Are Christians Required to Tithe 10%?

Have you ever been told that if you don't give 10%, you're robbing God? Or been asked whether you should tithe on your gross income or your net? A lot of what Christians have been taught about tithing doesn't actually line up with Scripture.

In this episode we work through the most common arguments for the 10% tithe and ask a straightforward question: does the New Testament actually require it? We look at what the Old Testament tithing system was really for, the passages in Malachi, Matthew, and Genesis that get used to make the case, and what Paul actually teaches about giving in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.

Here's the short answer: there is no command or even an example of New Covenant Christians being required to tithe 10% of their income to a local church. But that's not a loophole to give less. It's an invitation to give regularly, deliberately, cheerfully, and proportionately, which for many of us means giving more than 10%, not less.

Whether you're a pastor working through a stewardship series or a church member trying to honor God with your finances, this one will help you think more biblically about giving.

Key Passages: Matthew 23:23, Malachi 3:8-10, Genesis 14, 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9

Resources Mentioned
The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn
 Why Should I Give to My Church? by Jamie Dunlop

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Are Christians required to tithe ten percent of their income? It's one of the most common points of confusion. It's a common teaching in a lot of evangelical circles, and many Christians are left scratching their heads, and many walk away with some false conceptions about what the Bible says about giving. Are Christians, New Testament, New Covenant Christians, are we required to tithe 10%? This is an important question because unfortunately, there is a lot of teaching out there that has caused some confusion and led, even led to some harm by maybe, you know, well-meaning preachers and teachers who have, you know, presented people with a teaching on tithing that doesn't necessarily line up with scripture. So for example, I had the privilege of preaching at my local church on a series of on stewardship and generosity. And, you know, it was interesting as I was just fielding questions from various people, just asking, like, hey, what are some, what are some teachings you heard as a newer believer on this topic that now looking back, you realize, wow, that that didn't really line up for with scripture. So for example, I had someone share with me that they asked their pastor or a pastor, I don't know if it was their their pastor, but they asked this pastor, like, hey, you know, how much should I be giving to the church? Like, how should I understand giving to this church? And the pastor's response was, you should give until it hurts. Like, what does that even mean? Like, what how does that, how is that helpful? That sounds more like a guilt-driven type of giving. I had another individual who's shared with me that they once heard a preacher tell them that if anyone ever gives you a gift, so think about a Christmas gift, a birthday gift, you should ask that person how much that gift costs. So that way you can tithe 10% of the cost of that gift you receive to your local church. Now, those are more extreme, outlandish stories, and I can give several more. I mean, listen, there's all sorts of teachings out there, such as the prosperity gospel, which or the word of faith movement, where there's teachings that communicate to Christians, like, hey, if you 10x your giving, then the Lord's gonna 10x your house, or you're gonna get that job you've been praying for, you're gonna get that car that's been on your wish list for the last couple of years. And so it's almost like training people to use God as this transactional genie in which, hey, if you give God stuff, your money, well, then you get like a free token to use when you really want something, you just deposit that token and into the Lord's bank and you get one wish granted to you. And sometimes the opposite can be taught, such as, well, the reason you're struggling in life, the reason you're suffering, the reason you were sinned against in that way, or that you got that cancer diagnosis, or you were laid off, is because you're not you're not giving to the Lord. You're not giving God his tithe, and therefore you are not reaping the spiritual protection and benefits that he has for those who do faithfully give to the Lord. Well, I want to be faithful to the Lord, and so I do want to tithe 10% of my income, but should I tithe 10% of my gross income or my net income? And the response typically is well, do you want God to bless your net or your gross? And it's like, where is this stuff coming from? And so let's let's address this a little bit. And so I have some notes here, and what I want to do is just walk through some common teachings that are used to make an argument for Christians to tithe 10%. But let me just start by giving flat out my answer to the question, are Christians required to tithe 10% of their income? And my short answer is no. I do not believe that there is a single passage of scripture that commands or even gives an example of new covenant Christians being required to tithe 10% of their income to a local church. And I will get to that in a second. But let me just start with some of the arguments for the 10% tithe. And I'm gonna work through each one of these and explain why that I believe they're not persuasive. Now, let me be clear, as we walk through this, I do believe for some who have not really explored this topic and you're trying to be a faithful church member and you want to support the gospel ministry of your local church, I believe starting at 10% of your income is a great place to start. But I would say don't stay there, but rather grow in your understanding of what the New Testament teaches. Because as you grow in a fuller understanding of God's word on this topic, then the more faithfully you can glorify the Lord and your and edify your brothers and sisters in your local church and help reach the loss, as your theology grows, your giving grows along with it. But here are some common teachings that support the 10% tithe. Number one, well, actually, this isn't an argument, but I think to comprehend this topic, we need to start first with understanding what was the purpose of the Old Testament tithing system. So we tend to forget that we approach the Bible with Western eyes and we can easily just pick and choose things that we think fit into our cultural moment and just tag on our own theology to it. But if we read the Bible, you know, at face value and understanding the cultural context of the Old Testament, the 10%, the not just the 10% tithe, but the tithing system in general was more of a form of like Israel's taxation system. What I mean by that is we forget that, you know, Israel, before they had a king, they were a theocracy. God was their king. And then you had things in place, such as the Levitical priests who were not allowed to own land. And so you see that a lot of the tithes, the tithing structures that were in place that God implemented were to essentially support the nation of Israel almost like a government, I guess you could say. So here in the US, we pay taxes, you pay local taxes, your tax state taxes, federal taxes, and those taxes support the infrastructure of government. And so in nation, in the nation of Israel's history, that was what the tithing structure looked like. And what's always odd to me is how, you know, there is this teaching of, well, you're required to give 10% of your tithe. However, when you survey the Old Testament, and to be conservative here, is the numbers seemed to fall in the range of the nation of Israel was giving anywhere from 20 to about 25%. Some scholars would even go as far as far as 30. So it was far more than a 10% tithe. Now the word tithe does mean a temp. However, when you look at the Old Testament, they didn't just tithe their money. They tithe, you know, they had all sorts of different offerings. They they gave animals, they gave, you know, grain and other things like that. And and it wasn't all for the same purposes. And so just that argument of, well, let's zero in on attempt, the 10%, is just a little odd to me because that wasn't like Israel would have been foreign to that because they understood, no, we not only did they have the 20 to 25% total tithe, but they also had the concept of free will offerings, or as we would say today, voluntary cheerful giving. So they even with that 20 to 25% range, they gave over the top of that in proportion to their wealth as an offering to the Lord, as an act of worship. And so to understand the Old Testament tithe system, we need to understand that it was a form of taxation, essentially, to fund the nation of Israel, so to speak. But one argument that tends to be made is well, in the Gospels, Jesus commanded tithing. So in the Gospel of Matthew, for example, he rebukes the scribes and Pharisees. In Matthew 23, verse 23, the text reads, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You pay a tenth of mint, deal, and cumin. Now, notice money's not mentioned there. And yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Now notice this. Jesus says, These things should have been done without neglecting the others. So he is affirming you should be tithing, giving, giving these things. Do that, but don't do it at the neglect of these more important matters. Now, some will use this verse, which also shows up in Luke 11, and they'll say, See, Jesus commanded a tithe. Therefore, we should tithe 10% of our income. Now, here's the problem with that argument. We need to read the Bible in its context historically. So, for example, we should ask the question: where are we in redemptive history in this text? When Jesus is rebuking the scribes and the Pharisees in this passage, they are all still living under the Mosaic law. Jesus has not yet gone to the cross, that he has not yet ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit has not yet come, the church has not yet been birthed. Therefore, they still were practicing what Israel has been practicing for centuries, which is living under the Mosaic law. So, for example, Jesus also instructed that we should, you know, uh in in Matthew 5, he instructed his followers to offer sacrifices in the temple. You're familiar with the passage in Matthew 5.23 where Jesus says, So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there you remember your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. Force, first go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Again, we got to ask the question: where are we in redemptive history when Jesus says this? Still living under the Mosaic Law. Jesus has not yet gone to the cross. The church has not yet been inaugurated. We are still under the old covenant. So think about it. Have you ever offered something at the altar on Sunday morning at your local church recently? No, because we understand that Jesus was our ultimate high priest. Jesus was the sacrificial lamb who offered himself once and for all. Therefore, the old Mosaic law that required such sacrifices at an altar are no longer needed or sufficient because Jesus has entered into the holy of holies, so to speak, and offered himself on the altar on our behalf. So, right there, that's not a persuasive argument for a 10% tithe today, because again, we are under the new covenant. Another passage that is commonly used is Malachi chapter 3, verses 8 through 10. Let's look at this, where this is the passage that tends to be used in a lot of sermons on do not rob God, sow into the ministry of this church, and you will reap spiritual blessings. So tithe a temp. Well, let's look at Malachi 3, 8 through 10. The text says, Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. How do we rob you, you ask? By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions. Okay, there it is. You are suffering under a curse, yet you, the whole nation, are still robbing me. Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way, says the Lord of armies. See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure. So this passage can be used in all tort all sorts of ways. And I have seen and heard it abused in all sorts of ways. I've seen it used in prosperity gospel ways, where, hey, sow into the storehouse of God and you will reap spiritual blessings. He will open the floodgates of heaven and pour out his blessings on you if you tithe or sow into this ministry. Again, we are in the old covenant. This is not speaking about the local church. This is not speaking about new covenant Christians following God. The storehouse does not equal the local church. And so we got to be very careful when we're reading the scriptures. Now, don't get me wrong, in the old covenant, Israel would have been robbing God if they did not fulfill their Mosaic law requirements of tithing, as it's described here in Malachi, to the Lord, building into his storehouse, if they refused to do that, then they were robbing God of what was his. Now, I will say where texts like this are helpful, where there are where there is some carryover into the New Testament, is just recognizing God is the owner of everything. So whatever he gives to us, whether it's our our health, whether it's possessions, material possessions, our finances, our education, our careers, all of these things are the Lord's. We are simply managers, stewards of all these things. And we are striving to be a blessing to others with God's things and to glorify God with his things. And so even this concept here in Malachi of, hey, don't rob God, is just a reminder to Israel. Don't forget whose you are and that God has blessed you with everything you have. Which is one reason I believe God and his wisdom even decided in both the Old Testament and then in the new to have this system in which he entrusts us with stuff that are good gifts from the Lord. And we are to train ourselves, so to speak, to just redeploy that stuff, right? Take care of our needs financially, take care of our families, make sure we're meeting our needs, and then redeploy God's resources to advance his kingdom, to edify his saints, to reach the lost, and to glorify God. It's like this built-in catechism system that constantly trains us my money is not my own, my house is not my own, my possessions are not my own, my body is not my own, my mind is not my own. I am to steward all these things for the glory of God. All right. Another argument is well, Abraham and Jacob, they tithed in the Old Testament before the Mosaic Law was inaugurated. So there, there is an argument because they tithed before the law even came on the scene. Therefore, that carries over all the way to the New Testament and somehow morphs into every Christian tithing 10% of their income to a local church. Now, just saying that right there just sounds like a huge stretch because it is, but this is a good pass, these are good case studies to look at. So, for instance, Abraham in Genesis 14 has this interaction with Melchizedek, and he gives Melchazedic a tithe. He definitely does that. However, here's what's interesting about that passage. Number one, it is not prescriptive about giving in general, it's a narrative describing what's going on between, you know, Abraham and Melchizedek. Uh, number two, it's a one-time event, as best as we could tell. There's nothing in the Old Testament that says Abraham ever did this again. We just have this one instance of that recorded, and the same goes with the instance with uh Jacob. It is a one-time act. We don't see it again. Therefore, it's a huge stretch to take that example and say that is prescriptive for every Christian under the New Testament or the New Covenant and how they should be giving to their local church. Like there's no church even on the scene in Genesis 14. It's a one-time gift. There's nothing about it that's prescriptive. There's there's no legitimate claim you can make to say this is a prescriptive pattern mandated by God that carries over all the way into the New Testament. What it seems like is Abraham and Jacob just decided to generously, out of you know their own heart, to be cheerful givers, and they gave a temp. That is just what they chose to do. So, why are these arguments not persuasive to me? Number one, I would say the clearest would be that new covenant Christians are simply no longer no longer under the law. The law is not bad. So let's remember Galatians, where Paul makes it clear like, hey, the law was always meant to be a tutor to prepare us to receive Christ, to help us understand our need for the Lord. And so the law is good. We should celebrate the law, we should benefit from studying the law and understanding why God prescribed the law. However, we can't forget where we are at currently in redemptive history. We are living under the new covenant. The Mosaic law has been fulfilled in Christ. Therefore, we are no longer offering sacrifices. We are no longer tithing animals and all these other things because they're not needed, because Jesus was our ultimate high priest and our sacrificial lamb who offered himself on the cross on our behalf. And just keep in mind, too, nowhere is tithing mentioned, commanded, or even shown as an example in the new covenant era. There's not a single commandment and there's not a single pattern of this under the new covenant. So, with that being said, if I'm not persuaded of the teaching of a 10% required tithe, how should we think about giving under the new covenant? There's a few passages we can look at, look at, but I think some of the most persuasive and helpful are found in 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9. So here's the situation. And the Corinthians, they jumped in on this, you know, and in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, it's it seems like they make it clear like, hey, we we want to contribute. And, you know, it's about maybe a year later, and the money's not yet all together for Paul to come and collect. And so he writes to them, he writes to them to encourage them, like, hey, press on, like, you know, contribute as you said you would, and let's glorify the Lord by helping our brothers and sisters who are struggling. He's trying to like pastorally nudge them across the finish line, so to speak. But let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter 9, because this is a very helpful text. 2 Corinthians chapter 9 in verse 6. The text reads, The point is this the person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously. Now listen to this, verse 7. Each person should do as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work. Now, if you also look at First Corinthians chapter 16, this is also helpful, where Paul says, Now about the collection for the saints, do the same as I instructed the Galatian churches. On the first day of the week, each of you is to set something aside and save in keeping with how he is prospering, so that no collections will need to be made when I come. Now, here's some things to notice from those two passages. Number one is there already was a practice of regular giving on the Sunday gathering. And we see, you know, this is a sidebar, but we also see evidence in 1 Corinthians 16 that the church already was making it a practice to gather on Sunday to worship the risen Savior, Jesus Christ, as a church body. And Paul is instructing them hey, as you do that, bring your collections that you have already deliberately thought about setting aside, bring that to the gathering. And that's already a habit that's taking place. And if some might want to make the argument, well, those are instructions Paul's only given for the church in Corinth. Well, that's not a good argument because in 1 Corinthians 16, Paul makes it clear, hey, the instructions I'm giving you right now, these are the same instructions I gave to the church in Galatia. So clearly, this was already a normative pattern under the new covenant of churches regularly giving to church bodies rather, regularly bringing their offering to the gathering for the edification of others. And that's what's neat about this passage, too. It's not just about giving specifically to their local church. This was a offering that was going to be redistributed to help another like-minded church. So what a pattern that is, right? To encourage us not to be focused just on our own local churches, but to have this heart posture of like, we want to see healthy churches be healthy and help churches remain healthy. So if there's a like-minded church that we are able to connect with and partner with and in some way edify and benefit them and meet their needs, if we have the means, let's do that. And here's what's encouraging, too, is like some of these churches Paul talks about, they were in poverty themselves, and yet they still banded together and gave in proportion to what the Lord had entrusted to them. What an example that is. And so, but Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 9, 6, he gives this principle of reaping and sowing. He says, the person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously. Now, this passage has been abused to say, yeah, if you sow into my ministry, if you sow into this church, you're gonna reap spiritual blessings from the Lord. Now, there definitely is a principle of reaping and uh of sowing and reaping in scripture, in which it clearly teaches on the positive side, if we choose to, you know, take a step of faith and obey the Lord and give regularly, cheerfully, and proportionately to what the Lord has given us, there will be spiritual benefit to our giving. Now, what that does not mean is that God is now our genie and we get whatever we want from Him, which can be selfish things that we just want to, you know, indulge our fleshly desires. But no, like let's use this as an example. This, this Context of this passage, if we are giving out of proportion to the wealth God has entrusted to us, and that financial gift is going to, let's say, support a pregnancy network center in your town, or to help another church that's struggling or that's looking to plant a church or send a missionary. Well, when that financial support goes to those individuals or those ministries and they do gospel ministry and the saints are edified and maybe people come to faith in Jesus Christ and are baptized into local churches. Well, brother or sister, because you gave to support that ministry, you reap the spiritual benefits of the fruit of those ministry labors, which brings praise to God. And that is what Paul is getting at here. As a matter of fact, if you jump down to verse 12 of 2 Corinthians chapter 9, notice what he says. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the proof provided by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedient confession of the gospel of Christ and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone. Now listen to verse 14. And as they pray on your behalf, those who would receive their financial gift, they will have deep affection for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. So Paul is saying, as you, church in Corinth, give cheerfully, generously in proportion to what you have, it is going to edify others who are going to grow more affectionate in their love towards you because of the grace of God that came through you to them, and it will lead to further praise of God. And ultimately, God gets all the glory and you reap the spiritual benefit. And so this is not a passage saying that God, the Father, is like a deity IRS agent who is just taxing his children and we just begrudgingly give to our churches because we feel obligated to. That's not the biblical pattern we see. As a matter of fact, and I say this even as a local church pastor, if anybody wanted to give to the local church, I don't care what the amount is, it can be a million-dollar check. If their heart is wrapped up in just a begrudging posture of like, I'm only doing this because I know I'm required to, or I just want to check the box and make sure that, you know, God knows I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. And so here's here's my money, right? Man, I think to faithfully disciple that individual, as hard as it is, especially if it was a huge check, man, the faithful thing to do for that person's discipleship would be to say, brother or sister, keep your money. Keep your money. Let's open our Bibles and let's let's see what's going on in the layers of your heart as to why this isn't a delight for you. Why you don't think like what we see in 2 Corinthians 9, 6 through 14, why where how can we help you get to that point of you giving cheerfully, or how can we help you start training your heart to give to the Lord cheerfully? So again, we don't give to the Lord or to the local church so that we can, you know, reap blessings or so that we can dodge a curse, so to speak, but we give because the Lord first gave to us. God the Father sent his son to hang on a cross, to purchase us from sin, death, and Satan, to adopt us into his family, to justify us before the entire universe, and we get to spend eternity with him. And we did absolutely nothing to earn that. God gave to us out of the generosity of his heart, he gave in proportion to his riches, which were infinitely wealthy, and he gave his son the most precious form of wealth he had, his perfect, holy, righteous son. That level of generosity is what should motivate and shape and frame our understanding of generosity. Not an arbitrary number, not an arbitrary percentage, but rather a heart posture of gratitude, generosity, and cheerfulness. So we see this principle in the Bible where God's math does not line up with our math, right? So our math goes, well, if I have $100 and I give $50, that's not a good thing because I lost half my money. But in God's economy, the equation is a little bit different. $100 minus $50 equals eternal blessings, spiritual benefit. And he says that's what's good and edifying for you. So what how are we commanded to give in the New Testament? Again, my answer to the first question that started this episode: are Christians required, emphasis on that word, required to tithe 10% of their income? Absolutely not. I think the Bible would say clearly, no. So then how are we expected to give under the new covenant? Well, let me break it up into four things. I think we are clearly in the New Testament encouraged, exhorted, and commanded to give regularly, deliberately, cheerfully, and proportionately. We give regularly, as we saw in 1 Corinthians 16 and 2 Corinthians 9, it was a normative pattern where they gave deliberate thought to set aside what they would give on the Lord's day. So it should be a regular practice. So let me just give a quick caveat here. There is nothing inherently spiritual about sporadic giving. I don't know where this comes from in a lot of Christian circles where sometimes it seems to be this teaching that, you know, spontaneity equals holiness. So if you don't plan, so if you just show up to church and you're like, you know what, I got $20 on my wallet, I'm gonna, I'm gonna give that today. There is nothing in inherently holy about spontaneity. We see Paul through, you know, the Lord through Paul in inspired scripture, he exhorted an entire congregation to give deliberate thought to what they would set aside that they would then give regularly when the church gathered on the Lord's Day. And so we are to give regularly, we are to give also deliberately, meaning you give thought to what you're gonna give. You plan it. It's not sporadic, it's not spontaneous. Third, we give cheerfully. We give cheerfully. Now we can't conjure this up in our hearts, right? But we give cheerfully to the Lord because we recognize what a privilege it is, like we see in 2 Corinthians 9, that I get to play a small part in God's economy, that God would use me, my resources, my finances as instruments to be redeployed for kingdom purposes, that people will actually be edified in their walk with God, that some will come to faith in Jesus Christ, that you know, missionaries will be supported, pastors will be supported who shepherd my soul and teach me God's word, all because I just simply give back to the Lord what he first gave to me. So that's where some of that cheerfulness comes from. And let's just be honest, sometimes we think more, you know, American about our money and giving than we do Christian. We let the culture disciple us, the American dream, hoard up as much money as you can get and keep it to yourself, right? And just throw your church the leftovers. So make sure you just, you know, pay all your bills, get everything you want on Amazon, and when you have a little bit left over, that's what you then look at and say, now out of this, what am I going to give to my local church? And that's not how the Lord wants us to give. He wants us to give deliberately and he wants us to give cheerfully. But number four, and you should be very grateful, this one's in scripture. We give proportionately. What does it mean that we give proportionately? Well, let me just start by saying we should be grateful that this is in scripture. This is why I don't believe, I again, a 10% tithe, if you want to go with that, that's a great place to start, but don't stay there. And here's why. Proportionately means you give in accordance with what the Lord has given you. So for example, if someone, let's say, you know, has a career with a high income, let's say they make $200,000 a year, and if they tie, quote unquote, 10% to their church, don't get me wrong, that would be generous and praise God if they are regularly doing that and being faithful and cheerful in doing that. But I wouldn't say that that is proportionate to what the Lord has entrusted to them. There shouldn't be a percentage in mind, but rather that individuals should sit down and look at their finances, look at their needs. We need to be careful as American Christians. We tend to take our wants and make them needs. We we call a lot of things needs that are really wants, but anyways. But someone who gives proportionately is giving out a proportion to their wealth. Think about the example in the Gospels of the uh poor widow, where you have the religious leaders who are wealthy and they're giving a lot uh into you know the money chamber. And then there's this poor widow who just had, in modern language, two pennies essentially, and that was like all she had, and she still gave that. And Jesus, you know, encourages that woman that he's he's essentially saying she gave out of she gave everything, essentially. She is a model giver. And ironically, if you survey the Bible from Old and New Testament, it's really interesting to me that the Lord seems to make the giving heroes the poor. And maybe that's because he understood, or maybe it's because the poor are giving truly proportionately when they are giving according to what they have, which is very little. And yet out of faith, they're still saying, with the little I have, I'm still going to entrust this to God and support his kingdom because that brings me joy. So proportionate giving is not about 10%, 20%, 50%. It's about what has the Lord entrusted you with and give in accordance with that. And, you know, I've heard some great advice from some Christians who, you know, have the privilege of, you know, maybe having a career where they continue to, you know, get raises or, you know, they get promoted and their salary increases over time. And they sit down as a family and decide, you know what, let's look at our needs and let's look at, you know, planning for the future and retirement and savings and all these things. And let's determine a number, a salary range where we say, once we hit this number, anything we make above that cap, we're just gonna redistribute for kingdom purposes. We're gonna give all that off the top to our local church to fund other missionaries outside our church or other gospel-centered ministries that are trying to get the word of God and the gospel out. And we're just gonna give over the top of that. That is a great example of considering various ways of proportionate giving. And so just to recap, we give regularly, we give deliberately, cheerfully, and proportionately. Which means, and I say this as an encouragement lovingly, if you are not giving to your local church, if you're not a member of local church, find one and Lord willing, join one, join a healthy church. But if you're not giving to your local church regularly, deliberately, cheerfully, and proportionately, then I would lovingly just suggest that at least as of right now, your giving is not in accordance with what God would ask you to give. But praise be to God. You can watch stuff like this, you can study God's word. You can go look at 1 Corinthians 16 and 2 Corinthians chapter 9. You can look at some great uh resources, such as Nye Marks has a wonderful small booklet called Why Should I Give to My Church? That's a great place to start. If you want to go a little bit deeper, there's a book by Randy Alcorn called The Treasure Principle. These are great resources to just get started on understanding how I can understand what the Bible teaches about stewardship, not just how much should I give, because we tend to narrow in on that. But you want the broader picture of what does the Bible teach on stewardship? What does the Bible teach about treasure, right? As Christians, Jesus is to be our big, our greatest treasure. And if that's true, that's gonna shape how we understand our wallets, our jobs, our bank accounts, our savings, our time, our energy, our homes, you name it, right? But sometimes as Christians, we can be guilty of saying, absolutely, Jesus is my treasure, and yet I'm hoarding all my stuff because it's mine and I'm not gonna share it with anybody. And so we are to give deliberately, regularly, cheerfully, and proportionately. Now, if you've never wondered why on earth does God even command us to give in the first place? Like what is the point? That's a good question. You know, I come up with two options or two reasons rather. Number one, maybe because he knows our hearts, not maybe, he does know our hearts. And maybe he implemented this system to catechize us, so to speak, to train us into this regular practice of if you regularly are cheerfully giving deliberately to the Lord and proportionate to what he has entrusted to you, then you are training yourself almost weekly. You are, you are, it's form it's a formative process of teaching you this stuff is not my own. I am a manager of it. I report to the Father who is the true owner of all of it. I'm just trying to faithfully steward what he has entrusted to me so that it's his stuff is redeployed for kingdom work that ultimately leads to his glory. But the second, more practical reason I believe, you know, giving is in scripture is because it funds great stuff. Uh, think of it in two categories, right? So your local church giving funds inreach and outreach. So as you give to your local church, you'll you are enabling pastors to be able to devote their time, full time rather, to study God's word, to pray for you, to care for your soul, to help lead your local church, to teach you God's word. I mean, that is a huge benefit. And the New Testament is very clear. Like, hey, like pay your pastors, essentially. I'm paraphrasing my own words here, but like pay your pastors. If you benefit from the ministry of the word, then those who delivered the ministry of the word to you should be able to eat off of that ministry. Now, that doesn't mean those who, you know, again, are abusing scripture to just get people to give to them. We even see false teachers in the New Testament who seem to be abusing the word for financial gain. Obviously, that's not what we're talking about here. But there does seem to be a clear principle in scripture, like, hey, give to your church because you benefit from your church. But your in-reach, rather, or the money you give that supports inreach leads to your church being able to hire more staff pastors, which means more brothers who are able to be set aside to care for your soul and teach you God's word and support you in your Christian walk, or other staff positions, right? Support ministry, uh, children's ministry directors and biblical counselors, and you mean we can go on and on, right? It funds different programs in your church. It helps keep the lights on when you gather on Sunday. Have you ever thought about the benefit of being able to sit in an air-conditioned building, if you have that privilege, to hear God's word and to be comfortable? You know, that's because members are giving regularly, cheerfully, and proportionately and deliberately to pay the expenses of the church, so that you actually have a physical place to gather, so that when you flip a switch, the lights actually turn on. When you change the AC, there's actually cool or warm air. These are all things that require the generosity of its members. But your giving also supports outreach, right? So being able to support missionaries from your own church to be able to say, we can give financially to these men these missionaries on an ongoing basis because of the cheerful giving of our members, or to support a church plant or a pregnancy center or a benevolence situation where you bless somebody in your church or in your community who is in financial need and you're able to bless them because of your church's giving. And so these are all just various reasons I believe the Lord blesses us with the opportunity to give. But primarily, I would suggest our giving as New Covenant Christians should first and foremost begin with our local church. The local church is God's plan A. I am a fan of many parachurch ministries, and all sorts of them are doing wonderful gospel work, but they are not ordained in Scripture. They are not inaugurated as the church was in Acts chapter two. They are not God's plan A of redemption for the world, the local churches. The Great Commission is best fulfilled through the authority and ministry of local churches. And so, hey, we should, and we'll get into this in the next episode. Should we give to parachurch ministries? How should we discern which ones to give to, and so on and so forth? But I would just suggest whatever you decide, make sure it's over and above what you give to your local church. You should deliberately decide what I am going to regularly and cheerfully and proportionately give to my local church. And once you decide on what that number is, that you can do so cheerfully, if other opportunities present themselves, you give beyond that to that missionary outside your church or to that parachurch ministry in town. And so, all right, just to boil this down, so are Christians required to give a 10% tithe? No. I believe the Bible answers that very plainly. However, I know some, especially some pastors and preachers, might, you know, sometimes hear teaching like this and say, well, we shouldn't say this stuff because if we say members aren't required to give 10%, they're not going to give to the church. They're going to give less, right? If they hear that they don't have to give 10%, well, then they're just going to give 1% or 5%. Well, number one, if that's true, that could be a discipleship issue. So that could be a heart issue. If you as a Christian are trying to intentionally be stingy, just know a stingy Christian is an oxymoron. I mean, think about Paul when he says, forgive as God in Christ has forgiven you. What is he getting at there? He's essentially saying, if you owed an eternal sin debt to God the Father that you could never repay, and Jesus stepped in your place and took on the wrath of God and paid that debt on your behalf, even though you did nothing to contribute to it, and you reap eternal riches of glory for all eternity. If you receive that type of forgiveness and another fellow sinner commits a way smaller infraction against you and you refuse to forgive them, that might be a sign that you've never truly understood forgiveness in the first place. So a Christian cannot be unforgiving. You can't profess the name of Jesus and say, I lay claim to the benefits of the cross and the forgiveness of God, but I refuse to forgive others who have committed way smaller infractions against myself. So we can't say that we are eternally rich by way of our salvation, but then be stingy and not want to give back to the Lord. And so, so I I'm I'm not concerned about that posture. I think if anyone is a blood-bought Christian and dwelt by the Holy Spirit, they have a desire to do God's will and to glorify his name, whatever that looks like. And so, as a matter of fact, I think a more biblical understanding of New Testament giving will actually lead to Christians giving more than 10%, because they will come to the understanding that I am to give proportionately. It has nothing to do with a percentage. It has to do with what has God in this season of life, what has He entrusted to me? How much money am I making? And how can I give out of that? And I would hope that teaching like this would also motivate us to be wise stewards of our finances. So, for example, let's make wise decisions about not getting into unwise debt that will hinder our ability to be generous and cheerful givers, right? Let's not make decisions where, well, I keep getting a raise, and so I just keep buying more stuff and a bigger house and a bigger house and a bigger house. And my giving never changes, but my lifestyle is changing. My expenses are continuing to increase because I'm continuing to treasure things on earth instead of being rich towards God. So I hope this was helpful. If it was, I would encourage you, please subscribe to the channel and share this podcast with somebody you think it might help. And as I said in part two, we'll get into some common questions people have once we understand, you know, okay, if we don't tie 10%, we give regularly, deliberately, cheerfully, and proportionately. Here's some common questions. How do I wade through these? So we'll get into that in the next episode. God bless you.