Jesus and the Tithe

What does Jesus say about tithing?

Last week, I introduced an Old Testament passage in which God set up this idea of the Tithe.

The tithe literally means 10%. Or 1/10th of what you make. In the Old Testament, if you were a farmer growing grain, you’d bring 10% of that grain to the temple. If you were a herder, you’d bring in the lambs themselves.

As things got later, often you’d sell your product first and then bring the money you made into the temple for the temple to figure out how to steward what God had provided for it.

It was set up with a TWO-FOLD idea.

1- GIVING BACK UNTO GOD. —- This reminder that in your profit, your income, your finances were giving back to the source.

2- To help provide the needs of the temple and those in need in the community.

Deuteronomy 14:22–29 NIV

Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always. But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the Lord your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the Lord will choose to put his Name is so far away), then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the Lord your God will choose. Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice. And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own. At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

Tithe - in the Old Testament still to this day there is a practice of giving called the tithe. The tithe is the idea that you give 10% of your income back to God. Live on 90 and give 10. It was a practice that God established to help not only provide for the temple and the services of the temple, priests, and such. But to also help those in need. That the people at the temple would use that tithe that comes in throughout the years to help those who need help.

-Provide temple services

-Help those in need

Still to this day, this is how the tithe is considered. Thousands of years.

Now one more thing needs to be brought forward from the Old Testament to understand Jesus’ view of the tithe. It’s the idea of the firstfruits.

Deuteronomy 26:1–15 NIV

When you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name and say to the priest in office at the time, “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. Then you shall declare before the Lord your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, subjecting us to harsh labor. Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, Lord, have given me.” Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him. Then you and the Levites and the foreigners residing among you shall rejoice in all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household. When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. Then say to the Lord your God: “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them. I have not eaten any of the sacred portion while I was in mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor have I offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God; I have done everything you commanded me. Look down from heaven, your holy dwelling place, and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us as you promised on oath to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Proverbs 3:9–10 NIV

Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.

The firstfruits began an idea associated closely with the tithe. That God was not just to get was was left over. But what was first. It would be easy to give God the leftovers. The Jewish practice of the firstfruits is to prevent this.

Now—- often we hear from people that tithing was an Old Testament practice and isn’t something that was carried over to the New Testament. That it’s archaic and no longer necessary.

Since our goal is to figure out Jesus’ view of money. We are his disciples and we want to be WITH Jesus and LIKE Jesus. We need to see what he said about the tithe.

There are two passages that he talks about the tithe.

We will look at both. However, first, we need to understand that the tithe was so common place at the time and so normal to society that Jesus’ goal with the tithe was not needing to be ESTABLISHED but to be CORRECTED.

The heart disappeared and the beauty of the tithe got lost in the legalism of the tithe.

Which is where we need to start as we look at the first passage.

For Jesus the tithe is about the heart

Matthew 23:23–24 NIV

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

Jesus one time was correcting the legalism of the Sabbath and said - “The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath.”

This passage is basically Jesus saying the same thing. “You should practice the tithe but do it for the right reasons!”

There are plenty of people that give 10% to the church but if they don’t do it for the right reasons — it’s wrong.

It’s not about the money. God has unlimited resources. It’s not that God needs your measly 10% — it’s that God wants YOU to partner in his KINGDOM.

These teachers of law are hypocrites. They give 10% of their stuff but they don’t care about justice, mercy, or faithfulness. They have lost the point along the way.

Sadly, this can happen to the modern Christian too. Where morality and doing the right thing matters than doing it for the right reasons. The right reasons SHOULD FUEL the morality.

Jesus at another point referred to these teachers of the law as WHITE WASHED TOMBS. In other words, they looked good but they’re dead inside.

I need to ask —- does this convict you in anyway? Search your spirit now. Do I just do righteous things to do righteous things or is there a deeper well flowing out of me that causes the righteous things?

“You strain a gnat but swallow a camel.”

Meticulous about small things but lose track of the big things.

“You make mountains out of mole hills and you think mountains are instead the mole hills.”

What does this teach us about the tithe and Jesus? That the tithe is not to be done just to be done. It comes out of this overflow. It’s not a law to follow just to follow. It’s a practice that we fall in love with because we understand it was made for man.

The second passage where Jesus speaks of the tithe is…

Luke 18:9–14 NIV

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

It’s a small mention but it brings up a BIG POINT. It continues to prove Jesus’ correction of the sabbath.

You aren’t justified by the tithe

or fasting or any other spiritual practice.

Humbleness is what is needed, not exaltation.

When Jesus looks upon the NON-tither and the TITHER — what’s he see? He doesn’t see the religious duty but the HEART.

So if you are an amazing tither - check your heart.

If you aren’t an amazing tither or never do - check your heart.

That’s the point of this passage. Find humility. Not pride. Don’t be proud that you don’t tithe. Don’t be proud that you do.

Walk before the Lord like the man that says, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!”

What does this show us about how Jesus views the tithe? That once again, the heart is what matters not the amount. Not the practice. None of it. This doesn’t get you off the hook from never giving back to God or not doing the tithe because that is also a HEART that’s not in the right place.

Neither does it give you justification because you do it.

Let’s use one more example from the New Testament that came from one of the disciples of Jesus… John. This will help us put a bow on all this today.

1 John 3:11–16 NIV

For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

The Problem of Cain

Genesis 4:2–8 NIV

Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Cain brought “some of his fruit” -- it reads like the leftovers.

Abel brought “some of the fat portions from his firstborn of his flock” -- reads like Abel brought his first and best.

-Think about it this way… Abel is waiting and waiting for the day his flock is big enough, strong enough, and meaty enough to eat (and produce others) -- The firstborn are finally big enough. Abel’s stomach is growling..

-BUT HE BRINGS THAT FIRST AND BEST TO GOD.

--Think about it in terms of your paycheck. Now, if you’ve never lived on barely enough this may be hard.

-You finally get paid, and the first thing you do is not… pay your bills but give your tithe.

Thus, the problem of Cain starts with his own actions FROM THE BEGINNING. His heart was not in the right place.

The journey from jealousy to murder was fast.

Cain is marked by:

-Selfishness -Jealousy -anger/rage -hatred -Revenge/Vengeance

1 John 3:16 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”

this is how we know what love is ---> Laid down his life for us

Jesus is marked by:

-Self-giving (selfishness) -Humility (jealousy) -Forgiveness (anger/rage) -Generosity (vengeance)

These actions are the direct opposite of Cain’s actions.

The actions of Cain were wrong not because of WHAT he gave but of HOW he gave. It showcased his heart.

As we consider the tithe. It’s not some archaic idea that is dissolved. Jesus showed it clearly has a place. But that place is from the heart.