“Heart Givers”

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

A coworker and I had a discussion on tithing.  He is a member of the Church of God (not the biblical one).  Well, he was saying 1 Cor. 16:2 is referring to the support a congregation gives to mission work; he says that Paul was doing mission work going town to town.  Now, I told him I would have to get back to him on that.  To me, it kind of seems like that MIGHT have been the case.  I understand that the Old Law died with Jesus.  What is good Scripture to show that we do or do not tithe?  How much do we give if a certain amount is not commanded?

Sincerely,
Signing The Check

Dear Signing The Check,

The New Testament and Old Testament teachings on giving are similar… but not the same.  The Old Testament was very specific that giving should be a minimum of ten percent (Deut 14:22).  The word ‘tithe’ means ‘one-tenth’.  However, we don’t obey Old Testament laws because we are no longer under that law (Gal 3:23-25).  If your coworker wants to teach that you must tithe, he needs to provide you with a New Testament verse for that teaching.  It is his responsibility to provide a command or example for specific giving amounts, not your responsibility to disprove it.

In the New Testament, we see a more generic teaching on giving.  Though ten percent is a good rule of thumb (after all, the Old Testament is given to us as an example – 1 Cor 10:11), christians are simply told to “give as they have prospered” (1 Cor 16:1-2) and to be cheerful givers (2 Cor 9:7), but God never specifically says how much christians should give.  That is an issue of wisdom and is left for each individual heart to work out for itself (Php 2:12).  The specific rule of giving one-tenth of our income no longer applies; instead, we are told to examine our hearts and give thankfully.  1 Cor 16:2 does deal with collecting money for the needy saints in Jerusalem, but it is also the only New Testament pattern we have for when and how the church should collect money, so the principles would apply.

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