Indeed, poor tips are an example of what Moses teaches in Deuteronomy 25 — muzzling an ox when it is treading out grain (Deuteronomy 25:4). It relinquishes responsibility to the Great Commission, because the Gospel is about grace. Of all the people in the world, Christians should understand that they are unworthy to be recipients of the great mercy, grace and generosity shown them in Christ

“So that was a friendly Christian person?”

After making that statement, one of my restaurant coworkers — a divorced, agnostic man working two jobs to pay child support — tossed a receipt with a circle around the subpar tip he had received from a Christian individual sitting at his table. In fact, the tip was less than subpar — barely 10 percent on a $90 bill. I thought about ignoring him, but I have been attempting to share the Gospel with this coworker for a while. “Not all Christian people treat others that way,” I said softly.
I have been serving tables at a restaurant for several years in order to support my wife and children and to pay my way through graduate school. Repeatedly, I have observed Christian people — or people who identify themselves as Christians by wearing Christian T-shirts/apparel or their Christian conference name tag, etc. — come into the restaurant at which I work, pray for their food after acting rudely toward their server, leave a 10 percent tip (give or take a few percent) and a Gospel tract, and then leave.
Whether Christians are aware of it or not, a subpar tip is a stumbling block in communicating the Gospel. It causes unbelieving servers to think that we, as Christians, value money over everything and everyone else (1 Timothy 6:10). So, my coworker, like many other servers, interprets such actions (poor tips from alleged Christian people) as stingy. Tragically, the result — though it may be unfair — is that many servers have identified the majority of Christians as a contingent of people who care little for others. They hear Christians promise them that God is just and fair and that He is a generous King who is lavish with His mercy and kind toward others. Christians promise them that the Gospel they preach is for all people right before they metaphorically clinch their money in their fist and tip poorly; refusing money to laborers who are worthy of their wages (1 Timothy 5:18; Matthew 10:10).
Now, to be sure, both believers and unbelievers can leave poor tips and fair tips. But, the Scripture teaches that Christians, more than all people, should be characterized by generosity and love, not simply by “fairness,” because they were first loved even though they were most undeserving (1 John 4:19). It seems that the deeper issue is not a knowledge of what is culturally fair or economically acceptable when it comes to tipping servers. Rather, the issue is a lack of recognition by Christians that we have received out of God’s fullness (John 1:16); that we have received because God generously provided His Son for us and for our salvation (Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:9).

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