Malachi & Tithing

Posted on August 10, 2006 by jlove

I have been reading Malachi this week.  I ended up there after reading several passages on Tithing.  It is a very interesting book, and while this post won’t be a very well-thoughtout one, I decided to do a little blogging tonight. :)

One thing I noticed early on in Malachi is that it is full of Q&As.  It is like a dialog between the Priests of Israel and God.  I found it interesting that He is addressing his Q&A session to the Priests and not the general population at large.  At least that is what it seems like to me.  What do you think?

Another idea I want to make a note about is Tithing.  I grew up taking Tithing for granted…meaning that without question, we should tithe to our local church - off our Gross Income of course.  I have to admit, I have begun to question that over the last several years of my life.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I still believe in giving and being generous.  However, I’m just not sure I will give any church my total 10%.

A few questions I have about it are these:

  1. Does anyone know of a place where Jesus discussed it?  I’m looking for any NT references.
  2. I’m very cautious about giving all my gifts/donations to 1 local church, b/c I have connections to other places & people.  Also, I worry in general about where & how many local churches I see are spending their money.
  3. What do you think about the ‘History’ of tithing?  What I mean is, we talk about tithing off every paycheck, etc.  It seems that maybe tithing was only done a few times a year in Scripture.  Any thoughts about that and the relation to an agrarian society as opposed to our modern culture?

I’m a believer in living below our means, so I hope this doesn’t come across as I want to have more for myself.  Just some questions about this theological concept called ‘Tithing’ that we often stand behind and promote.

I was reminded that Malachi was a neat book, as I had read it before long ago.  I would encourage you to check it out if you haven’t had a chance.  Let me know your thoughts!

3 Comments »

Comment by Jungle Pop

August 10, 2006 @ 11:19 pm

As I remember, the only times Jesus mentions tithing is when slamming the Pharisees. “You tithe this but ignore that.” That kind of thing. He doesn’t say tithing is bad - just points out how they misuse the concept.

I think you’re right about tithing being less frequent than once a week. I also remember that if you add up all that the Israelites were told to tithe, it came to like 28% in all!

As for me, I’m anti-tithing. I’ve come to believe that the New Testament teaches us that we should be way more generous than giving 10%. So am I? Well, I’m working on it! But 10% is always a good place for someone to start.

Comment by Brian

August 11, 2006 @ 11:05 am

Hmmm, now you have me wanting to go back and read Malachi. No small feat….

I’m pretty much in agreement with you on the whole tithing thing. I think it’s interesting what “rules” we’ve imported out of the Old Covenant while ignoring certain others.

Like Joe, the only place I can think of that Jesus is talking about tithing is when he uses it confront the Pharisees with their legalism. And the rest of the N.T talks a lot about giving, but not so much about tithing.

Once you get rid of the 10% rule I think it frees you up to give where you want to. I do think you should support your local church but when you don’t feel pressured to “tithe” I think it frees you up to give to the causes you feel burdened for. Generosity is not measured in percentage points.

From a practical standpoint, giving on a weekly or monthly basis probabally makes sense because that’s how so many organizations budget. It just makes things easier from a planning standpoint but I don’t see it as a hard and fast rule. I thought the percentage was around 23% in the OT but I could be wrong about that. But most of that was to support the Levitical priesthood. And we complain about income tax…

Good questions Jlove!

Comment by Lynn

August 12, 2006 @ 4:34 pm

Regarding the over 20% the Israelites gave . . . that was their total taxation system, and it wasn’t currency, it was in livestock and crops, mostly. And that was both their religious duty, and their governmental duty combined. I think we have to take that factor into consideration when thinking about their giving and comparing/contrasting it to our giving.

We pay taxes to our government, and those are compulsory. We also ought to support our church with giving. But the only verse I can see which directs believers on how much to give to the church places the decision right back on the believer:

II Cor. 9:7 — “Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver.”

That passage ends with “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” That is the Lord Jesus. We can never outdo God in giving!

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