Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Can a Church Require Tithing?

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Can a Church Require Tithing? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Tithing. Giving ten percent of our income to a church
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  Speaker 1: is a common theme here on the Aspastor John podcast.
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  Speaker 1: Not so much recently, but in our first decade it
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  Speaker 1: did come up a lot, and you can see how
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  Speaker 1: in the Aspestor John book on pages one on one
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  Speaker 1: to one oh three if you have a copy handy.
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  Speaker 1: After several years, we return to that theme today with
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  Speaker 1: this question can a church force tithing? The question is
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  Speaker 1: from an anonymous man who listens to the podcast, Good
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  Speaker 1: Morning Pastor John, what do you think about forced tithing?
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  Speaker 1: Recently in my church, there has been an expectation that
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  Speaker 1: our church leaders will tie the ten percent of their
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  Speaker 1: income back to the church as a condition of their
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  Speaker 1: ongoing employment at the church. While I understand the importance
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  Speaker 1: of supporting the church financially, I've found myself conflicted about
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  Speaker 1: the approach being taken with our leaders. It seems to
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  Speaker 1: me that forcing individuals to tithe can potentially do more
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  Speaker 1: harm than good. I believe that true worship is born
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  Speaker 1: out of a heart of gratitude and sincerity, rather than
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  Speaker 1: on bloeation to Corinthians ninety seven, when Abraham gave his
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  Speaker 1: tithe to God, it was out of a genuine sense
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  Speaker 1: of thankfulness for God's blessing, not because he was compelled
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  Speaker 1: to do so by another person. I've attempted to discuss
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  Speaker 1: this issue with our leadership, and while some have expressed
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  Speaker 1: willingness to engage in dialogue, others seem to dismiss it
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  Speaker 1: as unworthy of discussion. This has left me feeling uncertain
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  Speaker 1: about how to proceed. What do you think about forced tithing?
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  Speaker 2: The short answer is that I do not think tithing
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  Speaker 2: is a New Testament requirement. The way love your neighbor
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  Speaker 2: as yourself is a New Testament. I think the New
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  Speaker 2: Testament has put Christian generosity towards the cause of Christ
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  Speaker 2: on a new footing of freedom, motivated by the joy
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  Speaker 2: of seeing Christ magnified in people's lives. I think tithing
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  Speaker 2: was an integral part of the Old Testament sacrificial eastly
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  Speaker 2: system which God designed for the support of the priesthood,
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  Speaker 2: a system which no longer exists in the Christian Church.
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  Speaker 2: That's the short answer. This question is part of the
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  Speaker 2: larger question of which commandments from the Old Testament come
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  Speaker 2: over into the New Testament as binding on those who
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  Speaker 2: are in Christ. Thou shalt not kill is an Old
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  Speaker 2: Testament commandment, so is Deuteronomy fourteen ten. Whatever does not
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  Speaker 2: have fins and scales, you shall not eat. It is
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  Speaker 2: unclean for you. So you can eat trout, but not catfish.
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  Speaker 2: Thou shalt not steal is an Old Testament commandment, so
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  Speaker 2: is Deuteronomy fourteen twenty two. You shall tithe all the
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  Speaker 2: yield of your seed that comes from the field, year
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  Speaker 2: by year. Now, not all the commandments of the Old
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  Speaker 2: Testament come over as binding into the New Testament. Some
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  Speaker 2: of them we call the moral law, which are rooted
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  Speaker 2: in our nature as God created us, and in the
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  Speaker 2: nature of God's love and justice being worked out in
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  Speaker 2: our lives. And some of them are simply temporary, as
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  Speaker 2: part of the priestly sacrificial Old Testament system, which has
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  Speaker 2: passed away after the coming of Jesus Christ as our
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  Speaker 2: priest and our sacrifice. Once the people of God were
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  Speaker 2: an ethnic people, a political regime set off from other
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  Speaker 2: peoples with their ceremonial practices. But today the people of
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  Speaker 2: God are not an ethnic people, but made up of
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  Speaker 2: all ethnicities, and are not a political regime, but are
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  Speaker 2: embedded as exiles in all political regimes, and are not
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  Speaker 2: set off from the world by ceremonial practices, but by
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  Speaker 2: their allegiance to Jesus Christ and the moral implications that
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  Speaker 2: belong to his way of saving us through love and justice.
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  Speaker 2: My four reasons for thinking that tithing is not one
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  Speaker 2: of the moral commandments that remained binding are these have
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  Speaker 2: four reasons. Number one, tithing was God's way of sustaining
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  Speaker 2: the levitical priesthood numbers eighteen twenty one. To the Levites,
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  Speaker 2: I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance
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  Speaker 2: in return for their service that they do. That's the
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  Speaker 2: end of the quote. Since that system of levitical ministry
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  Speaker 2: is now gone, I think the designed support for it
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  Speaker 2: is gone. Second, Paul taught that when we died with
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  Speaker 2: Christ by faith in his death for us, we also
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  Speaker 2: died to the Old Testament law so that we he
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  Speaker 2: could live in a new way, not by law keeping,
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  Speaker 2: but by spirit motivated love, informed by the moral implications
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  Speaker 2: of how God created us and how the Gospel shapes
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  Speaker 2: us Romans seven, four and six. You have died to
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  Speaker 2: the law through the body of Christ, so that you
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  Speaker 2: may belong to another, to him who was raised from
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  Speaker 2: the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.
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  Speaker 2: We are released from the law, having died to what
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  Speaker 2: held us captive, so that we now serve in the
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  Speaker 2: new way of the spirit, not the old way of
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  Speaker 2: the written code. And then Paul illustrates this specifically in
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  Speaker 2: Galatians four and Colaussians two. He says, despairingly, almost you
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  Speaker 2: observe days and months, and seasons and years. There's all
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  Speaker 2: those old Testament stipulations. You observe all that I'm afraid
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  Speaker 2: I've labored over you in vain. Do not submit to
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  Speaker 2: rules about food and drink, or with regard to festival
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  Speaker 2: or a new moon or sabbath. These are but a
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  Speaker 2: shadow of the things to come. But the substance belongs
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  Speaker 2: to Christ. I think tithing is built in to that
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  Speaker 2: category of shadows. Number three. I think the New Testament
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  Speaker 2: puts giving on a new footing of freedom, motivated by
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  Speaker 2: the joy of seeing Christ magnified in people's lives. All
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  Speaker 2: of Second Corinthians eight and nine unfolds this new footing,
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  Speaker 2: but especially Chapter nine, verses six and seven, very famous versus,
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  Speaker 2: very important verses. Whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly. Whoever
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  Speaker 2: sews bountifully will reap bountifully. Each one must give as
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  Speaker 2: he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion,
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  Speaker 2: for God loves a cheerful giver, now, if that's crucial,
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  Speaker 2: not under compulsion. Nowhere in any of the New Testament
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  Speaker 2: letters do the apostles motivate giving by mentioning tithing, which
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  Speaker 2: would just seem strange if that were the typical way
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  Speaker 2: funding of the church was to happen in the early Church. Fourth,
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  Speaker 2: and finally, when Jesus said in Matthew twenty three twenty three,
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  Speaker 2: woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You tithe, mint
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  Speaker 2: and deal and cuman, and have neglected the way of
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  Speaker 2: your matters of the law, justice, mercy, faithfulness. These you
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  Speaker 2: ought to have done without neglecting the others. And sometimes
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  Speaker 2: that's used to argue about the ongoing validity of tithing
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  Speaker 2: without neglecting the others. He was speaking to the Pharisees
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  Speaker 2: before his world changing death and resurrection. They were living
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  Speaker 2: under the old regime of the Old Testament law. This
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  Speaker 2: would be similar to Jesus telling his disciples back in
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  Speaker 2: chapter five of Matthew to offer their gifts at the temple,
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  Speaker 2: or telling the lepers go show yourself to the priests.
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  Speaker 2: These are commands, but they're not abiding commands because they're
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  Speaker 2: under that regime of Old Testament law. These are not
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  Speaker 2: commandments that apply after the era of the law passes
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  Speaker 2: away with the death and resurrection of Jesus. So my
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  Speaker 2: conclusion is it's a mistake for the leaders of a
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  Speaker 2: church to make tithing a requirement for church leadership. I
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  Speaker 2: have always taught that Christian freedom, in the light of
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  Speaker 2: the lavish generosity of God toward us in Christ, will
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  Speaker 2: motivate Christians to give more than Ai, but it will
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  Speaker 2: not be under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Amen, uncompelled cheerfulness must drive all of our giving. Thank you,
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, and thanks for joining us today. For more
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  Speaker 1: on tithing from several other different angles, check out the
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  Speaker 1: Ask Pastor John book if you have a copy of
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  Speaker 1: that handy and see my digestive episodes on pages one
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  Speaker 1: oh one to one oh three. Well, in our Bible reading,
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  Speaker 1: we are entering into job together, a book littered with errors,
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  Speaker 1: errors about suffering, even false statements about God himself. So
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  Speaker 1: how do we discern what is true and false as
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  Speaker 1: we read through the Book of Job. Big question we
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  Speaker 1: need answered as soon as possible, and it's up next.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Tony Ranky. We'll see on Monday.