I guess sacrificial giving are two words that people are willing to put together.

not willing

Hi Dr. Ben,
Thanks so much for the continuing installments on Jesus and money. Our pastor exhorts people to tithe and any giving over that 10th percent would be sacrificial giving. What do you say to those (myself) that don’t tithe one week because we’ve helped out a neighbor because they didn’t have money that week for groceries due to unemployment issues?? Should we tithe and give that? I know we need to support our church too so what is your advice on working that out?
In Christ,
Aaron

Perhaps the account in Genesis 14 of Abraham paying tithes of all his gain to Melchizadek, king of Salem, suggests that tithing predates Moses and the Law. Thus, it is not one of the “jot and tittle” of the Law fulfilled by the Savior’s mission. Tithing supports one’s church, destroys the love of money, and invokes the blessings Malachi described in 3:10. Ultimately, tithing is paid by faith, not by money. A thought for Aaron: if you have made a commitment to pay tithing, you have voluntarily given up discretionary authority over it, even to do the good you mentioned. If that is the case, then you have to dig deeper to do more good with your money. Perhaps Peter’s counsel to Ananias in Acts 5 can play a role here: our stuff is ours until we covenant to give some of it to the Lord; then we better follow through with our commitments.

OK, I forgot to enter my name.

Aaron,
My take on your situation is much different than Dan’s. You are to be commended for doing the right thing. There are certain instances where loving God and neighbor may demand my giving go to those in need rather than to my church. For instance, at the moment my church is doing well financially due to God’s goodness. My family and I have decided that this month and the next couple, we will be directing our monthly “church” giving to Haiti relief (in any one month what we give to our church makes up about 1/3 to 1/2 of our total monthly sacrificial giving for Kingdom purposes). We believe very strongly this is what God wants us to do with his money.
Also, with all due respect to your pastor, he/she is simply wrong on his exhortation to tithe and that “anything over ten percent is sacrificial giving.” Ben is right on this one. For the single mom of three kids who is having difficulty finding sufficient work, giving six percent might be an extreme sacrifice. Perhaps in her case giving ten percent would be an irresponsible mishandling of God’s money! And on the other hand, the wealthy corporate executive who gives forty percent of his/her income might not be giving sacrificially at all.

Dan,
I must disagree with your assessment of tithing. I’m puzzled by your point concerning Abraham’s tithe. Is it not also true that the Bible records sacrifices prior to the giving of the Mosaic Law? Are sacrifices then also “not one of ‘jot and tittle’ of the Law fulfilled by the Savior’s mission”? Additionally, I don’t see where tithing destroys the love of money. I know quite a lot of people who tithe and yet love money very much. I know many as well who generously and sacrificially give, but of those I don’t know any of them who love money. I also think of the rich man who came to Jesus asking what he should do to gain eternal live. After admitting that he kept all the demands of the Law (including tithing?), he was unable/unwilling to give up his money because he loved it too much. Apparently tithing isn’t the antidote to love of money after all.
Unlike a tithe, generous and sacrificial giving is not some business transaction with God whereby I give X amount (read 10%) and then I expect him in turn to bless me (and if I don’t give X amount, then he won’t bless). Generous and sacrificial giving is an aspect of a love relationship with Jesus that cannot be quantified and thus cannot be evaluated on the basis of a fixed percentage or amount.

I would say that sacrificial giving has to be based on an estimate of all that you give— time, money, other resources. After all, in Abraham’s and Moses day, money wasn’t the main means of giving anyway— food was!!
Ben

Dr. Ben, Dan, and Mark,
Thanks very much for your responses.
I’ve always been persuaded that it’s as Dr. Ben states above, “time, money, other resources.” We’re relatively new to our church and they practice a 10% tithing. The pastor practices what he preaches so I don’t have any problem with that, rather it’s the misapplication of scripture that I disagree with.
We do love our church dearly as it’s very active in evagalization, community outreach, and discipleship. We’ve just organized a spaghetti dinner to raise money for the people in Haiti and we provided about 200 turkey dinners to families in need this past Christmas. So the tithing “issue” is very minor to me.
Thanks again.
In Christ,
Aaron

My wife and I learned to tithe about fourteen years ago — not as an obligation of law but as an opportunity of grace. Our only regret is that we did not learn to do this sooner. I wrote a blog article about it a couple of years ago: “Learning to Tithe” http://www.thefaithlog.com/2008/03/learning-to-tithe.html

Thank you so much for pointing out that the Law of Tithing is not Christian. There are Pentacostal denominations in the country where I live, where the pastor literally owns all the church assets, which preach (often!) that not only is paying the full tithe to the church absolutely mandatory, but that all other good deeds are canceled in the sight of God if tithing is not practiced. While counseling some distraught members of this group whose poverty made it impossible to survive on 90% of their family income ($150/month!), I came upon this amazingly detailed treatment of the subject http://www.tithing-russkelly.com . The facts that orthodox Jews have not paid the tithe since the destruction of the Temple in 70AD and that there is no evidence of Christians being required to pay the tithe before the 8th century were a shock! Yes, Paul was right. “The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil”, even within the church itself.

I am aware of the use of the word translated “tithes” in the Genesis record. As to what it constituted (10% of what, the booty? did Abraham make a regular trip to pay tithing?), and why paid to the King of Salem, is not as clear. But the practice in some form did pre-date the Mosaic law. It is a fair question whether such a practice should have transferred to the Christian world at the time of the Apostles. The beginning of the Christian church was apparently funded by a sacrificial offering that went far beyond 10%. I will look at Ken’s reference when I get a minute. Clearly, tithing, like attendance at church services, partaking of the Lord’s supper, and all other smilar actions of faith, is an outward sign of an inward motive. If the motive for paying tithing is sacrifice and gratitude to God, then it will indeed destroy the love of money. I have seen in my church that tithing is the first thing to go when a member’s faith begins to fade. Thanks all for the discussion.

Mark, the Pharisee in Luke 18:10-12 would be an example of what you described.