Leadership Thought: Stewardship Thinking, the Tithe and Beyond.

Dear Friend,

Yesterday we discussed the  ‘why’ of giving. We said everything we have belongs to the Lord and we are simply His money managers. Simply put, “God owns it all.”

The Psalmist reminds us that “The earth is the Lords and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it (Psalms 24:1).

Well if God owns it all, what does He expect from us. How much should we be expected to  give Him?

For many years I taught that we should tithe or give  a tenth of our income to the Lord. There are plenty of Old Testament passages that support the giving of the tithe. Leviticus 22:30 tells us she should give “a tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees. (Everything) belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.”

There are plenty of other Old Testament verses that support the giving of the tithe.  In fact,  the Old Testament Jew gave not only the tithe, but even beyond the tithe. Some scholars suggest with other special offerings and land taxes a Jew might have given as much as 23 percent of his income to the Lord.

Most of us know the rebuke the Lord gave to the Jews regarding their giving in Malachi 3:8-10. God asks  “Will a man rob God. But you ask, how do we rob you? In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse-the whole nation of you because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that they may be food for my house.”

That message doesn’t preach to well in many of today’s churches.

The tithe was not only the giving pattern for the Old Testament Jew but even before Moses gave the law the tithe was observed. It dates back 400 years before the law where we see Abraham giving a tithe to the priest Melchizadek, who some believe was a pre incarnate appearance of Christ.

And the tithe seems to be observed in the time of Jesus. In Matthew 23:23 we read castigating the religious leaders, saying  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, (without) leaving the others undone.”

Tithing, as a model for giving, seems to date back to the early church as well.

Well if the Old Testament taught the tithe and Jesus refers to it, and the early church seemed to have practiced it, doesn’t it make sense that should be our giving guide? ? For many years that is what I believed and taught until my thinking changed, and we will talk about that tomorrow

But let me give you a “spoiler alert” should you decide to read ahead. I believe the tithe is just the beginning of what we should give. As Randy Alcorn states in his thought-provoking book The Treasure Principle , “Tithing should be the starting place for our giving, not the finish line. Tithing can be the training wheels to launch us into the mind set skills and habits of grace giving.” The Treasure Principle, Randy Alcorn, p 61. More about this tomorrow as we examine “grace giving.”

Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom