By W. C. Parkey
Why do people tithe to the church? The reasons are many. As I considered
my own motivation, I discovered at least ten reasons why I give ten
percent of my income to the church. A study of these reasons will help
us to understand the great blessing of tithing and the biblical
responsibility to tithe.
1. To Honor the Creator
Render. . .unto God the things that are God’s (Matthew 22:21).
Acquisitiveness is one of the basic drives of mankind. Children grasp
their toys and cry, “Mine.” Someone has noted three attitudes in the
parable of the Good Samaritan. The priest and the Levite had the
attitude, “What’s mine is mine and I’m going to keep it!” The thieves
had the attitude, “What’s yours is mine, and I’m going to get it!” The
Samaritan had the attitude, “What’s mine is yours, and you can have it.”
There is another attitude which should permeate our thinking, even above
the commendable attitude of the Samaritan. That is, “Everything we have
belongs to God, and we are stewards of His goods.”
God owns the entire world and its substance. “The earth is the LORD’S,
and the fulness thereof” (Psalm 24:l).”Behold, all souls are mine”
(Ezekiel 18:4). “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine” (Haggai 2:8).
It is God who gives men the power to obtain wealth (Psalm 75:6-7;
Ecclesiastes 5:19). Men are not to glory in what God has given them, but
to glory in Him (Jeremiah 9:23-24).
Sharecropping was once a way of life in the farming communities of
America. The sharecropper supplied the labor. The landowner supplied the
land, a house, farming equipment, and machinery or work animals. When
the crop was harvested, a certain percentage was given to the landowner.
For example, from a crop of cotton the landowner may have received
twenty-five percent. If it was corn, the landowner sometimes received
one-third. Often, the sharecropper and the man who furnished the seed
and equipment divided what remained after giving the share to the
landowner.
Why should I begrudge God ten percent when it all belongs to Him? If it
were not for Him, there would be no land, no seed, no strength, no
income, and no life. How generous He is to tell us, “The tithe. . .is
the LORD’S!” (Leviticus 27:30).
2. To Acknowledge My Heritage
“And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed” (Galatians 3:29).
Abraham was the first tithe-payer of record (Genesis 28:22). Abraham’s
grandson, Jacob, paid tithes (Genesis 28:22). Scripture says that Levi,
Abraham’s descendant and the father of the tribe from which the
priesthood came, paid tithes in Abraham (Hebrews 7:9). My heritage of
paying a tithe precedes the law of Moses. As a child of Abraham and an
heir of the promise of Abraham, I acknowledge my family relationship by
paying tithes.
Jesus said to the Jews, “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the
works of Abraham” (John 8:39). It would be strange to claim to be a
child of Abraham and yet to neglect one of Abraham’s most fundamental
and noteworthy acts. I pay my tithes as a spiritual descendant of
Abraham, the father of the faithful.
3. To Fulfill the Covenant
“For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which
remaineth is glorious” (II Corinthians 3:11).
In every comparison of the law of Moses and the new covenant that came
by Jesus Christ, the new covenant stands supreme. The characteristic
word in the Book of Hebrews is better, and everything is better about
the new covenant. If the law demanded tithes, then how much more should
we who are under the “perfect law of liberty” give our tithe willingly?
If the law is written in the fleshly tables of our hearts and we follow
God’s commands not from outward rules but because of our new nature,
then how quickly and how easily we should give the tenth that belongs to
the Lord? (See II Corinthians 3:3-6.)
Some people say, “Oh, we do not pay tithes, because tithing was under
the law.” If that is a sufficient reason for not paying tithes, then
we could also mistreat our parents, for the law said, “Honor thy father
and thy mother” (Exodus 20:12). In actuality, we honor our father and
mother and we give our tithes because the principles of the law are
written in our hearts by the Spirit of God. We give willingly and
liberally because the Spirit motivates us to give that which God has
said is His.
4. To Show my Love
Love is the strongest motivation in the world. “Many waters cannot
quench love” (Song of Solomon 8:7).
I have seen bumper stickers that say, “If you love Jesus, honk your
horn!” Anyone can honk his horn. But David said, “Neither will I offer
…unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing” (II Samuel
24:24). Someone should print a sticker that says, “If you love Jesus,
pay your tithes!”
For someone who genuinely loves the Lord, the tithe is only the
beginning of his giving. He gives not only his tithe, but also offerings
(plural), not grudgingly and not of necessity, but cheerfully with love.
5. To Fulfill an Obligation
“Ye pay tithe. . .These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the
other undone” (Matthew 23:23).
Jesus did not criticize the Pharisees for paying tithes. He commended
them. He said it was something they “ought” to have done. The word ought
expresses an obligation or duty. It is one of the strongest words in the
English language. To pay tithes is something every Christian ought to
do.
The word ought has three meanings: (a) obligation or duty; as in, He
ought to pay his debts”; (b) desirability; as in, “You ought to eat more
slowly”; (c) expectancy or probability; as in, “I ought to be through by
Monday.” Each one of these meanings puts an obligation upon the
Christian. It is desirable for him to pay his tithes, he is expected to
pay his tithes and he has a duty to pay his tithes.
6. To Escape Condemnation
“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. . .in tithes and offerings”
(Malachi 3:8). How sad it is that men who are honest in business and who
pay their debts to the bank, the store and the government will not pay
God what belongs to Him! Sometimes people quibble about whether they are
“paying” or “giving” tithes, but both terms seem appropriate. The tithe
is the Lord’s, and it is expected that we pay it to Him; at the same
time, He does not receive it until we give it to Him. He does not allow
us to use this tithe for other purposes, but we have the power to spend
it as long as it is in our hands. Nevertheless, a person is condemned if
he spends God’s money.
7. To Spread the Gospel
“So hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live
of the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:14).
God has ordained that men should be saved by the preaching of the
gospel. “How shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14).
Tithing is God’s way of supporting the ministry. In the Old Testament,
the Levites and the priest were God’s ministers to the nation of Israel.
In the New Testament, God has called people to be ministers to the
church. These ministers can be more effective if they do not have to
provide for their livelihood by working on a secular job. They need time
to give themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.
It is not wrong for a man to labor with his hands, nor should a minister
feel too good to engage in honest labor. Yet God’s plan is for those who
preach the gospel to live of the gospel.
When God inspired Moses to write that the people should not put a muzzle
on the ox that labored, God was not as concerned with the ox as he was
with the principle that a laborer should receive his livelihood from his
work. The application of the principle is that the minister of the
gospel should earn his living from his ministry. (See 1 Corinthians 9:9-
10.)
Some ministers have endured financial hardships and deprivation in order
to proclaim the gospel in needy areas. I admire these preachers who made
sacrifices to go where there was no financial support-men like Brother
Morris Wilburn, who, when one of his horses died in the harness, took
the horse’s place and helped pull the wagon to the next place of
meeting.
If the tithing income ensures that the minister can live in a good
house, drive a good car and buy sufficient clothes for his family, why
should I begrudge providing these things to a man who would preach the
gospel even if he had to work on a secular job to do it? It is a
disgrace to the church if the pastor has to take a secular job to supply
his family’s needs when there should be sufficient tithing income
available to allow him to do God’s work on a full-time basis. My tithing
can help to spread the gospel.
8. To Avoid a Curse
“Ye are cursed with a curse” (Malachi 3:9).
Someone has said, “You can’t out give God, and you can’t out squeeze Him
either.”
Some people put their money into “a bag with holes” (Haggai 1:6). They
do not give God His tithe, but they eventually spend the money for
automobile repairs, medical bills and a thousand other things that they
might have avoided if they had been faithful to God in their giving.
God said that the whole nation of Israel was cursed because they had
not given Hod His due. God asked Israel to dedicate the gold of Jericho
to Him, but Achan took a wedge of gold and hid it in his tent. It became
a curse to him and his whole family.
I do not want God to curse my blessings. I want to give Him His tithe.
9. To Enjoy God’s Blessing
“Prove me herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you
the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall
not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10).
The people who pay tithes are the ones whom God blesses. They do
not always have the most money or the best clothes, but they are the
ones who are blessed.
However, I am wary of those who promise “If you give God a dollar, He
will give you back four.” The expectation of a return should not be our
motivation for giving.
But I do want God to notice me and remember me. He noticed that the
widow put money into the treasury at the Temple. He noticed what
Cornelius was giving. He noticed what Israel was not giving. He knows
what we give and He notices when we give.
God has asked us to prove Him and see if He will not give us His
blessings. I have trusted Him, tested Him, and tried Him and I have
concluded that it is better to give God what belongs to Him.
10. To Be Consistent
Be thou an example of the believers” (1 Timothy 4:12).
For most of my ministry, I have lived on the tithing income. How could I
receive tithes and not pay tithes? I could not do so and be consistent.
The Levites, who received tithes, also paid tithes on what they received
(Nehemiah 10:38). Preachers who receive tithes should be most faithful
to pay them.
Paying tithes will not save a person – everyone must be born again
to be saved. But paying tithes will reap a blessing. Genuine Christians
not only pay tithes, but they also willingly pay tithes.