Is It Robbing God
to Tithe on Your After-Tax (Not Gross) Income?
The
Israelites were never subject to withholding upward of 15 percent.
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Jeff Lampl
The following three views on the above
question appeared in Christianity Today last summer. I hope they help you as you decide on the percentage of your income that you give to the
Lord that reflects genuine trust in the Lord to provide for your needs. As you wrestle with this question in faith,
you will inevitably come across the question, “do I tithe on net or
gross?” God bless, Jeff
VIEW ONE
No, It’s Robbing Yourself
Frederica Mathewes-Green
My husband and I were newly Christian and in seminary when a friend
told us about tithing. She stressed the importance of giving a full 10 percent
before taxes, before anything else, so that we would be giving God the first
fruits of our labor.
We recoiled at the thought, but she said this practice had given
God room to work miracles in her life. She and her husband had once put their
last dollar in the offering plate, only to have the pastor turn around and give
them the whole collection. My husband and I began this plan right away and
never even considered making our tithe after taxes. It seemed petty to make
such calculations when giving to a God who gave us everything, including his
Son.
Soon, we had settled into a pattern of giving 5 percent to our
local church and 5 percent to charity. But one year, when it was time to renew
our annual pledge to the church, I was convicted that a radical increase was
necessary. God says, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse” (Mal. 3:10,
ESV). For our family, that means the local church. So the full 10 percent
should go to our church, while charitable gifts (alms) were to be an additional
offering.
When I began sharing this with my husband, we were in for a
surprise. He had separately come to the same conviction. The problem was that
we had just promised 5 percent of our income to a missionary. Overnight, we
went from giving 10 percent of our income to giving 15 percent.
Yet we never suffered. We saw God meet our needs in ways that
bordered on the miraculous. People were always giving us things we needed but
couldn’t afford: a sewing machine, a lawn mower, a new refrigerator. More than
once, we found an inexplicable extra $50 in our savings account.
Over the years, our total giving (including alms) has ranged from
15 to 20 percent. We found, like others before us, that once we determined to
make our tithe the first payment each month and this habit became routine, all
other expenses fell into place.
God uses strong language about tithing (Mal. 3:8–9). We live in a
time that is offended by that strong language, and resents any implication that
we ought to do or not do something. We regard ourselves as customers, even in
church, and expect to be treated with deference, for the customer is always
right.
This kind of exhortation has a way of backfiring. So the best I
can say is: At least try. Aim to give a percentage of your income. Start with
whatever percentage you give now, and raise it a little each year. In time, you
will reach the tithe.
Then you will be giving as generously as the people of the Bible,
who lived in conditions we would see as abject poverty. Like them, pay God
before you pay Caesar, for there is no better indication of your priorities.
Frederica Mathewes-Green, author of ten books, blogs on Christian
spirituality and Eastern Orthodoxy at frederica.com.
VIEW TWO
No,
Put Away the Calculator
David A. Croteau
The question here assumes that tithing in some way is required for
Christians. The word tithe means 10 percent, not necessarily “a tenth of my
income.” The biblical definition of a tithe is “giving 10 percent of one’s
increase from crops grown in the land of Israel or cattle that feed off the
land of Israel.” It was consistently connected to the land of Israel. A tithe
was done multiple times a year, probably equaling more than 20 percent of
crops. No one was ever commanded to give 10 percent from their general income
(just crops and cattle). So unless you are under the Old Covenant and have
crops based in the land of Israel or cattle that feed off the land of Israel,
you do not qualify to tithe (Lev. 27:30–33; Num. 18:21–24; Deut. 14:22–29).
Does the Bible teach that neglecting to tithe is robbing God? Sort
of. The question refers to Malachi 3:8–11. But the word for tithe in Malachi 3
refers to the definition noted above. Christians live under the New Covenant,
so our standard for giving has changed. It’s not necessarily a higher or lower
standard, but it is different.
Some people may hear, “Christians aren’t required to tithe,” and
think it means, “Christians aren’t required to give.” Nothing could be further
from the truth. The New Testament gives many principles for giving, but it
never mandates a specific percentage or addresses after-tax or gross income.
For many prosperous US Christians, giving 10 percent could be
considered “robbing God” (in a sense) because it does not meet the standard of
generous giving. For those who make a more meager income, giving less than 10
percent could be generous and sacrificial. If I’m asking the question with the
intent to decipher how little I can get away with giving, then a serious heart
issue is exposed. When we are driven by the principles of giving from the New
Testament, the after-tax question becomes irrelevant. God’s people should try
to find ways to give more, not less.
What are some of those biblical principles?
There are three driving forces for Christian giving in 2
Corinthians 8. First, it is grace-driven. Our giving is a response to the grace
that God has shown to us through Jesus Christ. The more we recognize that we
have done nothing to deserve salvation, the more likely we are to respond to
God’s grace by giving generously.
Second, Christian giving is relationship-driven (v. 5). Much
Christian giving today is taught in such a way as to drive the Christian to a
calculator. You type in your income, multiply that by 10 percent, and give the
total, rounding up to include an offering. But God wants you to seek a
relationship with him, not with your calculator.
Third, Christian giving is love-driven. In verses 8–9, Paul
provides an example of this type of giving: Jesus’ death on the cross, the
ultimate demonstration of love. In this way, our giving is a barometer of the genuineness
of our love for God
David A. Croteau, author of Tithing after the Cross, is professor of New
Testament and Greek at Columbia International University.
VIEW
THREE
Steve Stewart
There is no way to sugarcoat Malachi 3:8: “Will a mere mortal rob
God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In tithes and
offerings.” Bible-based tithing does not fit comfortably into an era of complex
payroll deductions.
To be sure, before-tax or after-tax giving of a tithe is not a
salvation issue. Tithing is not in the Ten Commandments. God does not love us
more or less because we adhere to an Old Testament mandate of giving a tenth of
our first fruits.
Millions of Americans have jobs at companies that withhold Social
Security, Medicare, and federal and state income taxes. This is done to assist
individuals by placing money aside throughout the year so they don’t have to
come up with all the money at tax time. If we are to base our tithe on
after-tax income, are givers in states with income taxes robbing God more than
income tax–free states?
There is a joke that goes, “If you want only net blessings, pay on
the net. If you want gross blessings, by all means, pay on the gross.” But even
while the joke encourages tithing on before-tax income, it approaches the topic
in the wrong way. Tithing, based on any amount, is not about what we get but
rather what we give.
I challenge Christians to consider off-the-top tithing another way
to become more like Jesus. Giving is taking our eyes off ourselves. Giving with
the right mindset steers our behaviors in a new direction. When we consider
giving a tenth of our net versus our gross, we are really asking, “How much can
I give without giving too much?” This is the spirit behind my daughter’s heavy
sighs when I remind her to give a dime out of each precious dollar she earns.
This kind of nonverbal response is rooted in our selfish nature that resists
God’s request that we help build his kingdom by giving to our local church.
The definition of a tithe is a tenth of our first fruits (Prov.
3:9)—our income. And we are to pay Caesar what is Caesar’s. So the answer to
our plight becomes clear.
By giving 10 percent off the top—the whole top—I came to grips
with my selfish desires and challenges. Once I changed my heart, I was able to
let go and began giving 10 percent of our gross income. We were blessed before
we started giving off the gross, and I believe we are more blessed today. It’s
not a quantifiable blessing or something I can show you. Erasing this debate
from my mind allows me to focus more intensely on serving God.
Malachi is provoking our total dependence upon a loving,
covenantal God, not an everlasting guilt trip. When we tithe off the top, we
rely more on God and less on our wallets.
Steve Stewart is founder of MoneyPlan SOS, a Christian coaching
ministry.
“Lord, help! So much of me wants
to find a loophole, to keep more for myself.
Yet another part of me wants to take the leap to trust you with the most
fundamental part of my daily life, my money, no
. . your money. Lord, I am
willing to start. I’m ready to say yes
to you. I now seek your guidance as I
embark on the path of giving to you and to others through your church in a way
that reflects genuine, practical trust in you. Thank you Lord, I look forward to settling
this issue in a way that I know that honors you and therefore brings me peace
with you and peace with myself. Amen”
