Shaun Groves
“What’s the least I can give?” I was dumbfounded and impressed that he actually had the guts to ask this out loud. But it’s probably crossed everyone’s mind at least once right? Even for a second while making the budget and paying bills? I’d never say so…
But I’m not a financial planner. The gray-whiskered man in the suit and tie retired recently after more than forty years organizing wealth into percentages. So no wonder he wondered what God’s percentage should be.
And after failing to talk him out of his question and into better ones, I gave him two accountant-friendly answers from the bible. (Sometimes the best way to get to better questions is to answer our bad ones first.)
Tithe
The word “tithe” means “tenth” and is mentioned 29 times in the Old Testament.
Think of it like a tax. Every tribe of Israel, except the Levites, were required to give two annual tithes: one tenth of livestock and agricultural produce twice every year. Every three years Jews were to give an addition one tenth of agricultural produce only. All this tithing added up to 23.3% annually! (Of course, I’m a musician by training, so check my math.)
Half
There’s no mention of a tithe in the New Testament. (The earliest evidence of Christians being taught to tithe comes from a letter written to bishops in 567 AD.)
There’s not a single mention of a percentage. No math at all! (I love the New Testament. No calculator required.)
The closest we get to the kind of answer our financial planner was looking for – and this is a stretch – is an oft-repeated command from Jesus to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Some modern day Christians have turned this into a minimum giving requirement of 50%. A noble goal, for sure, but doubtful this is what Jesus actually had in mind.
Not very helpful huh? That’s what the guy in the suit said. Maybe we should head the other way: “What’s the most I can give?” That answer’s coming soon.
Megan says:
Spoiler alert: we don’t own anything. The only thing that is truly ours to ‘give’ to God is our praise. Preach it brother!
Shaun Groves says:
Good answer. But not to the question he’s asking right?
Megan says:
I think it may be, in a round about way. We don’t own anything. We are stewards of whatever God has chosen to entrust to us.
We have had a real life experience living this out over the past 4 years while in Florida, a time which is (thankfully) coming to a close. Not planning on staying here permanently, we rented a home. We’ve been life-long homeowners, so we just continued doing what we did. We treated the house like we were owners, doing maintenance as it was needed, working in the yard (ok Bob worked in the yard), etc. When we leave at the end of this month, the house will be better than when we moved in. The yard…awesome! But somewhere along the line we realized that the whole process of renting is just stewarding property that belongs to someone else.
When we move back to our house in the Hill, we’ll be moving back to a house we have convinced ourselves we “own.” But we don’t. Technically, the bank does, for another 20 years or so, unless we go all Dave Ramsey on it. We will still be stewarding property “owned” by another entity, the bank, and provided for our use by God.
Our health, talents, our money, our clothes and food, all of it is provided by God–for us to steward. It can go away in a heartbeat–or a lack of one. We own none of it. None comes from us. I may work for that check with my labor, but with the health and (sometimes questionable) skills God provides. And I struggle daily with the question of “how much.” Look at my check book for confirmation. I fail more than I succeed, even though I know I’m just a steward, not the Owner.
So the answer to your friend’s question isn’t a number. The answer is “all of it. ” It’s not an equation, it’s a heart condition. When we get it – really – we realize we aren’t “giving,” but actually releasing that which we don’t own in the first place.
Loving without condition. Stewarding, not owning. Abundance, not scarcity. Trusting what we can’t understand. 100% for all of it. That seems to be the real “tithe” of the new testament.
Sorry – I just sub-blogged. Oh wait, I guess the space I’m swiping from you doesn’t really belong to you in the first place, right? 🙂
Shaun Groves says:
You’re answering “why?” He’s asking “How much?” The two are absolutely linked – you’re right.
Megan says:
Agreed…I don’t think “How much?” matters at all without “why?”
Bill says:
Here are two God friendly answers to a bad question…
What is the least that you can give and not hear God say “Fool!”? What is the least you can give and be rich towards God?
Luke 12:20-21English Standard Version (ESV)
20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Shaun Groves says:
Bill, I think the vast majority of Christians in the U.S. – me included – would say they want to be generous toward God. Most of us would say there’s an amount of self-spending and “treasure” that is, well, wrong. But we don’t know where that line is. We’re honestly seeking it.
We know when we’ve gone way past that line (or we’re pretty good at spotting when someone else does right?) but there’s a lot of ambiguity about how “treasure” and “generous” are defined by God.
So ease up. It’s not as simple as “this level of generosity is foolish”. It’s not clear cut at all. So asking questions – even bad ones like the one this post ponders – have value. We ask because we want clarity…even if we know we’ll never get all the clarity we crave.