God does not need your money! We can be sure that God does not need us to provide for his needs. But, this begs the question, “If God does not need my money, why does he ask for it?” Moreover, if God is absolutely perfect and self-sustaining, why does he ask us to give anything at all? Why did he require gifts from Cain and Abel? Why did He ask Abraham for Isaac? Why did he specifically require sacrifices from the people of Israel? The ancient Assyrians would mostly likely suggest that it was because he was hungry, or lonely, or angry. At least this would be the case for their gods. You see, the pagan gods in all of their diversity had a crucial similarity; everyone of them were born out of human imagination. Therefore, their gods could only ever been more exciting and powerful images of themselves. However, the Bible is very clear concerning YHWH’s uniqueness. If there is one thing that we can be absolutely certain of, YHWH is not like us. He was not created to look like us, we have been created to look like him.
So, we are back to our conundrum. Why does God seem to want our money? Every Christian conversation that I have had regarding tithing never seems to answer this question. To be sure, a person can tell me what the Bible has to say about the tithe. However, I have found such exegesis to exhibit a great stretching of the rules of good Bible study as they rarely address the entire Biblical context. I rarely ever hear tithing spoken of as a matter of holiness. When has God ever ask humanity to do something that is not ultimately connected to His transforming work in us? God ask for Isaac for the sake of Abraham’s transformation. Abraham was transformed from a man that depended on the promise, to a man that depended on the Promiser. In this Book Where are you God?, Dr. John Oswalt notes that
“The tenth is not rigidly imposed on Christians as it was upon the Jews. It was rigidly imposed on them because it was an object lesson teaching spiritual truth. The spiritual truth is something like this: giving to God is a necessity for our spiritual well-being. As we make this physical surrender of our goods to God, we testify that all of our goods are from His bounty; we proclaim to the world that He is worth our best; and we affirm our helplessness to care for ourselves, and our trust in His willingness and ability to do so. Only in the light of these attitudes is it possible to have that living relationship with God on which our soul’s life depends.” God would communicate this reality through the means of giving. Tithing was an object lesson which taught holiness.
My money could convince me that I do not need God, that I can supply my own needs; that like the fruit, I can take it for myself opening my eyes and making me like God. So, how are we to understand these things? If we work strictly from the Old Testament, we would be required to bring our grain and cattle to the church. I am certain that this would not go well. Ah, but we have the New Testament and Paul. Unfortunately, and I looked, Paul is stunningly silent on the subject, and there is not place in the New Testament were a Christian is required to give a tithe in the way that it has been communicated in modern teaching. In modern parlance, the tithe is what I am required to give God, and the offering is everything I give above my 10%. But what if the New Testament is quite on this issue because 10% is south of the mark? Is it possible that we have fallen into a form of modern legalism, looking only at the rule and missing the motive. After all, whose money is it in the first place? In his sermon The Use of Money John Wesley writes
“Do not stint yourself…to this or that proportion. Render unto God, not a tenth, not a third, not half, but all that is God’s, be it more or less; by employing all on yourself, your household, the household of faith, and all mankind, in such a manner, that you may give a good account of your stewardship…in such a manner that whatever you do may be ‘a sacrifice of sweet smelling savor to God.”
While Christian giving assists in the furthering of kingdom work, funding administrative and ministerial costs, this is not its primary employment. God does not need our money to keep His work funded. No, tithing is about grace, trust, and holiness. In fact, it is a means of God’s saving grace, teaching us to depend on him. This is why Paul warns us that “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Words such as these seem to indicate motivation as the primary concern in one’s giving. Is it possible that God asks for our money (which as Wesley suggests isn’t ours in the first place) as a means of his salvation in our lives. In many ways, tithing is a teaching mechanism or object lesson by which God communicates his work of grace to us. But how does this communicate His very nature in our lives? and why is it such a tragedy if we miss the point of tithing? What is really at risk here? These are questions that I hope to address in my next post, so keep reading.
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