What About Tithing?

I’ve had a few questions about this recently and thought I would share my response here.

What about tithing? Lot’s of folks conveniently opt for an allegedly New Testament point of view that doesn’t require tithing and God bless them, they prove it by their giving. Still others assiduously tithe but their attitude toward their tithing commitment is as though it constitutes a hedge of not being obligated further so as to say “get off my back – I already tithe!”

For me – I don’t want ten percent of anything God has for me – I want it ALL. Usually, when Jesus talked about money/wealth he said “give all, sell all.” Of course, most folks would not adopt that as their giving policy. The only place I know of in scripture where Jesus spoke on tithing is Luke 11:42 when he condemned the hypocrites for tithing very faithfully but ignoring other important things. So, he didn’t condemn tithing (as many who don’t believe in tithing will maintain when they quote this verse). Now – how much shall we give? In Matthew 5:20 Jesus said if our righteousness does not exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees we will in no way enter the kingdom. So that means if you are not giving MORE than ten percent – you will experience something that Jesus describes as “not entering the kingdom.” Since learning that years ago my giving (as God leads) averages about 30 percent of my gross pay and for a few years 70 percent and God always reciprocated with his blessing. He told me that this was how “money moves by the Spirit.”

On four occasions we gave all and distributed to the poor and laid the money at the feet of the apostles in our lives at the time. Sometimes pastors will mention Melchisedek as an example of tithing before the law came into effect. OK – let’s tithe as Abraham did – he gave ten percent to Melchisedek and gave everything else (90% of the spoil of ten cities) back to the king of Sodom lest he think he made Abraham rich. So – cash your check, give 10 percent to your pastor and then give the rest back to your employer with the reminder to him that he isn’t your source God is. As a pastor, I’ve seen people do this and the financial miracles they experienced were pretty radical.

Also under the law, the people paid tithes to the Levites and the Levites were to tithe back to the temple treasury AND to give 15.6 percent of their increase to the poor. So spiritual leaders should be giving a baseline of 25 percent before they even come close to liberality in God’s view (under the Law.)

So from a Biblical point of view if you are only tithing ten percent you are no better than a hypocrite. If you aren’t giving at least ten percent you are in unbelief and need to repent. If you on the other hand have given all and sold all be ready to do it again for the Lord loves to enter into such a challenge. If however you consistently give (and check to see that you do) more than ten percent you have as Jesus suggests entered into the kingdom in a monetary dimension and you will be blessed.

In short – give as you are led by the Spirit and keep a check on things to make sure your giving patterns don’t match too closely to the scribes and Pharisees.