else. Let’s take a look at where that comes from.
Leviticus 27:30-33 – this established the law that all of Israel was to give 10% (a tithe) of livestock and crops as an offering to God. This wasn’t the only offering mandated in the law but it was the backbone of Old Testament giving.
Numbers 18:21-24 – this explains that the 10% was to go to the Levites (spiritual leaders) so they could run the Tent of Meeting (Tabernacle) and later the Temple. The Levites have “no inheritance” meaning they weren’t given any land in the divvying up of territories to each tribe. They have no means of making a living from the land because they have no land and therefore are dependent on the tithes and offerings.
Malachi 3:6-12 – this is probably the most well known set of verses on tithing. God is accusing Israel of robbing him because they are not being faithful in their giving of tithes and offerings. He encourages his people to “test him” and see how their financial needs will be abundantly taken care of if they give faithfully.
Reflection Questions:
1. Why do you think that the Israelites are holding back on giving their tithe when God has made it so clear in the law that they should do so?
2. What are the consequences of holding back on their giving? For themselves? For the spiritual life of their people? (See Nehemiah 13:1-13 for a real life example of the consequences)
3. How does God go about motivating his people to get back on track in their giving?
The Israelites had the option of living independently from God or relying on Him for their livelihood. The result of relying on God was abundance and the result of relying on themselves was scarcity. By not giving obediently, they were declaring that they would rather take care of themselves. They stepped out of the child roll with its responsibilities and privileges which led to the consequences of God stepping out of his parental roll which included his provision.
Reflection question: It’s clear in the OT that tithing is mandatory, but what of New Testament giving?
The closest thing to a New Testament sanctioning of tithing is Matthew 23:23. In this verse, Jesus chastises the Pharisees for tithing everything (down to counting the seeds from their herb garden) while “forgetting” to practice things like justice and mercy toward the people around them. He then ends the rebuke by saying, “You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former”. This phrase is often pointed to as proof that Jesus mandates that Christians tithe.
The problem with this is that it’s not mentioned anywhere else in Jesus’ teaching or the rest of the New Testament. You would think that if this was such a clear cut Christian discipline that you would see it lined out in a more direct way than an aside of a rebuke against hard hearted tithers. Like all spiritual disciplines, giving is taught by Jesus to instead be something experienced in the framework of a loving response to a loving God. When Jesus does teach more directly on giving, He says this:
Matthew 6
1"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Reflection Questions:
1. Does Jesus think giving is important? (“when you give”)
2. What does He warn us about regarding how we go about giving?
3. According to Jesus, what is the goal of giving? (as with all spiritual disciplines)
Principle one for New Testament Giving is that we give because we love God.
Jesus communicates that relationship with God (secret, intimate) is the framework for giving. This is at the heart of why we reach for our wallets – we love God and love to participate in his kingdom’s work through giving away resources. This is the most important principle for giving.
The Bible doesn’t stop there though. Human beings are stingy. Our default mode is to go into survival mode (just like the Israelites) and hoard our resources until the day comes when we are comfortable and feel the freedom to be generous. That day of financial security never comes. So there are scriptures that encourage generous giving:
2 Corinthians 9:6,7
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Reflection Questions:
1. According to these verses, what should characterize Christian giving?
2. What will be the results of this kind of giving?
3. What will be the results of not giving generously?
Principle two of New Testament giving is to give generously. Christians have been given a gift of infinite value (salvation through Christ) so there is no place for being a cheapskate. If we get the gospel, we will be generous and we’ll actually be happy about it as we freely give our resources in response to being in relationship with a generous God.
Just like it’s helpful to set aside a regular time to pray even though the primary motivation for praying is love of God – it’s helpful to be intentional regarding our giving. The apostle Paul exhorts the Corinthians in this way:
1 Corinthians 16:2
2On the first day of every week, 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.
Reflection Questions:
1. What practical advice is Paul giving the Corinthians regarding their giving?
2. How might this kind of discipline help someone in the area of giving?
3. Have you decided upon your own plan for how you will go about giving on a regular basis?
The third principle of New Testament giving is to give intentionally. While the New Testament framework for giving is a grace initiated free for all (See Acts 2), it is always helpful for human beings to have some sort of plan. In this verse, we don’t see Paul uttering the 11th commandment, but we do see him sanctioning some sort of regular, planned out giving that is proportional to one’s income.
For many Christians, including the leadership of this church, the tithe provides a good way to plan one’s giving. It seems that if those under the law in the Old Testament gave 10% then those under grace should at least do that and more. We encourage people to adopt the 10% mark as their minimum standard for their giving although an even greater percentage should be sought after. God is serious about us trusting him financially by giving a significant portion of our income away. If we don’t practice this spiritual discipline, we end up missing out both spiritually and materially.
Common Questions
1. What if I’m in debt?
Still give in some sort of intentional way. I (Robert) have chosen to tithe no matter what – even if I found myself in a season of debt. It’s an act of faith and it further drives home the point that God is your provider and will have to come through in order for you to make it. In the end, the important thing is that you pray it through and do what God convicts you to follow through on.
Also, while it’s important to be faithful with the 10% we are giving away, we also want to be faithful with the 90% that we remain stewards of. That’s God’s money too and we are managing it for him. We need to have a plan for how we intend to get out of debt and stay out of debt once we’re there.
2. What if I’m a student and don’t have a job?
It may be a bit of a stretch to expect that students will be tithing their student loans or money being sent to them by their parents. We do think they should still participate in the offering in some sort of regular way that is somehow proportional to their income. If they can come up with cash for lattes and iTunes, surely they can come up with 5 or 10 bucks for the offering basket. This kind of giving will begin a discipline of giving that will carry over into their lives after graduation. Students often times have summer jobs or part time jobs. They are encouraged to tithe/give generously from those earnings.
3. What if tithing will cause me to not be able to pay my bills – at least on paper?
For the last 20 years of my life, tithing has seemingly kept me (Robert) from paying all of my bills – at least on paper. Somehow we’ve always paid the bills – I’d say that God has opened up the storehouses in heaven just like He promised. You will rarely find a more concrete laboratory of faith than money. It is a really exciting and sometimes scary journey of learning to trust in God and seeing Him come through in miraculous ways.
That said, it doesn’t mean that God won’t ask you to make sacrifices. If people are looking at their budget and not able to tithe/give generously, they should take intentional steps toward bringing in more income or reducing their spending so that they can do so. What I have noticed in my own life that as we sacrifice things (like travel for instance) we then somehow get it back in creative ways that were way better than anything we could have saved up for by not tithing.
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