4 Untrue Myths about Tithing

Myth #1:
The most persistent myth about giving /stewardship / tithing is that it has something to do with God's needs, with funding ministry, with church budgets, or with controlling how others use our gifts. These are simply and entirely false. God has no needs. "If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it." (Ps 50.12). Stewardship is not about funding the ministry, funding the church, or funding God. It is how God transforms us into servants; it is a basic way in which God is changing us into the likeness of Jesus Christ. It's not about what God needs - but what we most desperately need in our deepest, must fundamental being.

Myth #2:
Another popular myth is that somehow giving /stewardship / tithing releases God's power, that it triggers miraculous power. One may hear that by giving sacrificially, God's power is released into the world. This is simply and entirely false. God's power is not passive, latent, or dormant. It needs no external release mechanism or trigger. On the other hand, people find themselves in bondage to fear, greed, and envy. By becoming faithful servants of God, we discover who really owns all of heaven and earth, and we become free. Giving /stewardship / tithing does not release God, but it does release us. Rather, it is an essential spiritual discipline that helps us discovering our own spiritual freedom.

Myth #3
A third popular myth is based on human greed. It views giving as a kind of investment. The more I give, the more I get. This is simply and entirely false. Although God may entrust some of God's faithful servants with great wealth, Scripture claims that many of his most faithful servants live in poverty, while many of the most evil become rich - sometimes at the expense of the faithful. On the contrary, the Scriptures consistently teach us to give ourselves, to sacrifice ourselves for the good of others, with the assumption of no reward in this life. We are to follow the example of Jesus, who "made himself poor that others might be made rich." Stewardship assumes that we God's flock, the sheep of God's pasture. What God chooses to do with us is entirely up to God. God calls us to become servants, to be faithful stewards, regardless of whether we become wealthy or poor in the process of our stewardship.

Myth #4:
It is often said that tithing was an Old Testament concept not found in the New Testament. That it was part of the Law, but not part of faith or teaching of Jesus. This has been repeated so often by so many that even people who are committed to giving, stewardship, and even tithing believe the New Testament does not speak to it.

But consider Matthew 23.23–26. Jesus said:

'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup,* so that the outside also may become clean.

While Jesus condemns them for neglecting the weightier matters of the law (justice, mercy, faith), his argument is not an either/or proposition, but a both/and. He says they should practice weightier matters of the law without neglecting the other. His actual teaching is that they must seek first justice, mercy, and faith, but also must tithe.

His sentence, "first clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean" suggests that their failure to seek justice, mercy and faith has not invalidated tithing, but has disqualified THEIR tithing. Once they have attended to justice, mercy and faith, their tithing becomes holy rather than hypocritical.

This is not unlike his teaching in Matthew 5.23-24:

So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.

For Jesus, relationship with others is of ultimate importance. It is of such importance that worship ("offering your gift at the altar") is disqualified until one has deal with one's relationship with others. But a broken relationship with others does not end the practice of worship. One does not put one's gift back in one's wallet. Rather,

leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.

Clearly, Jesus has a "first things first" mindset. But "first things first" should not be confused with "first things only." Once one attends to first things, one then moves on to second things.

It's not that the New Testament does not speak to tithing. Rather it barely mentions it because it is simply an assumed practice of any person of faith. But it emphasizes Jesus' shocking commitment to the priority of relationship over everything: relationship takes priority to worship (which includes the actions of working, such as tithing).