Wealth and Poverty: Tithing and Systematic Proportionate Giving

“The Jews were constrained to a regular payment of tithes; Christians, who have received liberty, assign all their possessions to the Lord, bestowing freely not the lesser portions of their property, since they have the hope of greater things; as that poor widow acted who cast all her living into the treasury of God.” Irenaeus of Lyons (130-202) in Against Heresies

A few hundred years later, Augustine indicated that tithing was still practised --

“Tithes are required as a matter of debt, and he who has been unwilling to give them has been guilty of robbery. Whosoever, therefore, desires to secure a reward for himself . . . let him render tithes, and out of the nine parts let him seek to give alms.”

Note the clear distinction between the mandatory tithe and the voluntary offering of almsgiving. Alms were to be given -- above and beyond the tithe.

Jerome said --

“If anyone shall not do this [pay tithes] he is convicted of defrauding and supplanting God.”

Like Augustine, Jerome believed and taught that it is possible for New Testament Christians to “rob God” by withholding the tithe, just as it was for Old Testament believers. For the first four hundred years, the Church often, if not normally, considered the practise of tithing a minimum standard for giving.

And all the tithe (tenth part) of the land, whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord. - Leviticus 27:30

“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings [you have withheld].9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, this whole nation! 10 Bring all the tithes (the tenth) into the [a]storehouse, so that there may be [b]food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you [so great] a blessing until there is no more room to receive it. - Malachi 3:8-10

There were three tithes for Israelites. One tithe supported the the priests and Levites, another provided for a sacred festival and the third tithe supported orphans, widows and the poor.

The practise of tithing began long before the law of Moses. Abraham tithed to he high priest Melchizedek. Jacob promised a tithe to the Lord.