The Eighth Commandment and the Lordship of Christ over Finances
Every Lord’s Day, we can sing about how Jesus owns everything and then arrange our finances as if Jesus owns nothing. We can call Him Lord on Sunday and spend the rest of our week protecting our assets from His authority, but the eighth commandment will not allow us to hide behind the songs we sing: “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15).
We want the law of God to search us out, to be a mirror that reflects and exposes us. In fact, we should want the law to expose us, even though that exposure is difficult. It is like Eustace having his scales ripped off by Aslan: our sin nature is confronted with the holiness of God so that we would repent of our sins. The law reaches into the places we would rather leave untouched, and one of those places is our wallet.
In Malachi 3, God accused His own people of robbing Him by withholding their tithes and offerings. They had received His provision, spent His provision, and withheld what they owed to God. We need to ask whether we are doing the same thing, and one of the simplest ways to begin answering that question is to look at what we have actually done.
What Our Giving Actually Says
An honest review begins with adding up all the income received from your various sources over a given period. Then calculate the precise amount you have given during that same period in support of Christ’s church and the advancement of His kingdom. Once you have written both numbers down, divide your giving by your income and multiply it by one hundred. That is the percentage of your giving.
What that number tells us is not our intentions, our wants, or our desires. It reflects what we have done. It shows what we have given and confronts us with the state of our obedience in this area. The Israelites were rebuked by God for stealing, and that ought to matter to us. Is it possible that we can rob God as well?
Like every other area of our lives, we owe Christ our loyalty here. We serve Him with our bodies because He is Lord over our bodies, and we give Him our minds and hearts because He is Lord over them too. But when we think about the wallet, do we remember that the Lord is Lord there as well? When Scripture speaks of the tithe, the number it continually assigns is ten percent. God has given us one hundred percent of everything we have, and we give back a tenth in acknowledgment of His total lordship over it all.
The Lord does not need anything from us. We cannot add anything to God, and we do not come to worship to make Him feel better through our praises or to supply something He lacks. He gives us this discipline for our good, to sanctify us and teach us to trust Him, just as He taught the Israelites to trust Him when He commanded them not to gather manna on the Sabbath. He was not trying to starve them; He told them to gather a double portion on the sixth day so that they would trust His provision on the Sabbath.
Giving is not commanded because God needs it, but because we need it. We give back a tenth of what we have because God is worthy of everything we have.
The arithmetic is simple: if you have made $50,000 in a year, ten percent is $5,000. That is how I base my finances: whatever I have made, ten percent belongs to God. When we look at our records and what they actually say, we get a clear picture of whether we are acknowledging His lordship over our finances.
It is possible to receive income month after month while giving nothing to God through His church, receiving lavishly from employers who do not love and care for us as God does while giving with stinginess to the God who created and sustains us.
We have paid for the things we wanted. Our house payments were never late, our food and drink budgets were never lacking, our movie subscriptions never lapsed, and our Starbucks indulgence did not cease. Over and over, we can find evidence of how readily we spend money on things that excite us, which gives us a clear picture of our excitement for God. We have found room, and often intentionally made space, for the things we enjoy and the freedoms we cherish, while repeatedly finding reasons why obedience to God in this area is no longer required.
At no point have we forgotten how to spend our money. What we have forgotten is whose money we are spending.
Poverty and the Habits of Selfishness
Every local church should be a model of generosity in caring for its people. Christians in genuine need should be encouraged to seek help from the pastors, elders, or deacons of their own congregation. If someone has no income, ten percent of zero is zero. Scripture tells us to measure our giving according to what we have, and the church must care for those who do not have (2 Corinthians 8:12).
But we can also borrow the language of poverty to excuse the habits of selfishness. There is a difference between having nothing to give and giving nothing, just as there is a difference between poverty and running our bills so high, taking on so much debt, and handling our money so irresponsibly that we leave ourselves unable to be generous.
Some of us may be living paycheck to paycheck because we have not been good stewards of what God has given us. Perhaps we have overspent sinfully, lived above our means, and put ourselves in a position where God only gets the scraps. When we do that because the fear of missing out, the fear of the bill collector, or the fear of something else has become bigger, more pressing, and more real to us than the fear of God, we are in sin. We are robbing God, and we have to wrestle with what the balance sheet plainly says about us.
If our pleasures are funded but our obedience is not, then our budget is making a statement about how we view our God. “I cannot afford to give” often means, “I will not surrender to God in this area of my life.”
Why I Believe the Tithe Remains
I believe the tithe remains a duty for the Christian. I do not believe the ten percent has gone away, because the New Testament never overturns the tithe.
When I consider which Old Testament laws remain in operation, I look to the New Testament to tell us what has been overturned or transformed. I do not assume that the New Testament must repeat a law before we are obligated to continue obeying it, and the New Testament does not overturn the tithe.
Jesus also affirms the tithe. He rebukes men who meticulously tithe their mint, dill, and cumin, but He does not rebuke them for the mere act of tithing. He tells them that they should have attended to the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness, without neglecting the others (Matthew 23:23). While they were doing their tithing, their hearts should have been submitted to God. Jesus does not tell them to stop tithing; He tells them not to neglect the weightier matters while doing it.
Jesus was confirming the tithe while teaching principled giving, and the fullness of the Spirit’s work in the new covenant teaches us to give joyfully rather than merely out of compulsion. The apostles likewise command the support of gospel ministry and deliberate, proportionate giving (1 Corinthians 9:13–14; 16:1–2). The passing of the temple does not remove the church’s responsibility to support ministry.
The grace of God has not made God less worthy of our giving, and it has not given us permission to presume upon Him with selfishness. Nor does giving ten percent grant us permission to be selfish with the other ninety percent, because everything belongs to God. The tithe teaches us to acknowledge His ownership in an area where human beings, myself included, are especially prone to selfishness and especially in need of sanctification.
As a general rule, when my flesh chafes at something God commands, that is a good indication that I need to be obedient in that area. My flesh hates it for a reason.
Ordinary, Rhythmic Obedience
We often postpone giving until a particular need arises. If our congregation undertakes a building project, then we will give. If there is a mission opportunity that interests us, or a child needs help, or a family is suffering, then we will give. Those are good occasions for additional generosity, for offerings above and beyond the ordinary tithe, but they do not replace the ordinary, rhythmic obedience to which God calls us.
That is why we speak of tithes and offerings. We give regularly, and when we see a need and the Lord puts it on our hearts, we also give exceptionally, above and beyond our ordinary support.
Through the life and ministry of a local church, Christians receive the unique presence of Christ among His people, the Word and sacraments, teaching and preaching, discipleship and singing, fellowship and love, community and pastoral care, support and counseling. We want the church to disciple us and our children, visit the sick, and stand beside families in suffering.
We also want the church to expand. We want to see churches planted in our communities and throughout the world, and the nations bow the knee to Jesus. In light of all we have received, are we not also willing to help support that mission?
There are families in churches everywhere making tremendous sacrifices to sustain the work of ministry, while others with the means to contribute consume more than they give. Their willingness to bear the burden should move us to join them, rather than allow us to grow comfortable leaving it on their shoulders.
The Curve of Christian Maturity
Our willingness to give says something about our maturity. Infants consume far more than they give, and toddlers do the same. As our children grow, we hope they begin moving toward giving more and taking greater responsibility for others. By the time we become mothers and fathers, we know something of what it means to pour ourselves out, day after day, in the care of those entrusted to us.
The curve of Christian maturity bends toward greater generosity. As we mature in Christ, we should become more willing to give, and the manner in which we receive from and contribute to the church says something about that growth.
A man can know all the doctrines of Calvin and all the maxims of Luther, preach with the honey-dipped tongue of Charles Spurgeon, and still be an infant in his giving, selfish in what he expects to receive compared with what he is willing to give.
Sanctification is not measured entirely by our generosity, but generosity is part of it. The Lord who is Lord over all does not look at us and say that He wants one part of our lives while leaving another untouched. He does not outsource areas of our lives or declare that He will not speak there. He is sovereign over every aspect of us, and wherever we need sanctification and growth, we ought to bow and submit to Him.
Our giving calls us to consider our love for God, our maturity in Christ, and our commitment to His mission. Wherever it contradicts our confession that Christ is Lord over our lives, we need to repent.
Giving in Light of Calvary
We should see it as a mercy when God corrects us, as a grace when He instructs us, and as an opportunity to grow into greater obedience. May we, as Christians, show the world what generosity looks like and what it means to fund the things we believe in, gladly supporting the work of Christ’s church and the spread of His kingdom.
We are not adding anything to God or trying to measure up to some standard by which we can earn His favor. Christ has fulfilled the obedience we owe and secured the forgiveness of our sins, so our giving should flow from joy and cheerfulness toward the One who has given everything to us.
When we think about giving, let us not first think about our wallets. Let us think about Calvary, where the Father gave His one and only Son for us. In light of such generosity, may we learn to give gladly.
