Re-Thinking Tithing

THE WIDOW'S MITE

We’ve all heard of the widow’s mite, and these days we applaud her sacrificial giving. I even once heard a preacher say, “If you aren't giving sacrificially are you even giving?” But did you know that was never Jesus’ original intent?

Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts; [47] Which devour widows' houses, and for a shew make long prayers: the same shall receive greater damnation. [1] And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. [2] And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. [3] And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: [4] For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had. (Luke 20:46-21:4)

Jesus isn’t celebrating the widow’s generosity, He is proving His point: that the scribes "devour widows’ houses". Under the old covenant law, that widow should have been helped, instead she gave everything – not to God, but to running the building. The “offerings of God” or “treasury” was the physical location used to collect money for the Temple’s upkeep. Instead of taking care of her like God decreed (Deuteronomy 14:28-29), the religious system was robbing her. Jesus wasn’t providing us with an example of sacrificial giving, he was highlighting a religious system that exploited the vulnerable. The widow’s mite isn’t a story of sacrifice, it's a story of betrayal.

THE BETRAYAL

That same betrayal is still taking place in many religious systems today. Robbing the poor by convincing them that “running a building” is giving to God, even when the Bible is clear that Christians themselves are the temple (1 Corinthians 3:16). But God never asks Christians to pay for a building; or dare I say, guarantee your Pastor’s weekly “paycheque".

The main purpose of The Re-Thinking Series is to get people thinking again, to explore where tradition has taken over and replaced what the Bible teaches. And the concept of Christians giving 10% of their income to the church is one such well-guarded tradition. Nowhere in the new covenant are Christians instructed to tithe. (In fact, if you know of a New Testament verse that teaches tithing to Christians, please send it through and we’ll retract this article.)

When Jesus encountered the Pharisees’ traditions, he condemned them for the position they took (Mark 7:9). The Pharisees rejected God’s word to follow their own traditions and rules, and Jesus called them hypocrites for it (Matthew 15:7-9).

THE OLD COVENANT

Did you know, that under the Law money wasn’t even tithed? In the Torah, tithing was for agricultural produce, it was literally food for the Levites who owned no land to grow their own. Financial contributions were always free will. But this changed with the introduction of the Temple Tax, introduced by people; not God. (Don’t confuse God’s census tax in Exodus 30:11-16 with the man-made yearly tax of Nehemiah 10:32-33, and the Temple Tax in the New Testament which was the formalisation of this, later codified in the Mishnah.)

THE DISTORTION

The tradition of modern tithing likewise has a later starting point, and can’t be traced back to Christ and the apostles. Tithing was a tradition added in much later, at the Council of Tours in 567AD and the Synod of Mâcon in 585AD. Read this translation of a section of the Synod of Mâcon:

“Orders, under pain of excommunication, the payment of tithe, that the priests may apply them to the help of the poor and the redemption of those in slavery, and so render the prayers which they offer for the salvation for the people efficacious.

Orders all persons, both men and women, to offer bread and wine at the holy altar every Sunday, in order to do away with their sins, and to give them a share in the merits of Abel and all other righteous offerers.” (e-Catholic 2000)

Note these points:

• Tithing was introduced by the church not God.

• Tithing came with the threat of excommunication.

• They taught tithing made the priests’ prayers for salvation effective.

• They taught Christians to take communion at the altar every week to remove their sins, and be declared righteous before God.

Let that last point sink in. The same council that introduced modern tithing taught works-based salvation (Galatians 1:6-8, 2:16, 4:21-31). What is Christianity entangled in (Galatians 5:1)?

Any church claiming that modern tithing is Biblical is teaching a tradition of men as a doctrine of God (Matthew 15:9). And God warns us to be on the lookout for deceitful ideas and traditions of men in the church:

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (Colossians 2:8)

But most Christians have swallowed this tradition of men: hook, line and sinker.

THE NEW COVENANT

The truth is, the new covenant undoes modern tithing in a single verse:

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7)

Let’s unpack it:

• It’s a choice: It tells us to give whatever we personally decide in our own hearts.

• Guard your motive: Don’t give reluctantly or resentfully.

• It's pressure free: Don’t give as an essential requirement. In fact, the word translated “necessity” comes from a Greek word meaning “imposed either by circumstances, or by law of duty regarding to one’s advantage, custom or argument.”

• Literally: Don’t let anyone else tell you how much to give.

• Why? God loves a willing or joyful giver.

So, God’s word tells us not to give by custom or tradition, not to give by a law or as a duty. Yet modern tithing is literally giving as a law or tradition. But, it isn’t how God wants it to be.

Because God loves a cheerful giver.

THE TESTIMONY

It's well over a decade since we personally stopped tithing. When we first stopped, we gave to our church and regularly supported missionaries. Plus, we felt we had the freedom to be a blessing to Christians who were in need, and the poor (Matthew 6:1, Luke 14:13-14). And these days? We give however the Lord leads us. (Including funding this ministry completely out of pocket.)

CONSIDER THE LILIES TEE

And I can attest, giving like that is a joy. God-led giving is joyful.

Giving grudgingly is not. There is nothing God-led or cheerful about religiously tithing to your local church because you are taught it is your duty as a Christian. And you know what, when we stopped tithing we actually gave far more than 10% and a few years later we trusted God with 100% of our income and lived on donations on the mission field.

And I’ll let you in on a secret. The regular support we received in Niugini wasn’t actually enough to live on. We trusted God every day to move faithful men and women here in Australia to give as we had need, and we never once went without.

Because really, we were just living by faith:

Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. (1 Corinthians 9:14)

After all, if God designed it, who are we to try and improve it?

Armed with the Word,