Episode 9: What is the Christian’s Responsibility for Tithing?

Summary

Question: What is the Christian’s responsibility for tithing?

The New Testament is not going to speak directly to a Christian’s responsibility for tithing. The New Covenant of course a covenant where people do things because they want to rather than because they have to.

2 Corinthians 9:7 God loves a cheerful giver. If you’re going to give, be cheerful about it.

Hebrews 7:4 The principle of the tithe predates the law. It was 550 years from Abraham to Moses and the law. Abraham didn’t take anything for himself from the spoils of the war of Sodom, but the first tenth part he gave to God. Abraham proved right there to God that he was a man of character, which is why God made a covenant with him. The first test was a test on money, which tells you a lot. The point here is Abraham, serving as a foreshadow of us as Christians, paid a tithe to his high priest. That serves as a good example for the Christian, that he would want to pay a tithe to his high priest, who is Jesus, raised from the dead, declared to be high priest according to the order of Melchizedek by the power of an indestructible life.

Tithe means 10%, or tenth part of all the spoils. 1% or 2% isn’t really a tithe. So in the Old Testament times, in the days of Moses and Joshua onward, when they are counting the cattle coming in in the fall, every tenth one was the Lord’s. It didn’t matter if it was the prize bull, or the scrubby calf. Of all the bushels of wheat, every tenth bushel was the Lord’s. So for a Christian who is a wage earner or on a salary and wants to tithe, he can just take 10% of that. A business might want to figure a percent, like 1/2% of gross or something like that, as it’s not practical to take 10% of gross and stay in business.

Tithing for a Christian is a voluntary thing, generally the basic idea or standard is 10%, but is has to be something you want to do. Ultimately God is wanting His people to give their total lives to Him. A total life devoted to God has no problem with money or time. An undisciplined life is the problem rather than tithing. A person devoted to God will get their life in order so they can balance their time and finances for God. God really wants Christians who have the spirit of power and love and discipline to exercise that, renew their minds with the Scripture, and get their lives over to where they can do what God wants them to with a cheerful heart.