Proper Use of the Tithe by E. K. Slade

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 23, 1913

Proper Use of the Tithe

By E. K. Slade

Gospel Finance—No. 13

Proper Use of the Tithe

E. K. SLADE

"THE money coming into the treasury is to be carefully guarded." Individuals have been known to use their tithe to help the poor or to assist in some other worthy enterprise instead of placing it in the Lord's treasury to be used as he directs. Local churches have made the mistake of using a portion of the tithe to meet some of their local expenses. Conference committees have allowed tithe, in some instances, to be used for other branches of the work than that for which it has been set apart. This irregularity does not exist now to the extent that it did in past years, yet there are reasons for taking steps even now to guard this fund carefully.

We are just as much under obligation to use the tithe properly as we are to recognize it as belonging to God. It is to be placed in his treasury, from which it is to be drawn for one purpose only. It has been sanctified, or set apart, for that one purpose. In diverting it from its proper use we not only deplete the treasury, but we also run the risk of failing to distinguish between the common and the sacred. We may reason that all branches of the gospel work are on the same basis, and that it matters not if the tithe is applied wherever we see fit, but our reasoning is set aside by the definite instructions the Lord has given us on this point.

"The tithe is to be used for one purpose—to sustain the ministers whom the Lord has appointed to do his work." Much counsel has been given us in regard to how the tithe should be safeguarded and properly expended which we will do well to keep ever in mind.

"Those who have charge of our church buildings are to be supplied with the means necessary to keep the buildings in good repair, but this money is not to come from the tithe. A very plain, definite message has been given to me to give to our people. I am bidden to tell them they are making a mistake in applying the tithes to various objects, which, though good in themselves, are not the object to which the Lord has said the tithe should be applied. Those who make this use of the tithe are departing from God's arrangement. God will judge for these things. One person reasons that the tithe may be appropriated for school purposes, still another would reason that canvassers and colporteurs should be supplied from the tithe, but a great mistake is made when the tithe is drawn from the object for which it should be used—the support of the ministry."

"There should be an abundant supply in the Lord's treasury, and there would be if selfish hearts and hands had not made use of the tithe to support other lines of work. God's reserved resources are to be used in no such haphazard way. The tithe is the Lord's, and those who meddle with it will be punished with the loss of their heavenly treasure unless they repent. Let the work no longer be hedged up because the tithe has been diverted into various channels other than the one to which God said it should go. Provision is to be made for these other lines of work. They are to be sustained, but not from the tithe. God has not changed; the tithe is to be used for the support of the ministry."—Special Testimonies.

To pay the salary of a Bible teacher in our schools is in harmony with the above counsel, providing he is a minister. "The best ministerial talent should be employed in teaching the Bible in our schools. . . . and their salaries should be paid from the tithe."—Ib.

Those who are so unfortunate as to be in debt often raise a question as to what their duty is. A correct understanding of the nature of the requirement and of the principle involved will clear up all these questions that arise. The following paragraph is very clear on this point:—

"The man who has been unfortunate, and finds himself in debt, should not take the Lord's portion to cancel his debts to his fellow men. He should consider that in these transactions he is being tested, and that in reserving the Lord's portion for his own use he is robbing the Giver. He is debtor to God for all that he has, but he becomes a double debtor when he uses the Lord's reserved fund in paying debts to human beings."—"Testimonies for the Church," Vol. VI, page 391.

A greater blessing surely awaits us as we more fully heed all God's requirements in regard to the use of the tithe.

Mt. Vernon, Ohio.