The Problem with Tithing

My friend felt guilty. A grad student and barely able to pay rent, he didn’t have enough money to tithe and worried that he was disappointing God. As I listened to the strain in his voice, it struck me that Jesus never taught about tithing.

Jesus’ silence on the subject is startling considering that money was one of his favorite topics. His voice fills the gospels with financial advice, stories about bosses, investors, and trust fund babies gone wrong. He admonished a rich businessman, commended a poor widow, and sent Peter to find their tax money in the mouth of a fish.

In the church’s current fascination with tithing, it seems we’ve lost the breadth of God’s interest in our money. We’ve settled for an Old Testament rule, adding it to our checklist of ways to please God; but, by drawing a line around a part of our income and packing it off to the church, an orphanage in Africa, or the homeless shelter downtown, we’ve restricted the scope God’s interest in our money and, as a result, shrunk our relationship with of him. 

The Problem with Tithing

The first problem with tithing is that it’s not biblical. It was a rule for the Israelites who worshipped under the Old Testament law. Jesus never commanded it for the church and neither did the apostles. Instead, the early Christians shared their possessions spontaneously—often giving much more than ten percent to provide for impoverished Christians and the apostle’s work.

Even though giving ten percent isn’t a biblical standard, some people argue that it’s a good place to start. Tithing, though, tends to shrink God’s relationship with our finances down to his ownership and our sacrifice—we click a button on our church’s website, feel the pang of a shrinking bank account, and hope God nods his approval. God’s plan for us and our money, though, is much richer.

More than the World’s Owner

Tithing focuses on God’s ownership of the world and our obligation to acknowledge that fact with a cut from our paychecks. But, to see God’s relationship with the world primarily in terms of ownership is a sub-Christian view which even deists believe. The God of the Bible pushes beyond ownership in the world, participating in it and revealing himself in everything he made (Romans 1:20). He reaches out to us through a series of unending gifts—blue jays, camp fires, and smartphones—all of which express his creativity and invite us into his love.

The Old Testament understood this dimension of the world as gift and God as its giver. Every third year, God required the Israelites to use their tithe for a feast in hopes that they would “learn to fear the Lord [their] God always” as they worshipped him with their senses (Deuteronomy 14:23).

If they lived far away, the Israelites could turn their tithe into silver and travel to God’s house with the following instructions: “spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice…” Imagine a worship service like that: ten percent of a year’s income spent on a five star meal.

God wanted his people to remember—in the midst of grueling job, broken families, and nagging diseases—that he’s a generous God, a gift-giver who wants meet us, not just in our sacrifices, but in the grapes bursting against our tongues and the steak dissolving between our teeth.

More than Stewards

The modern version of tithing has lost this picture of the giving God, replacing it with a thinner, sterner portrait of an owner. Once that switch is made, our role changes from gift-receivers to stewards: we’re left in charge of the shop with instructions to wire God a tenth of the profits each month. He gets his share and we get ours.

But if God doesn’t just own the world, if he shares his love with us through hot showers and skinless chicken breasts and Starbucks coffee, or through handfuls of rice, spring rain, and the shade of a bedouin tent, then stewardship is only part of our role. In a world full of gifts, God invites us to partner with him in gift-giving, to enjoy his goodness and pass it on to others. 

Giving, then, becomes less about stewardship and more about plunging deeper into God’s generosity. Instead of cutting a check to the church because we should, we can look for ways to spread God’s goodness in the world, perhaps mailing a Walmart gift card to the single mom who works two jobs or inviting our neighbors over for wine and cheese. 

More than a Duty 

If God’s concern with our finances boils down a percentage, it doesn’t matter what the money is used for, as long as we sacrifice it to him. So we put another bill in the offering box, but it feels more like a duty than worship. God, though, has bigger plans for our worship. 

Even if we give a hundred percent of our money to the poor (1 Corinthians 13:3), that still isn’t God’s dream for us. Love is. Our money—whether we buy a pint of gelato or scrimp on groceries to help our grandparents pay their medical bills—is an opportunity worship God by participating in his love. 

In some ways, though, tithing is easier. It gives us a rule to follow, an amount to give so that we can know that we’ve done our part. God, though, doesn’t just want a percentage of our lives, he wants to reshape them in his generosity. That might mean booking a trip to Italy, or skipping vacation this year. It might mean giving a bag of groceries to the guy on the corner, or inviting friends over for surf and turf. Whatever it looks like, God wants to meet us in our money.

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* This article first appeared on ConvergeMagazine.com, June 28, 2016.