My Oklahoma grandma often told a story of a young woman from a rough background who she had the pleasure of watching come to faith in Jesus. This woman was earnestly trying to change her whole life in pursuit of God. One day, she said, “There’s just one thing I can’t figure out. What on earth is a ‘ti-thee’?” Having not grown up in the Church, she hadn’t heard the word “tithe” pronounced. Once my grandma figured out what she was talking about, she explained the common understanding of Christians being called to give 10% to the Church. 

It is a common understanding. But is it an accurate interpretation of what the Bible says about tithes? Yes and no. Let’s dive into a couple of Scriptures and discover for ourselves. 

The Anchor Passage: Deuteronomy 14

The core passage that helps us understand the concept of tithing is Deuteronomy 14:22-29. But before reading, here’s a few important pieces of context. 

First, ancient Israel is an agricultural society. While we think about giving from our income as dollars, they primarily think of giving from their produce and livestock. 

Second, the way God structured Israel’s society, the Levites (a class of priests) didn’t have land to sow and harvest. Therefore, the rest of Israel was required to provide for them. 

Okay, now before you read this passage, I want you to take 30 seconds to answer these questions based on your current understanding: 

• What does it mean to tithe? 
• What is the tithe for? 
• What does it do?

Now, let’s discover how God laid it out for the Israelites.

Deuteronomy 14:22-29

22 Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. 23 Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always. 24 But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the Lord your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the Lord will choose to put his Name is so far away), 25 then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the Lord your God will choose. 26 Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice. 27 And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own. 28 At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, 29 so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

So let’s walk through it. 

Set aside a tenth of all your fields produce.

Israel was supposed to go through their harvest and set a tenth of it off to the side. The rest would be used to feed their family, their livestock, their servants, and – if they were following the rest of the Law – any foreigners, widows, and fatherless children who needed food. But a tithe of it will travel to wherever the tabernacle happens to be at the time. 

This, along with Leviticus 23:10 requiring Israelites to also bring the first fruits of their harvest to the Lord, is where some people feel a conviction to tithe off of their gross income, rather than their net. 

Eat the tithe in God’s presence where He dwells…

What were they to do with their tithe? Take it to the tabernacle where God determined to dwell with them and eat it. Not just give it to God and walk away. Rather, through the tithe, God displays His mind boggling generosity (even more to come on this in later verses). Whereas other “gods” were known to require sacrificing lives of children to please them, Yahweh says “come bring your food sacrifices to me and enjoy them with me! Come to my home and feast!” Why?

…so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always.

When the God of Heaven and earth displays radical hospitality, you can become entitled and get stingier or you can learn to revere Him and get more generous. He wants the latter.

Do not neglect the Levites…

Numbers 18:20-32 gets into more details on this, but the summary is that God wanted the Levites to internalize, as His most intimate workers, that the Lord Himself is their inheritance. They don’t work a field and earn an inheritance of land. They work the temple and earn an inheritance of the presence of the Lord. But everybody else eats from the harvest of their work. So God made a way for the Levites to eat, too. While the annual tithe goes to the tabernacle, every three years, everybody is supposed to store the tithe of their grain, wine, and livestock in their own town to make sure that the Levites and all the others without land to their name are able to eat and be satisfied. It’s not giving them enough to survive. It’s giving enough for them to rub their bellies contentedly and say, “wow, that was such a good meal.”

…so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

Because one of the clear principles of this anchor passage on tithing is that God provides for the Israelites through their hard work of harvesting, and He provides for the vulnerable who don’t own property through the Israelites who do. So when they learn to revere Him and get more generous in His image, their generosity will be multiplied. Their harvest will be blessed with abundance, not so they can indulge alongside their generosity, but so they can continue partnering with God in the joyful enterprise of providing for others. (Think about most of Israel suffering famine at the start of the book of Ruth, but generous Boaz feeds the vulnerable on the edge of his fields because He has abundance.)

Modernizing the Tithe

So what do we take from this? Most of us are not farmers. And even those who are, probably do not usually tithe in the form of their crops and animals. But here are some good principles to consider.

#1 | The Whole Earth is the Lord’s 

One of the big truths found throughout the whole Bible and emphasized through the idea of the tithe is that it all belongs to God. We are workers, not owners. We are stewards and managers. So instead of asking how much should you give, consider: If I’m a steward, what is a reasonable commission for me to earn on God’s money? How much should I keep? 

#2 | God Delights to Provide for You and Others

God, as Creator and Father takes great joy in providing for you. Let Him. Stop trying to provide for yourself. Through enjoying the tithe with Him in the tabernacle, and through the community of the Church, God is trying to be hospitable to His people. This means that the Church is supposed to be a community where all needs are met (see Acts 2 and 4). So get deeply involved in your Church community and start mutually sharing. This looks like supporting each other with money, free babysitting, hosting each other for meals, helping each other move, driving each other to the airport, mowing each other’s lawns, etc. All the things that people now pay strangers to do for them should be rare in the Church! This is the generous community God envisioned and inaugurated in the person of Jesus. 

#3 | A Tithe Is a Starting Point

The question of giving off gross or net is a good one because the heart there is trying to make sure you’re giving more and not being stingy. However, if your goal is to look like Jesus, then a tenth is only the starting point. You will continue to shrink your spending, increase your giving, and live more interdependently on the Church community. The early Church shows us a radical way when they viewed nothing as their own and shared everything. This can’t be done alone. Who will you ask to join you on the journey, spurring one another on in generosity?

For Further Reading

If you want to dig in more, some more Scriptures to study on the tithe are: Numbers 18, Deuteronomy 15, Malachi 3. 

Some Scriptures on generosity and finances in the age of the Church are: 1 Timothy 6, 2 Corinthians 9, Luke 21, Matthew 6.

And some great books to read are: God and Money by Mark Baumer and John Cortinez and The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn.