New Covenant Principles of Giving
See David A. Croteau, ed. Perspectives on Tithing: Four views (Nashville: B& H Publishing), 2011. See the section David Croteau, “The Post-Tithing View: Giving in the New Covenant.”
NT Giving Considered
● All-inclusive (every believer, no exceptions)
● The Foundations of giving
○ Relationship and love driven
○ Grace driven
○ Stewardship and faith driven (everything belongs to God, what are His priorities?)
● The Motivations for giving
○ Gratitude to and reverential love for God
○ A desire to bless others
○ Love and mercy for the needy and the lost
○ An obvious need of another believer
● The Manner for giving (How)
○ Regularly (chose weekly to monthly)
○ Intentionally (planned)
○ Generously (not hoarding or stingy)
○ Cheerfully and voluntarily (with a pleasant attitude, not begrudgingly)
● The Mission's base of giving
○ How seriously do we take the Great Commission and biblical stewardship? There are a number of American Christians who have capped their lifestyle at a certain level, made a regular commitment to their local church, and anything else God blesses them with goes to foreign missions, primarily to the 10-40 window where the most isolated from the gospel live.
○ Joshua Project: Global Summary: An overview of the people groups of the world
- People Groups:17,446 Unreached Groups:7,425, Unreached Groups:42.6%
- 2023 Earth's Population:7.93 Billion
The population in Unreached areas (mainly the10-40 window): 3.37 Billion
The percentage of the population among the Unreached (no Christians, no church, no Bible, no tracts, no Christian radio, TV, etc.): 42.5%
○ Missionary professor Harvie Conn’s book, Bible Studies on World Evangelization and the Simple Lifestyle was never a big seller and went out of print fast. He asked American Christians to cap their lifestyle and sacrifice for foreign missions. The book, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt tells how a whole Baptist church did this by heart-based giving.
● The amount of giving
○ Income-based (proportional)
○ Heart-based
○ Sacrificial at times, but always generous
○ Voluntary
○ It is to be an amount set by each family after asking God for wisdom, applying principle of stewardship and considering God's priorities. This amount will change in various seasons of life. Ask: How can we be the best steward’s possible to please our God, who is Lord and Savior? What you treasure reveals what is in your heart. Your credit card statement and checking account statement reveal what you really love the most.
Old Covenant Giving
Giving in the Old Testament was a little different. There were mandatory Old Covenant agricultural contributions that were part of the ceremonial law to be brought each year to the temple complex. When the farmers gave Yahweh one of every 10 domestic animals and 10 percent of their grain, wine, vegetables, olive oil and fruit—it showed stewardship. To refuse to obey was robbing God. The moral law says, “Do not steal.” Taking and possessing property that belongs to another without their permission is stealing. So, in Malachi chapter 3, the people ask their famous ‘How’ question. How do we rob You, God? In what way? Prove that we are robbers! God answers: ‘By not making the payments of the tenths and the contributions.’ The ‘contributions’ or ‘offerings’ included voluntary gifts of grain, along with the peace and sin offerings. Charles Feinberg notes it also included the mandatory first fruit offering. The first fruits were no less that 1/60th of a farmer’s grain, wine, and olive oil. The contributions also included the meat portions that the priests would lift up before the brazen altar or move from side to side before the altar, symbolically dedicating it to the LORD. These portions were food for the priest and his family. So, the offerings or contributions is one of the two areas the farmers in Israel were withholding from the temple complex. The other area in which they were withholding of that which was required to be brought to the temple during the feast of Israel was the tithes. Why is it plural? Because there were three.
● The Levitical tithe. This was 10% of vegetables, fruits, grains or their final products like wine and olive oil along with 1 out of every 10 animals. This was an annual Levitical tithe from the farmers in Israel to the temple. The Levites would give 10% of these tithes to remain at the temple complex and they shared this best part with the Priests. But they could also consume some of it themselves while at the temple. The landless people in Israel did not pay tithes, which included widows, orphans, immigrants, poverty stricken, slaves and priests.
● The Feast or Festival tithe. This was an annual tithe of the produce of the land brought with the farmer’s family and split for at least the three mandatory feasts, but could be split for 5 feasts each year. They would eat this 2nd tithe in Jerusalem at the feasts and share this with the Levites. This was besides the Levitical tithe. The men went to Jerusalem each year for the 3 required feasts with their families and brought their contributions, burnt offerings, sin offerings, and peace offerings along with their Levitical tithes and just enough food and funds for the complete journey. The offerings exceeded the three tithes.
● The Poor or Charity tithe. They stored this tithe in the local city to provide food for the local Levites and Priests not on temple duty and the community widows, orphans, poor, and immigrants. Thus, it was not carried to Jerusalem. They paid it every 3 years instead of annually.
Thus, an Israeli farmer’s family paid 23 1/3% of the land production besides the first fruits 1/60th contributions, along with voluntary gifts. The farmers, along with any other man in Israel, would also take part in the burn offerings, the sin offerings, the peace offerings, the grain offerings that went with theses three, and the restitution offering when they cheated someone in the land. So, a farmer who was concerned about his sin and meeting his three tithes or land taxes and additional contributions would have easily been contributing between 25% and 30% of the produce of the land each year if he gave no free-will offerings at all.
How Important is the Great Commission?
1. Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." (Jn. 20:21 NIV)
2. Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:18 NET)
3. And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mk. 16:15 NKJV)
4. And He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; 47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, (ethnoi, ethnic groups) beginning from Jerusalem.48 You are witnesses of these things.” (Lk. 24:46-48 NASB)
5. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 NET)
If my Doctor told me I had five weeks to live and I met with you once a week before my departure from the land of the living. This is what I said during those five meetings. Week 1. Will you take care of my dog? Week 2. Please take care of my pup. Week 3. I am depending on you to provide for Buddy. Week 4. Make sure my dog is okay. Week 5. I need you to look after my dog. After my departure, what is most important to me? It is not waxing my old car. It is not weeding my flower bed. It is the dog. Get him and get to work if you love me.
What is most important to Jesus? In the forty days between the resurrection and the ascension, Jesus commissions His Apostles (the foundation stones of the church) five times to reach every ethnic group with the gospel and biblical truth. These verses include commands for the church and the Christian. Nothing is more important. Even willfully unbelieving Thomas went to India with the gospel and died from the spear of a Hindu Priest. Pray, give, go or send. Give your time, talents, treasures and truth accordingly.
Since about 166,324 people will die each day in 2023 and their everlasting destiny is set and unchangeable, we have some priorities and choices to review. We have no excuse for poor stewardship and excessive waste on ourselves rather than sending people, translators and resources into the 10-40 window---the darkest place on the earth. Only one out of every 10 foreign missionaries serve in this region. It takes about 15 years to translate the Bible into these remaining languages.
If you have been influenced by creeping Universalism, please re-read Romans 10, Acts 4:12 and John 14: 1-27. Jesus is the only way to heaven. Only those who hear, believe, and call on the name of the Lord are saved. There is no other name and no other way. If we don't go, they will remain lost. Liberalism and Universalism are heresies and you need to avoid them more than you avoid radiation and airborne asbestos.
“I want to challenge you to submit your life decisions to Jesus’ Great Commission command.” Mark Dever, Understanding the Great Commission, (Nashville: B&H, 2016), 47.
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