What We Believe About Giving
Stewardship
Christian stewardship is the faithful use of what God has entrusted to us in this life. Following Christ includes using money for God’s purposes and meeting the needs of others. How we use our resources indicates whether we are committed to Christ and trust His promises.
“The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all contentment in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:6-8)
For us as Christians, all that we are and all that we have belongs to God. From an eternal perspective, we don’t really own anything. While on earth, we are merely stewards (overseers or managers) over things that belong to God. Materialism, selfishness, greed, hoarding, anxiety over money reveal that our trust lies not in God but in money. In the same way, generosity and faithfulness reveal that our trust is in God.
Giving Tithes
Throughout salvation history, God has called His people to support His work and the worship at the temple through giving. In the Old Testament, God’s people were to give a tithe, or the first tenth, of their income to God. This practice predated the giving of the Law (Genesis 14:20, 28:22) and was later formalized in the Law of Moses (Leviticus 27:30-32; Deuteronomy 14:22-24).
With Jesus’ sacrificial death, the temple, the sacrifices, and the priesthood have been replaced by the church as the center of God’s activity in the world (Ephesians 3:10; 1 Timothy 3:15). The church, where believers are fed God’s Word and deployed in His service, has become the repository of the tithe. The tithe meets the needs of God’s people (Acts 4:34-35) and supports the pastors so that they can give their time to serving the church (1 Corinthians 9:13-14).
Scripture indicates that, while we may give to many worthy causes, the tithe is specifically reserved for the local church where we receive care and training (1Timothy 5:17-18; Galatians 6:6).
Is tithing explicitly commanded for Christians? The following quote from Tim Keller helps us to understand the Old Testament command in light of the New Testament:
“I’ll tell you why you don’t see the tithing requirement laid out clearly in the New Testament. Think. Have we received more of God’s revelation, truth, and grace than the Old Testament believers, or less?…Are we more ‘debtors to grace’ than they were, or less? Did Jesus ‘tithe’ his life and blood to save us or did he give it all? Tithing is a minimum standard for Christian believers. We certainly wouldn’t want to be in a position of giving away less of our income than those who had so much less of an understanding of what God did to save them.” (Tim Keller)
