If you were raised in the church, like I was, you were taught that God requires a ten percent tithe back to Him (the church) as a faithful commitment to support the work of God on the earth. Many only applied that teaching to money, but there is much more to it. We were taught to give God ten percent of our income, and God would bless us with more money than we had. The way those teachings were presented often missed the mark on what God was saying and what tithing is about.
In the Bible, tithing was not about the money but about sowing and reaping, giving and receiving. Money is a commitment you make because you are sowing to the Spirit in your heart. Tithing includes every increase you receive in your life, not least your thoughts because true sowing and reaping is spiritual. Its teaching reveals your heart’s intent and asks how much you are willing to give of your life.
Tithing is not a dominant teaching in the New Testament, that’s why many people today say tithing is not required, but sowing and reaping is, and that’s because, in the New, Jesus is teaching us a new way to think about tithing.
I never had a problem giving ten percent and always committed to giving God back some portion of my life, especially seeing what He did for us by giving His life for our salvation. I didn’t understand all of it, but I knew if God said it, there was a reason. Today I know the reason for this teaching, but I also know that ten percent was just the beginning of how much I would learn to give back to God.
Studying the old testament law about giving a tenth of your increase was a good way to teach us the principle of sowing and reaping. Included was God’s opportunity to teach His people how to give to His work so His Tabernacle ministry could continue on the earth. Money is part of that, but faithfulness and commitment to the church’s needs are still very relevant in the New. Again, the real secret, though, is that sowing and reaping is a work of the Spirit and, therefore, a matter of the heart.
God is a giver and a receiver.
Tithing (sowing and reaping) reveals that God is not just a giver but also a receiver. For life to prosper and continue, sowing and reaping must be a part of God’s kingdom, and therefore, we must have these principles taught in our life so that we learn to give and receive just as God did. With sowing and reaping in mind, the question is, do we only want to give and receive ten percent of God in our exchange with Him? It’s time to rethink only giving God ten percent of our life.
In sowing and reaping, God gives us His word and blessings and tells us that His kingdom is ours as much as it is His. If God is the giver, then we are the receivers, and we can receive everything that belongs to Him when He gives it to us.
Like children, we receive from our good parents and grow and increase with everything they say and give us. But parents and children reach a point where the child is no longer just a receiver of the parent’s goods. A child must learn how to give back what they have received from their parents and show them how much they appreciate what they have received, how much they understand, and what good it has done in their life. In this regard, it’s a tithe of their increase back to the parents.
In the same way, as parents give to their children, God gives to us. As His children, we must learn how to grow up and return what He has given us to Him. But it’s not just that we will return it; we will return it with an increase and understanding. In sowing and reaping, if we continue to believe that God only requires ten percent of us, we will have a mindset that only ten percent of our life belongs to God. That’s the old way of thinking and was only used under the law to teach the principle of sowing reaping (among a few other things.)
God uses us to increase His kingdom, so why would you only want to increase the kingdom of God by ten percent?
In Jesus Christ, how we think about and approach sowing and reaping is changed and made new. When God gave us Jesus, we no longer have to live by the law of just giving God ten percent; we get the opportunity to give all that He has given us back to Him so that the kingdom of God can be increased within us and in God.
Jesus is the new sowing and reaping.
In the Old Testament, God was limited in His relationship with His people. They didn’t understand Him and had difficulty talking to Him; therefore, sowing and reaping was only a part of the law structure to communicate with His people. That changed with Jesus. Today sowing and reaping is a part of our life just like Jesus is a part of our life. Jesus is our whole life; therefore, sowing and reaping is also our whole life.
Jesus gave all; He is our example of how to receive all things from God and give all things back to God.
If you look closely at the New Testament, it doesn’t go by the old testament law of only giving ten percent back to God. In the New Testament, Jesus calls for His followers to lay down their life and commit themselves with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. We learned in the new that giving and receiving are much greater than the old.
In the new, we receive more and give more.
For example, Jesus taught us the blessing of how to give all of ourselves back to God. Just as He laid down His life for the kingdom of God, we also have the blessing of giving all of ourselves for the kingdom of God. Sowing and reaping is not a selfish teaching. It cannot work with selfish people. The body of Christ is Jesus-focused and kingdom-minded; it serves the kingdom best when people are willing to give all to God.
(In sowing to the Spirit, on the earth you will want to support your church with tithes and offerings, but also fellowship and works, prayer and fasting, faithfulness and obedience, these all being part of the body of Christ and how we serve the kingdom of God. Let your outward be a reflection of your inward. Freely you have received, freely give.)
To help us get there, we must remember that God used the law as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Therefore, if you cannot walk in the fulness of Christ yet, but are on your way, do not forsake the law of God and dismiss sowing and reaping in your life. If nothing else, give ten percent back to God until you can give it all to Him. Be faithful to God as one of His children and return to Him what He has given you with an increase and see how much more He will give you.
Sowing and reaping is God adding to you, and you adding to God. Why would you limit God and yourself by only exchanging ten percent?
Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.