Every
tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the
trees, is the Lord's; it is holy to the Lord.
You
shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year.
And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his
name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of
your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear
the LORD your God always… And you shall not neglect the Levite who is within
your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you. At the end of every
three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year
and lay it up within your towns.
And
the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the
sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come
and eat and be filled, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of
your hands that you do.
Leviticus 27:30 & Deuteronomy
14:22-29
Questions about tithing usually crop up when
Christians discuss giving. Tithing is often understood to mean giving 10% of
our income to God, usually, to our church. Some Christians think it is
mandatory while others think it a requirement in the Torah, the Old Testament ‘Law’,
that Christians do not have to observe. The problem for many churches is that
the Christians who believe tithing is mandatory usually give 10% and only 10%
of their income while the rest, who think it is legalism, usually give less.
Trying to understand tithing in the Torah is not quite
as easy as it may seem. Reading the passages from Leviticus 27 and Deuteronomy 14 quoted above, and a
passage in Numbers 18, it is not entirely clear whether they stipulate a single
tithe used for different purposes or different tithes. I understand that in 1st
Century Israel, it was generally believed to be different tithes that totalled about
23%, depending on how you did the calculations. In addition, the
Israelites were obliged to pay a flat rate ‘Temple’ taxes and to offer
sacrifices, all of which took the total ‘cost’ of obedience to well over a
quarter of a person’s income.
It is unclear whether the tithes were of income or
assets: there seems to be no tithe on income from the sale of produce, like
milk and cheese, or for fishermen, builders and artists.It is, however, clear that the Levites who received the tithe had an obligation to give 10% of it to the Lord, as a 'tithe of the tithe' (see Numbers 18:26).
To try to justify a flat rate 10% tithe of income for all Christians from
the detailed provisions found in the Torah is difficult but it is easy to demonstrate it from the obligation on the Levites. As a consequence, I have heard of churches where, each year, the members will tithe their net worth or the extent to which their net worth had increased during the previous 12 months. And I have heard of Christians who liken all Christians to the Levites, rather than to all the Israelites, and so expect an on-going tithe of income. While I can see that these practices can achieve a tremendous amount of good, I do not think that they are mandatory for all Christians or represent the best practice that God has in mind.
_____________________________________________
You
have been sent this e-mail because you subscribed to Reflections on God & Money.
Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans
2013.
Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
Handling
money and dealing with debt can be complicated and neither the author nor
anyone else involved in the production of these Reflections is responsible for
any action you take, or fail to take, based on what is written here. You are
invited to put a link on your website to these Reflections. You are welcome to
copy these Reflections for personal study or for circulation to family and
friends on a non-profit basis. For any other purpose, whether or not for
profit, you will require written permission in advance from the author before
copying, reproducing or transmitting extracts in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or using any
information storage and retrieval system.
