Resources by Topic: Money and Giving

Freewill offerings were commonplace in the Old Testament era. The three tithes were never the ceiling of giving, merely the floor. 

I am leading a class of young families at my church and we are presently talking about how to teach your children about money. What are your answers to the following questions?

Recently I read The Treasure Principle. I’ve never had much of a problem with giving, so I thought that the book would only serve me by providing encouragement to keep on giving the way I already was. Well, I was wrong! 

What you're saying may seem to make sense, but the fact is Malachi 3:8 says it is so: "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ In tithes and offerings."

Organizations that Eternal Perspective Ministries supports or recommends. 

When I read the Bible, it appears that tithing is the biblical minimum, the starting place, the floor of giving, not its ceiling. Tithes were to keep from stealing from God. Offerings were the beginning of giving.

Giving infuses life with joy. It interjects an eternal dimension into even the most ordinary day. That’s just one reason you couldn’t pay me enough not to give. The joy Nanci and I experience comes in envisioning what God is doing in people’s lives for eternity through what we’ve given to Him.

The Treasure Principle: You can’t take it with you, but... you can send it on ahead.

Tithing is done on profit—what you have truly made, how much you’ve actually come out ahead. That wouldn’t include all gross business income, since much, usually most, of that must pay for the business goods, employees, etc., which are providing the services making the money in the first place.

If I were you I would take the money I would have spent on the Corvette, and give it to missions and famine relief. Everyone comes out ahead that way—God is glorified, people are kept alive and reached with the gospel, and you will lay up treasures in heaven, and Jesus says your heart will follow your treasures.

There are two sides to the issue of savings. Scripture tells us that the wise man anticipates future needs, while the foolish man spends and consumes all his resources with no thought for the future.

I would tithe on gifts and scholarships because they are true income.

Over the last ten years, I’ve been suggesting that we learn how to share testimonies about giving in order to help the body of Christ grow in the grace of giving. 

To say that churches should receive the firstfruits does NOT mean they should keep them. They should set the example for their people by giving more to missions and the poor than they keep.