Over the years, whenever I preached on stewardship and tithing, sooner or later I would hear the inevitable challenge that tithing was an Old Testament command, or the question of whether one should tithe on the net or gross income. As far as I recall, in every single instance that kind of question came from someone for whom the concept of giving away ten percent of one's income was something they had never heard of till adulthood, often later in life. For those already living beyond their means, tithing made as much sense as pouring gasoline on a fire in order to put it out. I can't say as I blame them. On the surface of things, giving away a tenth of one's income doesn't come across as sound business or economic theory.
About fifteen years ago, I picked up a little trick to entice our Park church people into giving tithing a try (Thank you, John Maxwell!). Malachi 3:9 tells us that when we keep for ourselves that which belongs to God, we come under a curse. The next verse is the only place in the entire Bible where God invites us to test him, telling us that if we give the ten percent, God will bless us beyond our capacity to receive. Whenever I preached on this text, I would ask if anyone wanted God to curse their finances. Never once did I receive an affirmative answer. So I would invite them to begin tithing, and gave them a money-back guarantee that if after 90 days they believed tithing was a mistake, we would return their entire offerings for that period of time. Never once did anyone ask for their money back. For many, it was just enough of a safety net that they were willing to give it a try.
I can understand how hard it is for someone who's never done this before to begin this Christian discipline. Especially if people are in financial difficulty, which many people are, it doesn't make sense. But time after time, I've seen people begin to climb their way out of debt with this first step.
Linda and I learned about tithing when we were teenagers in Sunday School, so it was never an issue, never a stretch for us. It's easier when it's ten cents out of a dollar; when we're talking an income of thirty, forty, or sixty thousand, those checks look pretty substantial. So the questions begin; "Is this Old Testament legalism? Net or gross?" We always tithed, so when our income grew, it wasn't a shock for us.
Sunday was our area wide Walk for Life, sponsored by our local Right to Life group of which our son in law Todd is a board member. No one had asked me to sponsor them, so when Todd came by in the afternoon to pick up Gemma, I gave him a generous donation. That word "generous" is the key to tithing. Left to my own devices, I am stingy, greedy, and selfish. Whatever stance you may take on tithing being Old Testament legalism or whether it's net or gross, I can testify that the reason I tithe has nothing to do with any of that. I tithe because I need it to train me to be generous. If I don't discipline myself to give the tenth, I find my soul beginning to shrivel, my heart closes, and my world shrinks till it contains only myself. A world inhabited only by me is a pretty lonely place. So tonight I am grateful for the people who taught me years ago to embark on this journey of generosity. My world today is bigger and filled with grace because of what I learned years ago when it was easier because the dollars were fewer.
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