By far the most famous passage in the Gospels about tithing is the account of the widow’s mites.
The account is found in Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21:1-4. Jesus and His disciples are in the temple, observing people bring their tithes and offerings. They observed the rich giving large amounts of money, and then saw a poor widow giving two mites.
Mites were very small copper coins, which today, would be equivalent to a few pennies. She did not give much at all. And yet, Jesus says that she gave more than all the rich, for they gave out of their wealth, but out of her poverty, she gave her last few coins.
This is a popular passage in sermons and teachings on tithing, and is often taught with two main points. First, we are told that this passage teaches that Jesus is not so concerned with the amount a person gives, but with the percentage. It is likely that the rich people in the temple were tithing a full 10% of their income, and as a result, were giving huge sums of money to the temple. However, they still owned 90% of their wealth. The poor widow, on the other hand, though she only gave two mites, gave 100% of what she had, and left with nothing. So, we are told that the amount we give to God is not as important as the percentage.
The second point often made from this Scripture is that God even wants the poor to tithe, and to tithe generously. The widow, though she had almost nothing, gave what she had, and Jesus praised her for it. We are then told that even if we are debt, even if we are poor, even if we cannot afford to pay our bills, even if we have lost our jobs and our homes, we still need to make sure we tithe to God before anything else.
Does Tithing Return 10,000 Percent?
Sermons that make this second point about poor people tithing often transition over to Matthew 19:29 (or Mark 10:29-30) where Jesus promises that those who give up relationships, possessions, homes, and land for His sake, will receive one-hundred times as much in this life and in the life to come. The message is that if you are poor or having trouble paying your bills, make sure you give the first portion of your income to God, because that will open the storehouses of heaven, and you will receive a hundred times more than what you give–a 10,000% profit! This poor woman who gave all she had received the commendation and blessing of Jesus.
But is this really what the passage is teaching? Is it teaching that God cares more about the percentage we given than the actual amount, and that even poor people should give out of their poverty?
No. The passage is teaching nothing of the sort. Jesus is not condemning the rich people for being wealthy, or for giving out of their wealth, nor is he praising the poor widow for giving her last two mites. To the contrary, the context seems to indicate that Jesus is saddened by the entire scene.
We will look at this context tomorrow.
Why is it not tomorrow yet! I want to know where this is going!
haha
Interesting, ‘looking forward for tomorrow. 🙂
Kirk and Romel,
It’s out now! Thanks for the encouragement.
Personally, I don’t think that story has anything to do with tithing, so I’m interested in your take on it. I think it is somewhat ironic that part of the tithe Israel brought in was intended for widows, and in that story we find a widow who had only two mites, worth almost nothing. Apparently, Israel was not bringing in all the tithe, or if they were, it was being appropriated for other uses.
Hmmm. I wonder if all those churches that teach the “Biblical” teaching on tithing (whatever they mean by that) are doing with the “tithe” (by which they almost always mean money, not crops and animals), as Israel was supposed to do with theirs, including providing for the widows. Or – Are they (mis)appropriating the tithe to fund their edifices and clergy, as some of Israel’s priests apparently “misappropriated” Israels’ tithe, as seems to be the case with Eliashib?
If we’ve still gotta’ follow the Old Testament practice of tithing, then hadn’t we oughta distribute the “tithe” as those folks were supposed to distribute it? Question: Were the temple and the synagogues (buildings) paid for from the tithe? Were priests provided for from the tithe? The rabbis?
If Jesus and his father Joseph were carpenters (whether we understand that in the traditional sense of working with wood, or as Ray Vander Laan and others suggest, stone masons who perhaps helped build the Roman administrative city of Sepphoris), were they paid with animals and produce or with silver? (If they were stonemasons building a Roman city, how would Rome have paid them?) If they were paid with silver, did they “tithe” their silver? Did the “tithe” include wages (silver)?
Sam,
Great insight on this passage. You are right that it is not about tithing, and as I point out in the post tomorrow, is closer to a condemnation of tithing.
Which book or video is that Ray Vander Laan point in? I have most of his DVDs and books, and would love to go look it up and see what he says.
My “VCR tape” (I bought these when they were first released) is tape 2 in Set 3, New Testament in “That The World May Know”. The lesson is #15 “Language of Culture – Sepphoris”. Also see the “Leader’s Guide”, p. 136, under “Guided Discussion: Learning a Trade”.
Thanks!
Looked at our church’s annual report last night. Of a $250,000 budget, $200,000 goes to building maintenance and staff salaries and benefits. $32,000 to missions, $4,000 to regional denominational staff/missionaries and the rest to Sunday School, adult “discipleship” and miscellaneous. No provision for the poor, other than what an inner city missionary and a crisis response missionary do. And every week our bulletin and every month our newsletter carries a reminder that we need to keep up on our giving “to God.”
Somehow we learned that providing for the congregation, under the description of “spreading the Gospel” has required lots of property, staff and programs, all of which need lots of money. Somehow there’s not much left for the poor, the widows and the orphans.
If you didn’t see it, check out the link posted in one of yesterday’s comments to the paper written by Ray Mayhew.
I looked at your blog. The picture of your dad looks a lot like pictures of my dad. That post made me cry. I bookmarked your blog, and will comment there later.
Dan,
Does “missions” maybe include some taking care of the poor? Missions can have a broad definition…
Even still, that breakdown of church budgets looks about normal.
Yes it can. Thinking of those missionaries we support specifically, I would say most do, although perhaps indirectly. Not sure about others, like campus evangelists, teachers at a missionary kids school. The “poor” can include the spiritually impoverished. What do you think?
And I would agree that’s an average church budget, from what I know.
Yes, I suppose “the poor” could include the spiritually impoverished, but we must be careful, because I see so many churches nowadays who “feel called” to go “minister” to the “spiritually impoverished” millionaires. God might call some people to this ministry, but not as many as there seem to be.
I would agree that the Lord’s command to care for the poor are too often interpreted figuratively.
This past Christmas 2013 I went to my daughter’s church to enjoy the Christmas Cantata,
At the very beginning of the announcements the Pastor opens with this . . .
.> > “Welcome everyone
we will not be taking an offering tonight, so if you missed giving your tithe this morning
please feel free after the program to come down front and just place it in the offering plate”
Then they went into the Christmas Cantata…….. I was so annoyed of his welcome approach
and not to mentioned slightly irritated / where does it stop??? Conercion tactics / manipulative
tactics / etc….I desire to give, and give joyfully but not guilt tripped into giving. Giving out of
duty is not grace giving at all. Just get tired of all the hoopla re: giving.
Many give to feel good about themselves, because they gave sacrifically / I honestly have issues
with these 4 to 6 million dollar buildings and a Pastor’s salary 100 thousand plus……and all
these un-necessary programs any and everything to do w/ everything except the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Entertainment of religious singers, etc…. the list is endless.
A couple of years back my husband was without work, our home went into foreclosure, he was
hospitalized (zero insurance) and the church we were attending had a revival and had a group
of singers in for 3 nights and payed them 5,000.00.
They did give us a one time gift of 385.00, but we were 2 years steady employment and lost our
home and eventually had to move.
Now did we give to this church (yes) my husband was also a bio-vocational minister and filled
in on several occasions with (not even a love offering) given to him. The Senior Pastor’s salary
was around 85,000.00 plus benefits. I am asking God for grace to not become embittered. But
again where does one draw the line?
Robin,
It is hard to not get bitter. This very reason is one of the primary reasons I left the pastorate. Frankly, I LOVED being a pastor. But there came a point where I just could not accept a salary any longer. I felt guilty getting a paycheck. I know that most people feel it is an honor and a privilege to pay their pastor, and I thank God for them. I also know that most pastors have no issue with accepting a salary. That is fine too. I am just talking about my personal convictions.
Anyway, I am writing a book about this, and will put it out in a month or two.