The blessedness of tithing

Tithing, offerings, giving - when these words are brought up, sometimes they drive us to clinch our wallets a little tighter. Especially with tithing and offering, these words have come to develop a sort of bad reputation for many in the church world. 
What do these words mean and how to they apply to our lives as Christians and as the New Testament Church?

I would venture to say that so many people feel uneasy about tithing/offering because of the several cases of financial abuse that have come out over the years in various church scenarios.  Often, these stories center around larger congregations or megachurches where a pastor has taken the liberty of using the tithes/offerings given by his congregants for selfish and personal gain.  Cases of fraud, embezzlement, and outright thievery have stained many a local church's reputation because the leadership was dishonest with the funds.

In other cases, where there has never been any misuse of tithes/offerings, people may refuse to give simply because they feel that money is theirs or they fear they won't have enough to go around for bills.

First of all, allow me to offer some definitions so we know exactly what it is we're talking about:

Tithe: a portion of one’s total income given to God through the local church

Offering: a voluntary, extra portion of any amount of one’s income given through the local church

We hear these words often in our churches, probably not often enough, and the offering plate goes by, row after row, seat after seat, and many in our congregations may or may not necessarily know what it's for or where their money actually goes.  This question sometimes keeps someone from giving altogether.  

Allow me to briefly share some principles for tithing.  This is not an exhaustive list, but these principles will get us started and will help us to understand why tithing and/or giving is so important in the life of the local church and in the life of the believer.

Principle 1 - God faithfully provides for those who faithfully give. 

Proverbs 3:9-10

“Honor the Lord with your possessions, And with the firstfruits of all your increase;
¹⁰ So your barns will be filled with plenty, And your vats will overflow with new wine.”

 --We need to understand something here: This is NOT a health, wealth, and prosperity passage.  Lots of your prosperity gospel false teachers love to go to verses like these and say ‘ok, do A and God will always give you B.' 

Something to know about Proverbs and about Near Eastern and Middle Eastern wisdom literature, is that these are God-given principles of wisdom, but they’re spoken in general terms.  Proverbs is not a book full of lifetime guarantees.  We still live and operate in a fallen, sinful, cursed world, so there will be hindrances.  But what we do gain from this passage and from others, is generally speaking, God is faithful to those who are faithful, and God provides for those who give a portion back to Him of what is His.  What do you mean, what’s His?  I worked long hours for my money.  I invested ‘x’ amount of dollars and those efforts have grown my income.  God owns even that because He provides the material, the ability and the mental capacity for us to earn anything in this world.

Psalm 24:1, Haggai 2:8, and Deuteronomy 8:18 all attest to the divine ownership of God over all things, including our wealth and possessions.

--Let's understand this: God doesn't need our money.  He wants us to tithe to demonstrate our faith in Him and our obedience to Him.

Principle 2 - Live for the line, not the dot. 

Luke 12:18

 “And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

--The dot – life on earth; it has a beginning and an end

The line – life after earth; it goes on for eternity; it has a beginning, at our death, but it has no end.

The Luke 12 passage we just read is an instance where Jesus is talking about a rich guy who has much extra wealth put away that he doesn’t have a storehouse big enough to keep it all.  So, what does the rich man do?  He decides he needs to build a bigger storehouse and once he does that he’ll be satisfied – he has all he needs to enjoy life.  And Jesus calls this man a fool because the what the rich man didn’t know is that he would die that night and he wouldn’t be able to take any of his wealth that he had worn himself out hanging onto with him.

The rich man was living for the dot and not the line.  Christian, which one are you living for?

God makes it clear that Christians, His people, don’t live for this world but instead we should live for His Kingdom.

            -Heb. 11:13 says Christians are “aliens and strangers in this world” – just passing through

            -Philippians 3:20 says Christians are citizens of heaven, not earth.

Tithing isn’t just an exercise in faith and obedience, it’s also an exercise in freedom.

Giving destroys materialism in us.  When we tithe regularly, we break the chains our stuff can have on us.  (Ecclesiastes 5:10-15)

**By faithfully giving, you’re saying to both God and yourself:

‘I don’t need money to make me happy and I don’t rely on it to have faith.’

Principle 3 - New Testament tithing is about the motive, not the amount.

2 Corinthians 9:7

“So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.”

--In the NT, we don’t find a reiteration or a command for 10% as being the standard tithe.  We also don’t see a command given for how often.  In the NT and early Church, you had local congregations sprouting up in different areas, but it was really a joint effort.  This was before associations and denominations developed, but you see as Paul is doing his missionary journeys that he’s regularly requesting money and possessions to be given to other churches who were in need.  And even though he would not take payment for being a minister, he did write that local churches needed to compensate their pastors for the work being done.  Again, there was no specified amount or frequency, you were simply expected to give from the heart and to be joyful in doing that.

--One last thing on this passage – notice it says, “or of necessity” – don’t give just because everyone else is and don’t give just because that’s what people in church do.  Give because you want to.  Tithes go to aid the local church in various ministries.  Offerings go to aid extra efforts like revivals, missionary projects – but regardless, all money that comes into God’s Church is for His ministry

Bottom line: If you faithfully, obediently and joyfully give, God will provide for and take care of you. Who doesn't want that?