Both the Old and New Testaments teach that God’s people should give away some of what they earn.

In the Old Testament, God required the people of Israel to give a “tithe” (that is, one-tenth) of their crops each year:

You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. (Deut. 14:22)

It was assumed that such tithing also applied to domesticated animals, for we read
in Leviticus:

And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that pass under the
herdsman’s staff, shall be holy to the Lord. (Lev. 27:32; cf. Deut. 14:23)

In this law the Lord claimed as his own 10 percent of the agricultural produce that he provided for his people. That amount was not their own; it was “holy to the Lord.” These tithes were to be given for the support of the Levites, who attended to the needs of the tabernacle/temple and the sacrificial system (see Num. 18:21–24; Deut. 26:12–14; Neh. 10:37–38; 13:5, 12), and they also were used to support “the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow” (Deut. 26:13; see also Deut. 14:28–29)—in other words, the poor among the people of Israel, those who were least able to support themselves. In addition, part of each person’s tithe was offered in sacrifice and then eaten at the annual journey to God’s temple, where additional sacrifices would be made (see Deut. 14:22–26).

Some interpreters have claimed that the different instructions regarding tithes in Leviticus 27:30–32, Numbers 18:21–28, and Deuteronomy 12:5–19; Deuteronomy 14:22–28; and Deuteronomy 26:12–14 refer to different tithes, with the result that the people of Israel were expected to give perhaps 20 percent or even 30 percent of their income in tithes. Evangelical scholars are divided on this issue.1


However, even if we do not decide how many tithes God required of the Israelites, it is clear that God expected them to give more than just 10 percent of their income, because there were numerous other sacrifices that he commanded from them (see Lev. 1–7), as well as “freewill offerings” that the people made (see Lev. 22:18–23). Therefore, we can safely summarize this material by saying that the Lord expected the people of Israel to give “10 percent plus something” of their increase every year.

In the New Testament, no specific percentage of giving is required for Christians in the new covenant. (Jesus’s words to the scribes and the Pharisees in Matt. 23:23 and Luke 11:42 were addressed to people still living under the old covenant law.) However, Paul clearly expected every Christian to put aside something to give to the needs of others and to the Lord’s work:

Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. (1 Cor. 16:1–2)

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Cor. 9:7)

How much should we give?

As I explained above, the Old Testament required the Israelites to give a regular tithe of 10 percent plus a number of other sacrifices and freewill offerings. So the expectation was at least “10 percent plus something.”

In the New Testament there is no command to Christians in the new covenant to give 10 percent of their income. But it certainly seems like a wise guideline, a level of giving that is significant and yet not excessively burdensome for people.

In the history of the church, there are multiplied thousands of individuals who have faithfully tithed 10 percent of their income throughout their lives and who testify that they have seen countless examples of God’s faithfulness in providing for their needs and have experienced the joy of participating in the privilege of giving to the Lord’s work regularly throughout their lives.

One of my earliest childhood memories is of receiving a weekly allowance of 50 cents and being taught by my parents to put five cents in the offering at church on Sunday, which I faithfully did, imitating the lifelong habit of my father, who frequently spoke of regularly tithing from the first day he began to earn money as a young man.

Margaret and I eventually came to the point where we were able to give more than
10 percent of our income, and for many years now we have decided at the beginning
of the year what percentage of our income we will give to the Lord’s work. After that,
I do not consider that amount of the money I earn to be “my own,” but consider it to
be the Lord’s

For many years, whenever I have received a substantial book royalty check in the
mail (the amount of which is impossible to know in advance), my heart would not be
at peace until I wrote a check for the percentage of that payment that we were giving
to the Lord’s work that year, then walked a half block from my house and put it in the
outgoing mailbox. To this day, whenever I do that, this passage goes through my mind
as soon as I have dropped the check in the mail:

When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce . . . then you shall
say before the Lord your God, “I have removed the sacred portion out of my
house . . .” (Deut. 26:12–13)

And there is joy in my heart.

Several verses in the New Testament affirm that our giving should be generous:

[Let] the one who contributes [do so] in generosity. (Rom. 12:8)

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever
sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. (2 Cor. 9:6)

You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through
us will produce thanksgiving to God. (2 Cor. 9:11)

[Those who are rich] are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous
and ready to share. (1 Tim. 6:18; see also Acts 2:46; 10:2)

Several verses in the Old Testament Wisdom Literature also commended generosity
among God’s people:

The wicked borrows but does not pay back,
      but the righteous is generous and gives. (Ps. 37:21; see also Ps. 37:26)

It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;
      who conducts his affairs with justice. (Ps. 112:5)

Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner,
      but blessed is he who is generous to the poor. (Prov. 14:21)

Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker,
      but he who is generous to the needy honors him. (Prov. 14:31)

Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord,
      and he will repay him for his deed. (Prov. 19:17)

But those verses about generosity do not specify any specific percentage, and that will certainly vary from person to person and from situation to situation. This brings us back to Paul’s counsel: “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion” (2 Cor. 9:7).

I do not consider that amount of the money I earn to be “my own,” but consider it to be the Lord’s.

Therefore, my conclusion about how much we should give is that the New Testament does not specify any certain amount such as 10 percent, but a tithe certainly seems like a wise guideline, at least when someone is beginning to give to the Lord’s work.

On the other hand, I do not think the New Testament requires everyone to give all that they have, or to give to the point where they are living close to poverty, for the New Testament standard is generosity, not “give until you are poor.”

Some passages do emphasize the benefits of sacrificial giving. This was certainly the point of Jesus’s teaching when he saw a poor widow who put two small copper coins in the offering box. Jesus said that “this poor widow has put in more than all of them,” because the wealthy people contributed out of their abundance, “but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on” (Luke 21:1–4). Paul also commended the sacrificial giving of Christians in Macedonia, “for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part” (2 Cor. 8:2). He said that they even gave “beyond their means, of their own accord” (2 Cor. 8:3). Yet we must also recognize that these passages were written with reference to a poor widow and to very poor Christians in Macedonia, people for whom giving was genuinely a sacrifice.

Should these passages on sacrificial giving by very poor people also apply to wealthy Christians? Others might differ with me about this, but I do not think the Bible requires wealthy Christians to give away nearly all of their income, to the point where they are giving “sacrificially” in a way that is similar to the sacrificial giving of the poor widow in Luke 21 or of the extremely poor Macedonians. The New Testament counsel to those who are wealthy is not that they should give “all that they have” (like the poor widow) or nearly all, but that they should be “rich in good works” and “generous,” according to Paul’s command for “the rich in this present age”:

They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. (1 Tim. 6:18–19)

The ability to enjoy the fruits of our labor is a large factor in motivating people to work hard at building businesses or in striving to excel in highly specialized professions such as law or medicine. If we tell these people that God expects them to give away nearly all of what they earn, we will remove a significant motivation for them to work, and I think that will be contrary to the expectation of God, “who richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17). In the case of wealthy people who are already giving generously, I want to allow for the possibility that the Holy Spirit will lead different people to different conclusions about the actual percentage of their assets they will give away and the degree of personal sacrifice to which God is calling them.

Notes:

  1. For an overview of the arguments, see Perspectives on Tithing: 4 Views, ed. David A. Croteau (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2011). For the idea that there was only one tithe, see J. A. Thompson, Deuteronomy: An Introduction and Commentary, TOTC (Leicester, UK: Inter-Varsity, 1974), 180–85.

This article is adapted from Christian Ethics: Living a Life That Is Pleasing to God by Wayne Grudem.