At the end of his life Paul looked back upon a life well-lived for Jesus. He wrote, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing (2 Tim 4:7-8). This podcast looks to the end of the race Jesus has marked out for us and the longing to hear from the lips of our master, “Well Done. You have greatly honored me with your life.” This episode presents a powerful way to regularly strengthen our heart loyalty to our King.
Building the right habits, week in and week out, year in and year out can lead to an enormous payoff. That was a reality of life proven by the life of an IRS employee named, Ann Scheiber. She had lived by herself in a tiny, run down, rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan. The paint on the walls was peeling. Rent was four hundred dollars a week. Born in 1894 Anne worked for the IRS as an auditor until she retired in 1943. She never made more than $3,150/year. So, imagine the surprise of Norman Lamm, the president of Yeshiva University to whom Ann left her estate, when he discovered that it was worth over 22 million dollars. Year in, year out, while working or retired, Ann carried out the habit of putting a little bit of her income into the stock market. Consistent habits can bring an enormous payoff.
This 3-week series is looking at five of the most strategic habits we can build as followers of Jesus that will matter most on the day Jesus whispers, “Well done” into our ear. We saw last week that the first and most important of those habits is a way to implement the command of Proverbs 4:23, Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. In studying God’s creation design of six days to work, and one day to draw near to God, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, we observed that the pattern of a weekly date night in marriage might make a useful metaphor for HOW to build this habit of realigning our hearts to reset our affections on God as our first love. After all, regular times set apart by couples for romance and sex seem to be God’s plan for re-aligning their heart passions towards each other. Similarly, weekly corporate worship is designed to realign our hearts to Christ as our first love. As we saw, like married couples, Christians, besides needing corposrate worship need time ALONE, face to face, with our King to grow our love for him. So, we saw five parts to this parallel: 1) a protected time on your calendar (perhaps before church, Sunday afternoon, or evening), 2) a time set apart to open up with the Lord about what is on your heart, 3) time set apart to get to know who God is better by studying his perfections, 4) weekly time to lavish him personally with praise and delight because that is what lovers do, 5) a time to deepen your gratefulness for who he is and his infinite love for you. The second habit, a practice followed by both Joshua and David, which led to enormous wisdom and prosperity is meditating on God’s Word both day and night, and then being DOERS of the Word and not HEARERS ONLY.
HABIT 3: REGULARLY INVEST SOME OF YOUR TREASURE IN THE KINGDOM
This is the habit of tithing. One of the characteristics of a fully devoted follower of Christ is that he is a faithful steward of the resources entrusted to him—our time, our energy, our gifts, our wealth, our income, our income-making ability. We must struggle with how to sort out and invests our assets FOR the High King. So, one of the questions that everyone must ask is, “how much should my monthly check or EFT transfer to my church or kingdom ministry be for?” “What is my responsibility financially?” “What does the Bible teach about tithing?” “In fact, does the Bible even teach tithing? I thought Christians aren’t under the law but under grace.”
Five Observations About the Habit of Tithing
Fact #1: God instituted this practice with Abraham hundreds of years before the law was given to Moses. The first time we see the word, “tithe” in the Bible is in Genesis 14. Let me set the context. Abraham is living close to his nephew, Lot, who lives near the city of Gomorrah. Lot and his family get caught in a battle among nomadic kings. The King of Sodom is captured by one of the other nomadic kings. Because Lot lives nearby he is captured with all his goods, his flocks, and family. Abraham hears about it and pursues the captors. Abraham comes upon them in the middle of the night and through his stealth operation he is able to rescue Lot and the others. When the nomadic kings, who had conquered Sodom fled from Abraham’s forces, they left a great deal of plunder behind. We then come to the text before us as this mysterious figure called, Melchizedek shows up.
After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh… Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything (vs 17-20).
Here, Abraham recognizes two facts: 1). Melchizedek was a priest of the true God, of God Most High. 2) It was God who allowed him to have this victory and recover this plunder that he has now taken. In that culture, it was common that when there was plunder after a battle the victorious king would take ten percent of the plunder to keep for himself and his family. The rest went to the other men who had fought with him. So, perhaps it is in this cultural setting that the number ten percent arises. Abraham takes ten percent of the plunder and gives it to the priest of God as a gift to the true King who had enabled his victory. We believe that God, here is establishing the practice of tithing. Here’s why: Two thousand years after this event there is NT commentary on this historic event that is helpful for understanding its significance. We are told that Melchizedek is a type, or a pre-figure of Christ, our Great High Priest (Heb 5-7). We are also told by the Apostle Paul that Abraham is not just the father of the Jews, but the father of the Christian faith, who explained, “He believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Rom 4:3). So, the NT perspective, looking back shows us a representative (Abraham) of all true Christians who would come later, offering his tithe to the one (Melchizedek) who represents Christ who would come later.
These details are important because it is sometimes mistakenly thought that tithing began with the Law of Moses, since it is required by Mosaic Law. But, in fact, the principle of tithing is established some five hundred years before the law is even given to Moses and it is established by two players in the drama who represent Christ and the church. Fact #1 is that tithing originated with Abraham the father of the Christian faith, not with Moses and the Law.
Fact #2: Tithing is a response of gratefulness for God’s blessing. Notice in this Genesis 14 text that it is gratefulness for this unexpected and dramatic victory of Abraham over these other kings that motivated Abraham’s tithe. Abraham’s action is consistent wit the NT teaching in 2 Corinthians 9:7 that God wants us to be cheerful givers.
Abraham’s motivation for giving may not seem that important; but it is very important for understanding tithing. The reason is that when it comes to obedience to God there are really two basic motivations, which you see throughout biblical history. One is legalism, obeying God because in some way we’re trying to win his love; we’re trying to earn his acceptance; we’re leveraging our gift to get God to give us something. Legalism’s motive is in some way to try to elicit respect or acceptance from someone else. Such a way of life becomes a tyranny because we never know if we’ve kept enough of the law to know that our standing with God is okay. It is a terrible way to live.
The other motivation is grace. It recognizes that we can never do enough to cancel our sinful acts that reveal the rebellion of our heart towards the High King. We can’t earn extra credit to make up for the sins we’ve committed. We can only gratefully receive the gift of Christ’s robe of righteousness to wear in God’s holy presence—his righteousness imputed to us. The reason we must understand the difference between legalistic Christians and grace-driven Christians is that people often mistakenly think that tithing is legalistic. But we see right in the text which established tithing that precisely the opposite is the case. I suppose one could tithe legalistically—certainly the Pharisees did—they tried to impress everybody with what they gave. But the biblical view of tithing is not legalistic; it arises from a grateful heart. It is the proper motivation of those who are under grace and not under law.
Fact #3: It is giving God the FIRST ten percent of your income. Let’s examine three parts of this statement:
- Tithing is based upon your income, not your total assets. The reason is that it is God who gives us our earning power. You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth (Deut 8:17-18). Tithing is based upon gratefulness. It is linked to income because we recognize that it is God who has given us the ability to earn that income.
- Tithing means giving the first portion of our income, not giving from the leftovers. Notice this principle explained by God in Proverbs 3:9-10. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine. Tithing is an application of the first commandment, “You shall have no other Gods BEFORE me.” So, the first-ness of the tithe is very important because it is a way of saying to God, “You’re first. I take the first portion of what my income is, and it goes to YOU.” What that means is that tithing is a regular and tangible expression of the principle that I am putting God first in my life.
- Tithing means ten percent. Now, some people object to this because the NT teaching is much broader and not specific. But realize that if you are committed to giving a portion of your income to God first, you must have a percentage number. If it’s the first monthly check you write, you’ll have to know how much to write the check for! That’s not legalism; its necessary when we understand that God is to receive a potion of our income FIRST.
Fact #4: In Israel, God considered the failure to tithe to be stealing from Him. These are the words of Malachi to God’s chosen people, “Would anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the entire nation of you?” (vs 3:8-9). We need to recognize that God’s work on earth is hurt when Christians don’t tithe. Ministry costs money. We might be tempted to think that Malachi’s words are irrelevant since they were spoken to Israel, i.e. to those under the law. But Israel was the OT church, saved by grace through faith as Paul tells us repeatedly. And if anything, there is greater emphasis in the NT on sacrificial giving. In fact, tithing is just the starting point. God wants us to enjoy the material blessings of this physical world that he has lavished upon us. It is his glorious creation. But we are also to seek first the kingdom of God, freely, joyfully, cheerfully putting as many dollars towards kingdom work as we can (2 Cor 9:7).
Fact #5: Christ expected his followers to tithe. Some people don’t believe that the NT teaches tithing, because it focusses on the heart. But that focus on the heart is because so much legalism was going on in Jesus’ day. Religion had been reduced to legalism. This is Jesus’ point in the woes he pronounced upon the Pharisees in Matthew 23: He says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness (vs 23). Jesus’ focus is on the hardness of their heart. True godliness is generous justice, generous mercy, and good works that prove the genuineness of faith. But notice Jesus’ next words in Matt 23. These (the tithing) you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. They should have tithed—but that’s just the first step towards the generosity of heart required by Jesus.
The Enormous Benefits to Tithing
1. Treasure that will last into eternity. Jesus says to us, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up foyourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. As one who is so often on the receiving end of many charitable gifts to further our ministry, I never tire of reminding the givers that they are true partners in our work. We will one day stand side, by side, in eternity and they will have the great, great joy of looking back at all the lives they have blessed because of their gifts that enabled our ministry.
2. Our hearts turn towards Jesus and his kingdom work. Jesus did not stop with just telling us that giving to kingdom work is an eternal investment; he gave us another profound insight about investing our treasure. He said, “For wherever your treasure is, you may be certain that your heart will be there too” (vs 21 J.B. Phillips)! Wherever you invest your treasure, your heart follows. If you doubt this, take a close look at someone who’s just plunked a whole lot of money into the stock market. I guarantee you he will add a Wall Street Journal app or similar one to his phone within 24 hours!
Or consider another example. A woman came into her pastor’s office and said, “I hate my husband so much, I not only want to get rid of him, I want to get even. Before I divorce him, I want to hurt him as much as he has hurt me.” The wise pastor said, “Go home and act as if you really loved your husband. Tell him how much he means to you. Praise him. Go out of your way to be as kind, considerate, and generous as possible. Spare no effort to please him, to enjoy him. Make him believe you love him. After you’ve convinced him of your undying love, then drop the bomb. Tell him you are getting a divorce. That will really hurt him.” With revenge in her eyes, she smiled and exclaimed, “Beautiful, beautiful.”
Two months later the pastor asked if she were ready to divorce him. “Divorce?” she exclaimed. “Never. I’ve discovered that I really love him!” She invested her treasure, her time, and energy to consistently behave as if she really loved him—and suddenly she did—because her heart followed the investment of her treasure. Wherever you place your treasure, your heart automatically follows. That is why the regular habit of taking that first ten percent of our income and giving it to God is such a vital thing to do. Tithing regularly gives our treasure to Jesus for his kingdom use—and the result is that our hearts grow to love him more. As we saw last week, where our heart affections are directed will determine the outcome of our lives.
3. Tithing enlarges our capacity to trust God; it puts the growth of our faith on steroids. I bet I could ask just the listeners to this podcast alone, “How have you learned to trust God?” “What has built up your faith?” And we would have to spend a month listening to their answers. 90% would say something like, “Let me tell you—it all started when I discovered from the Bible that I should tithe. I looked at my income and I said, ‘I can’t possibly tithe. I can’t deduct ten percent from my income and have enough to pay my bills.’ But I was challenged to do it anyway, and do you know what I found out? The bills got paid. I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out how.” Tithing Christians have story after story after story of God’s financial provision for them—and those real-life experiences put our trust in the Lord on steroids. I think of a few similar stories from my own life--one when I was just learning about tithing and the other when I was trying to support my family of six on one income—my church planting salary.
When I was a sophomore at Penn State, I came upon Malachi 3:10: Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it." I thought, “I don’t know of any other place God tells us to test him. I guess if I tithe, God is saying he’ll take care of me and more. Then I forgot about this specific verse but did start to put 10 % of my precious income into the offering plate. Fast forward to the end of the school year. It’s my birthday—Mom usually bought me a shirt or two, so I wasn’t surprised by the first two boxes. Then I got a third shirt, and a fourth and a fifth and sixth and a seventh. What was going on? I then walked over to my closet and I didn’t have enough hangers to hang up the seven shirts. And I thought of God’s promise—I will pour out so much blessing upon you that there will not be room enough to store it.
But that’s just one story. Forward ten years to my wife sitting in my twin daughters’ bedroom, boxes piled everywhere around her. I’m supporting our family of six on my small church planting salary in Montgomery Country, MD and tithing (why wouldn’t I?) My wife is looking through piles of nearly brand-new hand-me-down outfits for my twin daughters—I mean these were nice—Polly Flinder, OshKosh B’Gsh, etc. Sandy ended up with so many outfits, she could go 21 days with a different outfit for each one—that’s 42 outfits. She had so many outfits that we did not have a place to store them in the girl’s bedroom—so she gave a bunch of them away—I will pour out so much blessing upon you that there will not be enough room to store it. "Test me," says the LORD!
For Further Prayerful Thought:
- What would you say to a Christian who says tithing is legalistic?
- How would you summarize the biblical teaching about tithing?
- Which benefits of tithing stand out most to you?
