The name “Craze” was a fitting title for the name of my church’s annual Vacation Bible School. With beach balls the size of a Kia Soul and extravagant giveaways at the end of each day, as a 12-year-old volunteer, I could not help but start to rethink my weekly tithe.
If 10% of my chore allowance and birthday money was going to fund beach balls and some kid’s second Nintendo switch, maybe I ought to just keep it for myself.
I expressed this sentiment to my dad, who reminded me the money was never really mine in the first place. Once I had a car, I began attending a different church — only partially fueled by my uneasiness about Craze — where I tithe regularly to this day. Even so, tithing can be difficult for me.
The Bible does not say Christians should start tithing, or giving 10% of their earnings to the church, when they make a respectable salary. It also does not say Christians are only to tithe when they are personally happy with the state of the church. College students should be regularly and proportionately giving to their local church or parish, and giving generously in addition to that, especially when it feels the most difficult.
The first person to give a tithe — 10% of his war plunder to Melchizedek — was Abraham, as recorded in Genesis 14:20. This voluntary expression of gratitude and reverence occurred long before the law was established.
Leviticus 27:30-32 outlines the necessity of giving a tenth of one’s income — land, livestock, harvest — declaring that “every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.”
While giving to charitable organizations is noble and generous, you should direct your tithe to the church.
As Rev. Christopher Brauns once told me, the church is as much God’s plan for this stage of redemptive history as the ark was for Noah’s. There was nothing wrong with Noah helping people out, but his committed focus was the ark. The church — leaky as it may be, with conditions that aren’t particularly ideal — is God’s boat for this age. To be unimpressed by some of the choices of the American church is not reason enough to abandon ship.
There is another important point of opposition: students holding tightly to the money they have and choosing not to tithe because they’ve erroneously assumed it will insulate them from harm more effectively than obeying the Bible’s commands. This is a common pitfall, one most Christians fall into daily. Nevertheless, the paradox of tithing is as more is given, more is received. This may not be in terms of money — although I can support this claim anecdotally. It may very well be in terms of humility, an increased spirit of generosity, and a litany of other virtues that arise when one is anchored in the comfort of Christ alone. People who tithe tend to express how much they have truly received by giving.
Tithing won’t ensure salvation, nor will refraining send someone to hell. Legalism won’t propel the kind of generous spirit tithing aims to form. The Pharisees, who tithed consistently, are paradigmatic examples of this. We must tithe without becoming haughty or arrogant.
A cheerful, sacrificial gift is both a signifier and the fruit of faith. From Abraham’s righteousness in Genesis to the faith of the healed leper in Luke, the Bible is a grand story of God rewarding the faithfulness of those who consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. For where your treasure is, Jesus says, there your heart will be also.
Jillian Parks is a senior studying Rhetoric and Media.
