The last word in Leviticus is about the tenth, or ‘tithe’, that the people were to bring to God. This tithe included a tenth of everything the people produced, including crops and animals. The tithe is described as belonging to the Lord and holy, or set apart, to him.

However, the Israelites were not to make the mistake of assuming that only the tithe belonged to God and everything else was theirs. Just as the Sabbath day was devoted to God as a reminder that all their days belonged to him, so the tithe was a reminder that all their possessions belonged to him. The tithe represented the whole. Everything they had came from God and belonged to God.

Under the New Covenant, our directions for giving are quite different. We are to give to the extent that God has blessed us (1 Corinthians 16:2), joyfully and generously (2 Cor 8:1-2) and sacrificially (Phil 4:18). As Christians, when we give ten per cent, we should not imagine that we have satisfied God and done all we need to do.

The tithe is a religious observance designed to remind us that all we have is from God and belongs to God. In the New Covenant, we can throw off the restraints of the tithe and practice joyful, generous, sacrificial giving and sharing of our possessions, our money and our time. The parable of the widow’s pennies (Mark 2) reminds us that the Lord looks at the heart of the giver and not the size of the gift. We have been abundantly and generously blessed. Let us respond likewise!

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NEWBOLD COMMUNITY CHURCH