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TITHING IS NOT ENOUGH And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you. But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone (Luke 11:39-42).
Jesus had been invited to a meal in the home of a Pharisee. The Pharisee mentally noted ("marvelled") that Jesus did not wash his hands before eating (v. 38). This practice was not an Old Covenant requirement; it was a later addition to traditional Jewish law. Jesus then stung him with these words. There was nothing polite about His response. He was merciless in His condemnation, not just of this one Pharisee but of all of them. He would say the same thing in public on another occasion: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone" (Matt. 23:23).
The Tithe The tithe is man's affirmation of God's sovereign original ownership of the creation. The Bible is clear about what this percentage is: ten percent. "And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD" (Lev. 27:32). "For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace" (Hebrews 7:1-2).
It is frequently argued in my day that the Mosaic law required a tithe, but the New Testament does not impose this requirement. Both of these assertions are misleading. First, the payment of a tithe preceded the Mosaic law. As we have seen, Abraham tithed to Melchizedek, the priest of Salem (Gen. 14:20). Second, Luke 11:39-42 is explicit: the Pharisees owed a tithe on the smallest portion of their income. "These ought ye to have done."
A critic of mandatory tithing could argue that Jesus cited an Old Covenant requirement, but it does not bind us today. In other words, this command is found in the New Testament, but it was part of the Old Covenant order. The problem with this line of reasoning is that there is no passage in the New Testament that exempts the Israel of God -- the church (Gal. 6:16) -- from the tithe. What is the judicial basis of the supposed exemption? What has changed judicially? Is God any less the owner of the universe? Is He any less sovereign over history? Is the New Testament priesthood not entitled to the tithe that Melchizedek was entitled to, despite the fact that the Epistle to the Hebrews teaches that the New Testament church rests on Jesus' office as high priest, which is after the order of Melchizedek?
"But," the critic hastens to add, "Christians may want to give more than ten percent!" A few might. Most of them give way, way less. No denomination today collects anywhere near ten percent. This has been true throughout church history. But even if men choose to give more, this extra giving is part of their offerings. Old Covenant believers also gave offerings. The judicial issue then as now was this: What percentage of their net income do men owe God as His stewards?
The requirement to tithe ten percent of one's income was not laid on the Pharisees alone. Jesus was not limiting His discussion of the tithe to the religious leaders. The tithe is God's portion, which is owed to His sacramental agency, the institutional church.(1) Abraham paid Melchizedek, who had presented Abraham with bread and wine: "And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God" (Gen. 14:18). The Mosaic law required the Israelites to pay the Levites ten percent, who in turn were to pay the priests ten percent (Num. 18:26). The priests were those members of the tribe of Levi who offered sacrifices in the temple. Only the priests were exempt from the tithe, as the final recipients of the tithe. There was no group above them to act as God's representatives for tithe-collection. (This principle of final recipient applies to the income received by ministers from the church.)(2)
The tithe is related to the sacraments because they are tokens of God's gracious provision to His people of the past atonement for our sins (baptism) and a future shared meal with Him (Lord's Supper). The Lord's Supper is a prelude to the marriage supper of the lamb to His bride, the church (Rev. 19:7-9). Because the sacraments are not to be sold, they are offered to all communicant church members, even those who do not pay their tithes. But the moral obligation to pay the tithe is still there, even for those who are not members of the church. The tithe is what all men owe to God. God does not delegate to the State the authority to compel such payments. Covenant-keepers are supposed to honor God by paying ten percent to the local church that sustains its share of God's common grace order in history. This is voluntary. Voting members should tithe as a condition of exercising the ecclesiastical franchise. This restriction is important in order to protect the church's treasury from members with personal agendas that they are not willing to fund by means of their own proportional giving to the church.
Offerings are given by church members in addition to the tithe. Offerings can lawfully be donated to the church or to other charitable institutions. They are a way to express our thanks to God beyond the minimal requirement of the tithe. The common pastoral phrase in American Protestant churches is this: "We will now bring our tithes and offerings." Then designated agents pass collection plates down the aisles. The phrase is "tithes and offerings." It is not "tithes or offerings." But it is generally interpreted as the latter, even by pastors.
The tithe is a representative admission by man that God owns everything. "For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills" (Ps. 50:10). It is a token payment that symbolizes God's original ownership of everything, including mankind. Ownership is theocentric. Christian economics begins with a declaration of God's original ownership.(3) In contrast, secular economics begins with scarcity, i.e., the results of God's curse (Gen. 3:17-19).
Weightier Matters The tithe is every man's minimal obligation to God. Beyond this, Jesus said, are weightier matters: the law, judgment, mercy, and faith (Matt. 23:23), as well as giving alms and the love of God (Luke 11:41, 42). The tithe was not identified by Jesus as one of the weighty matters. Yet men's refusal to pay the tithe is universal, and has been throughout church history. Covenant-keepers have enormous trouble in fulfilling what Jesus identified as a relatively minor matter. It is therefore not surprising that they have even greater trouble with weightier matters.
The tithe is a token payment to God that testifies to His complete ownership of the creation. But it is a token in another sense: a token of covenant-keepers' ability to exercise law, judgment, mercy, and faith. When covenant-keepers pay their tithes to the local church, they are declaring that they are spiritually ready to begin considering the weightier requirements of the faith. When they refuse to pay their tithes to the local church, they are saying that they are not ready to begin considering these weightier matters. This is what Jesus told the Pharisees in no uncertain terms. He condemned them publicly, yet they paid their tithes. Nevertheless, most Christians believe that Jesus does not offer an even worse condemnation of them when they refuse to pay their tithes, despite their greater knowledge of God through Christ.
Dominion begins with the payment of the tithe to the local church. Only then are covenant-keepers in a position to begin to extend God's comprehensive kingdom in history through law, judgment, mercy, faith, alms, and the love of God.
The institutional church finds itself on the defensive today. Christians have offered many excuses for the impotence of today's church: pessimistic eschatologies, original sin, easy believism, people's lack of theology, carnal Christianity, and so forth. This is not where we must begin our analysis. Jesus implicitly began with men's failure to tithe. He criticized the Pharisees because they had systematically refused to deal with weightier matters, even though they had paid their tithes. But Christians rarely pay their tithes.
In his commentary on Luke, Hendriksen denies the obvious, namely, that Jesus was here affirming the mandatory nature of the tithe. He interprets Jesus' words as requiring this of the New Testament Christian: ". . . (a) he should give systematically and proportionally, that is, in proportion to his ability (I Cor. 16:2); and (b) he should give generously and cheerfully (II Cor. 9:7)."(4) This nonspecific approach places Christians in a difficult position, not knowing how much is too little and therefore an insult to God. This confusion produces needless guilt in those who pay their tithes, and it also produces a seared conscience (I Tim. 4:2) in those who refuse.
Conclusion The dominion covenant mandates tithing. The Christian who cannot bring himself to pay to the local church ten percent of his net increase lacks both faith and self-discipline. He is like a would-be soldier who cannot bring himself to go through basic training. He is untrained in the basics, yet he hopes to give a good account of himself before God and men on the battlefield. He has handicapped himself in advance.
We should be cheerful about paying a tithe and even more. We should see this as an honor. We should learn to trust God for our provisions. Jesus said, "Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Luke 12:27-31). This takes faith to believe. Tithing is an initial practical step that allows us to test both our faith and God's response.
Footnotes:
1. Gary North, Tithing and the Church (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1994). North, Sanctions and Dominion: An Economic Commentary on Numbers (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1997), ch. 10.
2. The church can pay a minister enough to enable him to tithe back to the church, but this is just a form of internal accounting for the church.
3. Gary North, Inherit the Earth: Biblical Blueprints for Economics (Ft. Worth, Texas: Dominion Press, 1987), ch. 1.
4. William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: An Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1978), p. 640.
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