Tax Time and Tithing

It’s tax time. I got everything ready for our preparer. I found Matt’s W-2 from work. I collected all of our home improvement rebate slips. I searched through my purse for our tithing report from the church. Then I stopped. Something made me look. For some reason I just had to compare two numbers.


I scanned the pay stub for the gross annual income. Then I stared at our giving amount for last year. It should be easy math. God only asks for 10% of our income. “One tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord and must be set apart to him as holy.“ (Levi 27:30 ) But it wasn’t there. I thought we had given God our first fruits but these numbers in front of me revealed a different story. And numbers don’t lie. The truth was glaring at me right there in black and white.

I felt ashamed. Embarrassed. Mortified.

Later I confessed this grievous sin to some close and trustworthy friends only to discover an ugly truth. Many of my friends, many of family, many of my fellow church go-ers do not tithe at all! Needless to say I was in shock.

How can you not give back to God after He has given you so much? The standard for giving in the New Testament was laid down by Jesus' example and is best captured by his words in Matthew 10:8. Jesus tells his disciples, "Freely you have received, freely give." We give as we have received. God doesn’t invite us to go where he himself has not already led. He set the standard, he took the first step, and he freely gave 100%--His only child to die for us.

So I wondered. I wanted to know how much the average Bible believing Christian actually gave to his church. The results were disappointing. Outrageous. Upsetting.

According the Gallup Poll (which, by the way, has nothing to do with horses or how fast they can run.) “Christians give 1.5% – 3.5 % of their income to the Church and other religious causes.”

For many of us, we can’t even feel a 1 ½ % loss (or even a 3% loss) in our income. Most of us spend that much--or more--just going out to eat for one meal alone. Imagine what you spend just in restaurants in a month.

But it gets worse. “Only about three percent of Christians are actually tithing,” the Gallup Poll continues. And an appalling “30%-50% of active church attendees have blank annual giving records.”

What? Let me get this straight. Of Bible believing regular church attenders, only 3% are giving 3%! Do we realize the importance of giving? Do we really comprehend the importance of this command? God killed two young men left in charge of the church’s offerings. “So the sin of these young men was very serious in the Lord’s sight, for they treated the Lord’s offerings with contempt.”1 Samuel 2:17. And then later He makes it clear that He will bless us tremendously if we do take our tithes to Him. “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!” Malachi 3:10

Just imagine what a church could do if only 10 % of its parishioners were tithing only 3%. Or if the 3% that were tithing increased their amount to the required 10%. That would be an increase of 3 times as much! Or what if only 10% gave 10%? An increase of over 11 times as much!! Can you just imagine how many people we could send on missions trips. How we could finally fix that bathroom that has never been finished. How we could pay our preachers a decent salary or even offer them health insurance Or have benches by the playground for parents. Or have college funds for kids who want to go but can't afford it.  Or…the list goes on and on. Just think. If everyone in the Church were on welfare and tithing, the church would have so much money they wouldn’t know what to do with it!

But I can't think about it right now because I have to go give Cesar what is his.  The tax man cometh.

Note: Another interesting fact I learned while researching for this blog,  This is a quote from the aforementioned Gallup Poll:
Tithing and Income: “In general, the more money a person makes the less likely he/she is to tithe. While 8 percent of those making $20,000 or less gave at least 10 percent of their income to churches, that proportion dropped to 5 percent among those in the $20,000-$29,999 and $30,000-$39,999 categories; to 4 percent among those in the $40,000-$59,999 range, down to 2 percent for those in the $60,000-$74,999 niche; and to 1 percent for those making $75,000-$99,999. The level jumped a bit for those making $100,000 or more, as 5 percent of the most affluent group tithed in 1999.”