Legal sermons on giving are not gospel sermons at all. They are a detour to the Village of Morality. Beware of trying to please God by the law! It may feel right because the old man in us craves self-justification, but it is a road to bondage and moralism.

Sometimes Malachi is preached in such a way as to accuse the congregation of robbing God by not paying the full tithe. After all, Malachi 3:8–9 says:

“Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.”

These verses are often paired with the next passage:

“Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”

This is Scripture, but it must be interpreted in light of God’s gracious promises in the gospel and in its covenantal context. All the commands of Scripture are bounded by grace. We cannot give anything until He first gives us new life in Christ. Mere obedience to the law is not what is in view here.

So we must ask: Are New Testament Christians obligated to tithe? Are they robbing God if they do not? Will paying the tithe bring blessings ex opere operato—automatically?

Threats of curses and promises of blessings, if not fully grounded in the gospel, may provoke giving, but only under compulsion and duress. Simply tacking the gospel onto the beginning or end of a sermon to make it “Christ-centered” still misses the true center. Christ must be woven into the whole message. It must have a fragrance of Christ. To do this, the entire subject of giving and receiving must be clarified in the light of the gospel. The tithe system itself must also be explained in its Old Covenant context, rather than cut and pasted directly into the New.

The Old Testament Tithe System

Giving in the Old Testament was strictly regulated by God mandating a percentage of crops and cattle to fund a broad range of ministry activities: temple, teaching, feasting, care for the poor, and even a primitive medical care system. The tithe was never about acquiring money, which I believe was a feature and not a bug. It prevented wealth accumulation and theft. It is easy to steal money, but who would run off with a cartload of grain or cattle? It is hard to sell that in the market without being asked a lot of questions. It isn’t an easy theft. It is true that the tithe could be turned into money if the tither was required to travel long distances to celebrate a feast, but it had to be converted back into agricultural products to be used.

The tithe also kept the support system local, land-based, and limited in scope. The land produced the benefit and wasn’t the direct work of man’s labor. The farmer planted, but God caused the growth. God paid the tithes Himself by granting the increase of the land in crops and cattle. The landed-support system also had a ceiling of support. It could only produce so much. This prevented an ecclesiastical aristocracy.

That the tithe was food also meant that it was perishable and not able to be stored up indefinitely. It had an expiration date which kept the funding tied to a set period of time. This, I believe, was a carry-over principle of the provision of manna in the wilderness which was a daily cycle. God wanted to keep His people dependent on a current accounts system to build in them a life of faith. Accumulated wealth would have caused them to lean on that instead of trusting in God. It is “give us our daily bread and not give us our yearly bread.” In Jesus’ day the rulers had overturned this safeguard and had turned the temple into a house of trade and commerce.

From the Shadow to the Substance

The New Testament system to support the ministry isn’t land-based. It is the freewill offerings of His people. Here too, He provides the increase. The voluntary giving of believers is produced by the Spirit’s work. There is no law to give a certain percentage. There is no accounting ledger to keep track of your giving to make sure you are giving enough. Jesus says, “Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” Give in secret. Giving is multidimensional, incarnational and not always quantifiable by a tax receipt.

As a tradesman without land, Jesus would not have been subject to the agricultural tithe. He was a carpenter by trade, and the trades were never part of the Old Testament tithe system. Instead, He gave Himself for His people. We must follow in His steps. We must give ourselves wholly to the Lord as our reasonable service. If giving is framed as heartfelt joy and gratitude, it will not be a burden or by compulsion. As Luther put it: “These good works aren’t done under compulsion. They’re done freely. They aren’t done so that God will love us. They’re done because He loves us.”

Luther said, “love God and sin boldly.” His point is not to advocate for antinomianism, but it might have been to expose the motives behind our obedience. Exegeting Luther is not always straightforward as he often spoke in extremes and trolled his opponents by using sarcasm and irony. Maybe what Luther meant by this statement was “If you really love God, you can’t sin boldly!” Love is the measure of our fidelity to God. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. If you give, give boldly; if you refrain from giving, refrain boldly. If you love God, can you really refrain boldly? This framing of the question ferrets out our sinful nature and shows us where our heart really is. Jesus said in Luke 7:47 “he who is forgiven little, loves little.” If you refrain boldly from giving, could it be, you know little of God’s grace? If you are comfortable with giving nothing, could it be that you do not know God at all?

The woman loved much because she was forgiven much. The proud Pharisee loved little and was far away from God. He was self-righteous and thought he didn’t need a Savior. All true giving must flow from the springs of Grace or it will be legal and worthless in God’s sight.

So, we have two natures, the stingy me, the old man, and the generous me, the new man living in the same person. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! You do not give to be accepted by God, you give because, in Christ, you already are accepted. The believer’s standing with God is settled at the cross, once and for all. Giving belongs to the life of gratitude that flows from grace and not from an effort to keep the law in order to earn a blessing. It is only the gospel that transforms us into giving ourselves wholly unto Him in acts of service and love from a new heart purified by grace.

The Symptom and the Disease

Sermons on giving often fall short if they limit giving to the offering box. Giving is much more fundamental than that. It is the mark of the new life in Christ. It includes how we use our time, our talents, and our treasure. We become generous in all areas of our life.

Failure to support the local ministry in any tangible way is a symptom of a much greater problem. There will be failure to give anywhere. Marriage becomes contractual and without love. Work becomes just doing the minimum. Relationships become parasitic and selfish.

Stingy people are fair-weather friends and not someone who will help you if you are in trouble. They are there for the party. They take and they do not give.

The Heidelberg Order: Guilt → Grace → Gratitude

It is only the gospel that can redeem the reluctant giver. The Heidelberg Catechism gets the order right. It is structured into three parts: guilt, grace, and gratitude. We must first experience grace before we give anything.

You will never be a giver unless you first are given new life in Christ. Gratitude is giving. The whole Christian life is about giving. It is giving praise to God, giving forgiveness, giving mercy, giving acts of kindness to our neighbor, giving alms to support the poor, giving witness to what Jesus has done for us, giving ourselves to prayer, and yes, giving to support the work of the ministry.

To limit a sermon on giving to the monetary support of the local church is to narrow the work of the Spirit in sanctification. Christ at Pentecost poured out His Spirit on His church so that there would be mutual giving in the communion of the saints. None of the charismata are for personal benefit. If the Spirit stirs gratitude across the whole spectrum, then praise, mercy, hospitality, forgiveness, service and monetary generosity to the local church naturally comes along for the ride. Just as a rising tide raises all ships in the harbor, so too does the rising tide of the Spirit increase all giving. If you preach grace in such a way that people are moved to give thanks, give time, give love, give themselves, the whole harbor of generosity rises.

Why Legal Preaching Kills True Giving

Another feature of the Heidelberg Catechism that is helpful here is that it prevents us from preaching legal sermons. The order is important. If you stay in part I, guilt and then make an application, you have no gospel. That would be turning the covenant of grace into a law covenant that says, “do this to be saved” instead of “it is done, and now do this.” Part I is the law in the hands of God as the Judge.

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