Your ShelfYour Projects

The Law of Tithing

5%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 6, 1902

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 79, No. 18.

Read the full edition

The Law of Tithing

By Uriah Smith

THE reader will be interested in the following article, particularly when he learns the source from which it comes, and considers the subject to which it is devoted. It comes from the pastor of a Methodist church in Ohio, and is published in the form of a leaflet, with the title, “Is the Law of Tithing Binding on the Christian Church?” It is a conclusive argument in favor of the practice of tithing by Christians, according to the law of God, and was handed to us by a brother, to be compared with the ten commandment law. This latter law, commonly known as the moral law, or ten commandments, points out just as definitely and directly our duty to God, as does the law on the subject of tithing.
In Lev. 27: 30-32 we read: “And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy unto the Lord. And if a man will at all redeem aught of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof. And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord.”
Deut. 14: 22 says: “Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.”
This, in brief, is the statement of the law on the subject, as recorded by Moses for the children of Israel. Following these statements are directions for the disposition, or use, of the Lord’s portions. Where it was impracticable to deliver the animals or fruits of the field, they were to be sold, and the money delivered, the evident intent of the law being to deliver into the Lord’s house, or treasury, one tenth of the income of each person or family. These commandments are written in the same books, at the same time, and by the same authority as the ten commandments. The same authority which made the seventh day holy unto the Lord, made also the tenth of the increase of the field and flock holy unto the Lord.
The ten commandments, or moral law, cover our moral obligations to God and humanity. The tithing of incomes provides for the maintenance of God’s worship, and the care of helpless humanity. These laws are as eternal as our relations to God and humanity. We cannot disobey either without seriously violating our obligations to the one or the other. That the law is eternal, and not a Mosaic enactment, is shown by Abraham’s offering to Melchisedec, God’s high priest, a tenth of all he had, five hundred years before the time of Moses; by Jacob’s giving a tenth of all God gave him; by its frequent mention all through Jewish history; and by Malachi’s startling announcement that his people were robbing God by withholding tithes and offerings. Four hundred years later, Christ, when observing the extreme care the scribes took in tithing, said, “These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other [the weightier matters of the law] undone.”
Later, Paul exhorted the laying aside every week as the Lord prospered his people; and in writing to the Hebrews, he mentions the tithing law and its obligations as eternal.
In short, there is no place in Sacred Writ, or in history, where there is any indication of an abrogation of the law. The tenth is always spoken of as belonging to God,—not a gift to God, but his by right,—and every withholding of the tenth as robbery.
When a man pays rent for the use of a house or of land, or interest for the use of money, he never considers this a gift to the owner of the property. It is simply paying an obligation, or debt, which it would be regarded as dishonest to try to evade.
So the Scriptures treat the payment of tithes. It belongs to God, and a man has no more right to withhold the payment of his debt to God than to withhold the payment of his debt to any other friend.
If this view is correct, the payment of tithes, church dues, or support of the poor, is not a matter of charity or benevolence, until it exceeds a tenth of one’s income, but simply the payment of an honest debt.
The fact that a man has contracted other debts, or has pressing wants, that make it seem impossible to pay God his just dues, does not lessen the obligation to pay them any more than it does the payment of any other debt.
The man who has the reputation of paying his honest debts, can obtain any reasonable favor he asks from his fellow men. The man who pays his honest debts to God can obtain any reasonable favor he may ask of him.
The converse of this is true of men, and equally so with God. The man who will not pay his honest debts, cannot obtain special favors of either God or man.
When we learn that all God’s laws are right and reasonable, and that it does not pay to violate them, but does pay to obey them, then we shall have learned a great lesson. When we learn that these laws are immutable, unchangeable, and that the results of obedience or disobedience infallibly follow, whether we know it or not, we shall seek to know these laws as we have never done before.
At some future time, we will notice the results of the operation of the law of tithing as given in the Scriptures, and observed in the actual practice of those who have obeyed the law.
We congratulate our Methodist friend on his clear apprehension of the great duty we owe to God, to pay into his cause one tenth of all our increase for the support of his work; but what about that other law, which is equally plain and direct on our duty to God, as the other one is on the duty of paying into his treasury one tenth of our income for the support of his cause?
Our friend speaks of this moral law in a manner to show that he is not far from the kingdom of God on this point. He says: “The ten commandments, or moral law, cover our moral obligations to God and humanity. . . . These laws are as eternal as our relations to God and humanity. We cannot disobey either without seriously violating our obligations to the one or the other.”
Of the ten commandments the reader will remember that he also says, “The same authority which made the seventh day holy unto the Lord, made also the tenth of the increase of the field and the flock holy unto the Lord.” Thus he introduces a point which all would do well to remember, and that is that the ten commandments and the duty of tithing are intimately associated. This is true. How, then, we ask, can we deviate from the Christian observance of the seventh day, and be clear? or ignore any obligation which the ten commandments lay upon us, and not come under condemnation? We may apply to this the language of Paul, in Rom. 2: 21: “Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?” or, in other words, “Thou that boastest of the law of tithing, through breaking the moral law, dishonorest thou God?” U. S.