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Transcript 345B — Tithings and Offerings
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Hello, Brother Camping. I've got a question as far as tithing is concerned. I understand that the first ten percent is considered a tithe, and anything thereafter is an offering. I'm confused about what exactly is the ten percent. Is it ten percent of one's gross earnings or his net earnings?
HC: The question is raised concerning tithing. Actually, in the Old Testament God did give a command to national Israel, as part of that economy, that they were to give one tenth of all of their produce, all that they earned, as a tithe unto the Lord. And this was used to support the tribe of Levi, from which the temple service came.
In the New Testament church, the body that is represented by congregations and denominations all over the world, God sets a far higher standard: He wants everything. Romans 12:1 puts it so beautifully, "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice." God tells us that He has qualified us to be ambassadors of His to bring the Gospel. As custodians, as stewards of all that God gives us, we are to make as much of it as possible available to see that the Gospel goes out into the world.
So God does not tells us to give a tenth; He wants everything. Now we have other responsibilities. In I Timothy 4 God indicates that we have to care for our families, "He who does not care for his own is worse than an infidel." We have that responsibility.
But our task is to spend the money that God gives us as custodians, whether it's our salaries or whether it's an estate that we control, or a business, or whatever, so that as much of it as possible can be utilized in the Lord's service.
Most Christians find that a tithe is a good beginning point for giving. You don't have to argue whether it's a tenth of the net or a tenth of the gross. You can't bargain with God. The less you give, the less your blessings will be. The more you give, the more your blessings will be.
Remember the little woman, the very very poor woman, who brought her two coins and who put them into the temple treasury? She didn't argue with herself, "I wonder if I ought to give a tenth of the net or a tenth of the gross." What did Jesus say of what she gave? "She gave her entire living." Now actually, the money that she gave was only a tiny fraction of a denarius. According to the Biblical evidence, a denarius was the normal salary of a working man. It was the normal daily earnings of someone who had a family to support. That was a denarius.
This woman, in her income, received only a tiny fraction of a denarius. In other words, she was a very impoverished woman. She was a very poor woman. On today's scale we could say that if the average income of a family in our land is (let's pull a figure out of the air) $8,000, or $9,000, she was a woman who earned maybe like $800 or $900 a year. She was very impoverished by any standards at all.
Now she could easily argue, "I am so poor, I am so poor. I have a hard enough time keeping soul and body together. How can I give anything to the Lord? Certainly the Lord doesn't expect anything from me." But what did this woman do? She took her whole living for that day, and she brought it and put it into the temple treasury. Now she was giving all that she could out of something that was a very little bit. It only meant that what she had left was even tinier than tiny.
It puts all of us to shame. It puts all of us to shame. There is none of us that have given quite that way. But notice, notice. She is the one who received the commendation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now does that give you some kind of an insight as to the nature of our giving?
Never never bargain with the Lord. God loves a cheerful giver. Read Luke 6, where God declares, "Give and it shall be given to you, good measure, pressed down, running over." The language goes something like that. It is the language to indicate that, this is Luke 6:38: "Give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete, withal it shall be measured to you again." If you're stingy in your giving to the Lord, then you're going to find that God is stingy in His blessings to you. If you are generous in your giving to the Lord, as this widow was with her two mites, then you're also going to find you have God's commendation.