Culturally Irrelevant

I thought I was doing pretty good balancing out this whole 10% thing. 3 cups of New Testament, 2 tablespoons of Old, a pinch of people’s opinions…sip…almost there. But as I was out mowing the yard, God knocked the bowl over and sat me down.

I hear the Father saying, “Beloved, my Son isn’t counting pennies anymore because his hands are holding a cross going up a hill to die. Will you leave the money table to follow him?” Death, sin, sickness and the grave are conquered, but as long as the Bride is in the earth, Jesus joins her as she takes up her cross to climb a hill and die with Him there. And as that cross is lifted up, He draws the world in love. That’s what’s really going on.

Paul walked face to face with life and death, glory and pain, God and his persecutors. It’s no wonder that he didn’t get sidetracked with counting the Corinthians’ pennies and demanding his rights. He was there to die, to be poured out wine and broken bread for the sake of their eternal position in Christ. Like his Lord, he laid down his rights, became a servant, worked with his hands to provide an example for the Bride and then showed them how to live and suffer with power. If providing a life-sized example that would expose the “false apostles” for who they really were meant giving up money, so be it.

Have you ever seen a modern day pastor, overseer, apostle or prophet lay down his or her right to compensation for the sake of presenting Jesus’ Bride as a pure, spotless virgin? It’s rare.

I’m struggling with the relevance of a percentage while many of my friends, from Africa to America, are sleeping in foxholes and front line trenches, pouring out their lives for the ones Jesus’ died to save. They’re not giving token service, but sharing their very lives with AIDS victims, lonely orphans, widows, drug addicts, the demon possessed and the mentally ill.

A man I work with is fond of interrupting conversations and high-level meetings to remind everyone of something: “Guys,” he’ll say, “I want everyone to know that I deserve death…” (long pause) “…but Jesus has given me life.” When that’s our reality, do you really think we need to give a 10% guideline? I’d rather spend my time presenting the gospel with power, pointing people to Jesus’ death and resurrection, intimacy with the Father and real acts of religion, like sharing life with and meeting the needs of broken and hurting people. When that’s our reality, money won’t be an issue.

What was the cross really about? In the past I’ve taught about what it did for me. But that’s just from my perspective. The Word says, “for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.” It’s also about what the cross did for Jesus. He won a spotless bride, a woman ready to die with him so she can live with him. In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself. The cross isn’t just about us, our prosperity, healing and forgiveness. That’s all in there, but everything He has given us is meant to be given right back to Him in adoration, just like Jesus will turn around at the end of everything and give it all back to the Father.

So it’s about giving, not 10%. Giving what? My life, my body, my everything. That’s all He requires.

I’m surprised that at this point in my life as a believer I don’t have a more solid conviction on this whole issue of the 10% rule. Maybe I should, but for some reason I find myself wanting to dig deeper to understand the Father’s heart. Anyways, I’m still digging. For better or worse, here are some ideas I came across during my sweep of the web.

One writer believes, based on the principle that much has been given to Christians and much is required, 10% is now the minimum. Another writer brought up the law of first mention, pointing back to Abraham’s giving a tenth of the spoil to Melchizedek, which was before the Mosaic Law was given. Another article supported the idea that the tithe is just as relevant today as it was in the Old Testament, comparing it to the continuing relevance of the Ten Commandments.

Still another highly ranked article believes the New Testament doesn’t clarify whether tithing is applicable for believers. Among other examples, it mentioned the fact that Paul didn’t ask the Corinthians for monetary assistance. The author’s final conclusion: while believers are called to support the ministry, there’s no clear teaching in the New Testament that strictly applies the Old Covenant tithing principle to New Testament believers.

One helpful article I ran across was on Crosswalk.com, called Is Tithing for the New Testament Believer? The writer addresses some of the fears behind people’s arguments against tithing, but in the end says the amount we give is between us and God and we shouldn’t discourage people from wanting to tithe.

As you can see, I haven’t made this a highly academic study. I want to know what average people really believe about it. I’m still praying, talking to people I look up to and chewing on the Scriptures. Overall, I’ve discovered that this is a hotly debated topic across the board. The church is all over the map on whether or not the 10% rule still applies as a core teaching and expectation. Abuse by leaders exists, for sure, and even though they’re in the minority, it has caused a lot of fear and knee-jerk reactions. Some resist even the thought of being expected to give 10% simply because they’re stingy. That’s obviously not a good reason to reject the 10% rule, but it’s a reality.

It seems the issue has become more complicated than it really is, but I’ll stave off any final conclusions for now while I let some of this stuff sink in.

Is 10% giving mandatory, or even expected, in New Testament teaching? Is it assumed because of the largely Jewish audience? Probably. Is it a good place to start, as so many pastors today teach? It could be, but then why didn’t Jesus or Paul use it as a starting place when they taught? Should I follow what’s being taught in most churches today and teach people that they need to give at least 10% of their income? If so, what do I tell them will happen if they don’t follow this principle? Is God’s blessing on the 10% rule?

As a basline here, I want to assume the spirit of the law of tithing, i.e., the recognition that everything belongs to God, our love and worship most importantly, and that he wants us to show our understanding of this by gladly giving him the firstfruits of all types of resources: time, skill, money, property, etc. To ignore this principle is to deny God as our Source and, in effect, rob him of our worship.

That said, I’m wading through some thoughts about the 10% rule specifically because the reference to it is so commonly accepted and taught today, yet strangely absent from the New Testament, including Paul’s epistles to the Gentiles, who weren’t accustomed to tithing by law.

My bias, up front, is honestly mixed. I grew up as an Assemblies of God kid, so I walked into church every Sunday morning with my Buddy Barrel full of change. I’m really thankful that I was taught early on to give generously. However, I also saw people in our church being publicly recognized according to the amounts they gave, something for which I’m not thankful.

I tithed meticulously through high school, college and into my early to mid-twenties. But there were also times in life as a grad student and newlywed living 1300 miles away from normal when we were selling our things to pay bills and put food on the table. During those times, tithing occasionally came down to paying a bill or putting the right amount of money in the bucket. There were months we didn’t calculate how much we were giving; we gave what we could and sometimes we gave to friends who needed food or gas money rather than to the church we were attending. To tell the truth, that occasionally came with a feeling of guilt, wondering if I was going to be spiritually unprotected because I wasn’t meeting the 10% rule.

A few observations:

• Tithing was an Old Testament mandate with a blessing and a curse attached to it. Can we have one without the other? Can we say Christians will be blessed for giving 10%, as a rule, without teaching that they come under a curse if they don’t strictly tithe as the Jews were commanded to do?

• Tithing was mandated under the Mosaic law within a specific economic context of no additional taxes (like we pay Federal and State); the tithe was the tax for Old Testament Israel as part of national systems related to economics, welfare and supporting the justice system

• The 10% rule isn’t taught in the New Testament as an expectation for Christ followers

• The only time Jesus mentions tithing is in the context of rebuking religious people who tithe meticulously, yet break the more weighty commands of justice, mercy and faithfulness

• Both Jesus and Paul say explicitly that the most important, overarching principle behind giving is the heart attitude

• Jesus said the woman who gave two copper coins gave more than anyone because it was all she had

• Paul commended the Philippians for giving above and beyond their means to help impoverished Christians

• Many wealthy believers in the Acts revival gave lavishly to meet the needs of the poor and create economic equality in the body; they certainly went beyond the 10% rule

What does all of this mean for the 10% rule? For one, I realize taking away the 10% as an expectation threatens revenue predictability, which churches in our culture need to create operating budgets so they can, with some level of dependability, pay staff and building costs. I’ve been on a church staff, so I can appreciate being able to count on a check every two weeks. Faithful giving keeps the lights on and lets the pastor know what the church can safely commit to. However, is it possible that in some cases the tail is wagging the dog?

It seems Jesus intentionally messed with this principle because he wanted to adjust priorities. In the New Testament, it was a shift from focusing on the physical temple and religious hierarchy as a thing of beauty and authority to the glory of the transformed heart and the body of believers as God’s true tent of meeting.

What’s going on at the root here? Just a question, not a judgment. I’d love to hear your feedback. Are you seeing things in the Scriptures that I’m missing?