Yesterday I spoke out of 2 Corinthians 8 on the topic of giving. It was the first time in Harbor’s short history that we’ve preached specifically on that topic. I was trying as hard as possible to avoid looking like a money-grubbing televangelist like Uncle Bob Tilton here. Unfortunately, I might have failed.
Hoping to confront the false belief (held by a majority of evangelical Christians, in my experience) that we are supposed to give the same 10% tithe that the Israelites did, I mentioned how the tithers have their numbers wrong.
The Israelites were required to give 10% of their income to support the Levites and priests. But then they had to give another 10% to support the religious festivals. And then another 3% to support the kingdom.
So they’re already giving 23% of their income every year. Then, on top of all that, Numbers 18 says they need to give the best of their oil, the best of their wine, and the firstfruits of their wheat to God.
My conclusion was that if you really believe that you need to tithe a set percentage of your income, you’d better be ready to give 30% or more to the Lord. At least one person was confused by what I said, so I thought it might be helpful to copy our exchange. Here’s what he emailed to me…
Your mention of tithing was done in a rhetorical way, saying that tithing is not our standard, but then describing some details of the 23+% or so accounting that all of the Israelites were subject to. But this has the effect of suggesting that somehow tithes are the starting point for New Testament giving, despite the fact that you say tithing is not the standard. What you did not say is that the Israelites were required to tithe as their part of the theocratic state, and so these contributions amounted to the modern equivalent of income tax–and they paid no other required taxes. Bringing up Levitical tithing (whether rhetorically or not) without pointing out this important fact seems to me to run the risk of imposing, even if only subconsciously on your listeners, the burden of OT law, undercutting your message of grace.
My reply (after a few more emails spent wrestling over a couple of details):
Good points, but I still don’t think Old Testament giving is analogous to the income tax we are required to give to a secular government (yes, instituted by God as per Romans 13, but not as the divinely and specifically mandated expression of his heavenly kingdom on earth, as OT Israel was).
Here’s my main point: I was not bringing up tithing merely as a rhetorical device. I was directly countering the Christians who believe we are required to tithe 10% because they think (for whatever reason) that this was required in the Old Testament and that it carried over to the New.
I was trying to carry on in the tradition of Jesus (“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” – Matt. 5) by arguing that if you want to set a tangible bar that defines obedience to God, it has to be extremely high. Unattainably high. Maybe I could have said it better.
His reply:
OK I get this now, adding that Matt 5 bit helps. The way it came across to me (which probably reflects my own cynicism about all of the tithing calls I have heard from various pulpits) was that tithing is a good place to start, but you have to go much further to really match that standard. But I see now what you were trying to say.
All this goes to show, preciseness in speech counts. A lot. And especially when you’re talking about money.