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Tithing or Stewardship – Which?
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The principle that every believer is obliged to tithe (that is, give ten per cent of their income to the work of God) is widespread in the Church today. It is possible that, in a vague sort of way, you have always accepted the principle in your Church, even if you have not always practiced it! But, does the Bible teach that Christians should give ten percent of their income to the Church? In my study of the Scriptures in preparation for this article, I was really surprised at what I discovered!
This article, then, is the result of my study of Biblical teaching on the subject of the tithe with a view to understanding what relevance it has to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ under the New Covenant - to believers in your Church and mine. The first mention of the tithe in the Bible is found in Genesis 14:20, where Abraham meets Melchizedek after the defeat of the four Mesopotamian kings who had attacked the city of Sodom and carried away his nephew, Lot, into captivity. When he returned to the area around Sodom, the king of Sodom came out to meet Abraham, closely followed by Melchizedek, who is identified as both the king of Salem as well as a priest of the Most High God. Melchizedek blessed Abraham, who then gave a tenth of the spoils recovered from the four Mesopotamian kings.
What is interesting, resulting from this incident, is that the Bible does not tell us whether Abraham had ever tithed before, or even tithed again. What this particular passage - Genesis 14:20-24 - does tell us, however, is that Abraham was very generous. He gave the rest of the spoils to the king of Sodom. Abraham kept all God’s laws that were relevant in his day (Genesis 26:25), but the Bible does not tell us whether tithing was a law in Abraham’s day. He may have tithed regularly, but there is no reference in Scripture to confirm that he did. Indeed, there is no evidence anywhere in the Bible that tithing at this period in history was commanded by God—that was still in the future. In fact, everything in this particular incident leads us to believe that giving this tithe was completely Abraham’s decision, that it was entirely his choice, exercising his own freewill, and therefore completely voluntary.
The next reference to tithing comes in Genesis 28:20-22, where Jacob had a miraculous dream at Bethel. In the dream Jacob saw a ladder reaching up to heaven with the angels of God ascending and descending and God Himself standing above the ladder. The following morning, Jacob vowed to tithe if God helped him during his journey. He was, in fact, trying to make a bargain with God, asking for special help, and in return he was willing to worship God, and as part of that worship give him a tenth of his possessions—a tithe. It is important to note that nowhere does the Scripture say at this point in time that God commanded Jacob to give Him a tithe. As with Abraham, it appears that the giving of this tithe was entirely voluntary on Jacob’s part. There is one other thing. There is no evidence in this passage to suggest that tithing was the general practice at the time of Jacob.
These two examples, then, are the only examples to be found in the Old Testament where the initiative of tithing came from the individuals, not God. Both were examples of voluntary giving, an exercising of their own freewill, and neither were as a result of a divine command. Further study reveals that tithing did not become general practice at this time. The question we now must ask is - Did God command tithes later in the Old Testament? - to which we answer, yes. Space (or lack of it) will not permit a detailed study. In any case, such a study is not necessary. Some selected passages will be sufficient to give us a satisfactory overview of tithing under the Old Covenant. However, to save some space we will give the passages in bold type and leave the reader to look them up in his or her own Bible.
Leviticus 27:30-33.
This article, then, is the result of my study of Biblical teaching on the subject of the tithe with a view to understanding what relevance it has to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ under the New Covenant - to believers in your Church and mine. The first mention of the tithe in the Bible is found in Genesis 14:20, where Abraham meets Melchizedek after the defeat of the four Mesopotamian kings who had attacked the city of Sodom and carried away his nephew, Lot, into captivity. When he returned to the area around Sodom, the king of Sodom came out to meet Abraham, closely followed by Melchizedek, who is identified as both the king of Salem as well as a priest of the Most High God. Melchizedek blessed Abraham, who then gave a tenth of the spoils recovered from the four Mesopotamian kings.
What is interesting, resulting from this incident, is that the Bible does not tell us whether Abraham had ever tithed before, or even tithed again. What this particular passage - Genesis 14:20-24 - does tell us, however, is that Abraham was very generous. He gave the rest of the spoils to the king of Sodom. Abraham kept all God’s laws that were relevant in his day (Genesis 26:25), but the Bible does not tell us whether tithing was a law in Abraham’s day. He may have tithed regularly, but there is no reference in Scripture to confirm that he did. Indeed, there is no evidence anywhere in the Bible that tithing at this period in history was commanded by God—that was still in the future. In fact, everything in this particular incident leads us to believe that giving this tithe was completely Abraham’s decision, that it was entirely his choice, exercising his own freewill, and therefore completely voluntary.
The next reference to tithing comes in Genesis 28:20-22, where Jacob had a miraculous dream at Bethel. In the dream Jacob saw a ladder reaching up to heaven with the angels of God ascending and descending and God Himself standing above the ladder. The following morning, Jacob vowed to tithe if God helped him during his journey. He was, in fact, trying to make a bargain with God, asking for special help, and in return he was willing to worship God, and as part of that worship give him a tenth of his possessions—a tithe. It is important to note that nowhere does the Scripture say at this point in time that God commanded Jacob to give Him a tithe. As with Abraham, it appears that the giving of this tithe was entirely voluntary on Jacob’s part. There is one other thing. There is no evidence in this passage to suggest that tithing was the general practice at the time of Jacob.
These two examples, then, are the only examples to be found in the Old Testament where the initiative of tithing came from the individuals, not God. Both were examples of voluntary giving, an exercising of their own freewill, and neither were as a result of a divine command. Further study reveals that tithing did not become general practice at this time. The question we now must ask is - Did God command tithes later in the Old Testament? - to which we answer, yes. Space (or lack of it) will not permit a detailed study. In any case, such a study is not necessary. Some selected passages will be sufficient to give us a satisfactory overview of tithing under the Old Covenant. However, to save some space we will give the passages in bold type and leave the reader to look them up in his or her own Bible.
Leviticus 27:30-33.
History has moved on and the Israelites are now living under the Law. Here we are introduced to the tithe as giving a tenth of the produce of the land, the seed of the land, the fruit of the trees, and the animals - the herd or flock. It is interesting to note that there is no reference here to money nor to weekly giving. Indeed, it would appear that the giving of tithes was once a year when the people brought a tenth of their harvest produce and the increase of their animals to the priests.
Numbers 18:21-24.
Unlike all the other tribes, the Levites had no inheritance. To put it another way, they did not own any land from which to reap a harvest nor on which they could raise animals. Here, then, is the outworking of the passage in Leviticus above. The priests were from the tribe of Levi, and received the tithe from the other tribes. So now we see the tithe being introduced for the support of the priests. Yet again, it is not money but goods that were referred to - produce and animals. God provided the tithe as a form of compensation for the Levites in return for their services as priests, as we can see if we compare this passage with the words of Numbers 18:31.
Deuteronomy 14:22-29.
In the light of what we read in Numbers 18:21, where God instructed that all the tithe in Israel should be given for an inheritance to the Levites, this passage would suggest a contradiction, because here the annual tithe is to be used for the religious festivals and feast days - to be able to “eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always” (verse 23). Is this, then, a contradiction? The answer is, no! This passage refers to a second tithe. The first was the Levitical Tithe and the second is the Festival Tithe. In verse 28, God gives further instructions concerning a third tithe. At the end of every third year the people of the individual towns in Israel were to give a tithe of their crops and animals to the poor in their midst, the alien, orphan and widow.
There are many more references in the Old Testament to the giving of tithes under the Old Covenant, and we have really only “scratched the surface” of the ones we have briefly looked at here, but these passages must suffice to illustrate that the tithe is an Old Testament concept - a requirement under the Old Covenant. It is not found in the New Testament, except on three occasions - Matthew 23:23; Luke 18:12; Hebrews 7:1-10 - and these each refer back to the tithe under the Old Covenant. There is no mention in the New Testament of believers being commanded to pay a tithe - there is no such requirement for the Christian under the New Covenant.
This was one of my surprise discoveries mentioned in the introduction!
Unlike all the other tribes, the Levites had no inheritance. To put it another way, they did not own any land from which to reap a harvest nor on which they could raise animals. Here, then, is the outworking of the passage in Leviticus above. The priests were from the tribe of Levi, and received the tithe from the other tribes. So now we see the tithe being introduced for the support of the priests. Yet again, it is not money but goods that were referred to - produce and animals. God provided the tithe as a form of compensation for the Levites in return for their services as priests, as we can see if we compare this passage with the words of Numbers 18:31.
Deuteronomy 14:22-29.
In the light of what we read in Numbers 18:21, where God instructed that all the tithe in Israel should be given for an inheritance to the Levites, this passage would suggest a contradiction, because here the annual tithe is to be used for the religious festivals and feast days - to be able to “eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always” (verse 23). Is this, then, a contradiction? The answer is, no! This passage refers to a second tithe. The first was the Levitical Tithe and the second is the Festival Tithe. In verse 28, God gives further instructions concerning a third tithe. At the end of every third year the people of the individual towns in Israel were to give a tithe of their crops and animals to the poor in their midst, the alien, orphan and widow.
There are many more references in the Old Testament to the giving of tithes under the Old Covenant, and we have really only “scratched the surface” of the ones we have briefly looked at here, but these passages must suffice to illustrate that the tithe is an Old Testament concept - a requirement under the Old Covenant. It is not found in the New Testament, except on three occasions - Matthew 23:23; Luke 18:12; Hebrews 7:1-10 - and these each refer back to the tithe under the Old Covenant. There is no mention in the New Testament of believers being commanded to pay a tithe - there is no such requirement for the Christian under the New Covenant.
This was one of my surprise discoveries mentioned in the introduction!
So, does this mean that the Christian, under the New Covenant, is under no obligation to give to the Lord’s work. The answer, of course, is a resounding, NO! It does not mean that! Indeed, the New Testament speaks much about giving - perhaps a better word would be Stewardship. The Bible says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1). So there is a sense in which we cannot give God anything because He owns everything. That means, of course, all that we “own” really belongs to God. He has entrusted it to us to use wisely. That is stewardship.
If we accept that the tithe was an Old Testament concept, imposed by God under the Law upon the Israelite Nation and not imposed in the New Testament upon the Christian, who is not under Law but under grace - this was the surprise discovery I made in studying for this article - then we need to understand what the New Testament teaches about giving - about stewardship. Again, space (or lack of it) will not permit a detailed study, so some “homework” on the part of the reader becomes necessary!
Please read Acts 11:27-39; 1 Corinthians 16:1,2; 2 Corinthians 8:1-5; 9:7. These few selected verses (there are many more) show that our giving is motivated by our relationship with God. The greater our love the greater our giving. Having said that, however, the amount of our giving is left to the individual. The proportion of our giving is dependent upon our means. Indeed, the value of our stewardship is measured by God, not so much by the amount we give to His work, but by the amount we retain for ourselves. For some ten percent may not be enough to give, for others it may be too much. We give what we are genuinely happy (or cheerful) to give, what we are comfortable with, remembering we are stewards of God’s resources, and He knows what is in our heart, what it is that motivates our giving.
There is a verse which we would not normally associate with giving, with stewardship, yet it is one that provides us with a perfect example of how we should view our giving as Christians. It forms a fitting conclusion to this article. The verse may surprise you. Here is the motivation behind giving, the ultimate in giving, the purpose of giving, each example being set by God Himself. The verse is John 3:16 (read it yourself!) God’s motive for giving was love—so must ours be. The ultimate in God’s giving was His all—so must ours be. God’s purpose for giving was to meet a need - so must ours be.
If John 3:16 is, therefore, the pattern of God’s giving to us, can the pattern of the Christian’s giving to Him be anything less?
© 2005 Denis A. Wheadon. All rights reserved. Website: http://www.Pen4God.co.uk. This document is the property of the Author and
must not be displayed on any other websites without permission. Copies may be downloaded and printed for personal use only. Any contact with
the writer or comments concerning an article, can be made by email addressed to: denis.wheadon@Pen4God.co.uk
must not be displayed on any other websites without permission. Copies may be downloaded and printed for personal use only. Any contact with
the writer or comments concerning an article, can be made by email addressed to: denis.wheadon@Pen4God.co.uk
