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Honest Tithe: Holy to the Lord

We often talk about giving God tithe. But how do we give to God what He already owns?

Read Leviticus 27:30. What two important points are found in this text in regard to tithe?

“Tithe belongs to the Lord and therefore is holy. It does not become holy through a vow or a consecration act. It is simply holy by its very nature; it belongs to the Lord. No one except God has a right to it. No one can consecrate it to the Lord, because tithe is never part of a person’s property.” - Ángel Manuel Rodríguez, Stewardship Roots (Silver Spring, Md.: Stewardship Ministries Department, 1994), p. 52.

We do not make tithe holy; God does so by designation. He has that right. As stewards, we return to Him what is His. Tithe is dedicated to God for a specific task. Holding it for any other designation is dishonest. The practice of returning a holy tithe is never to be broken.

Read Hebrews 7:2-10. How does Paul’s discussion of Abraham’s tithing to Melchizedek reveal a deeper significance of tithing? To whom was Abraham really tithing?

Thus, as the Sabbath is holy, so the tithe is holy. The word “holy” means “set apart for sacred use.” The Sabbath and the tithe are connected in this way. We set apart the seventh-day Sabbath as sacred, as holy; and we set apart the tithe as God’s sacred possession, as that which is holy.

“God has sanctified the seventh day. That specified portion of time, set apart by God Himself for religious worship, continues as sacred today as when first hallowed by our Creator.

“In like manner a tithe of our income is ‘holy unto the Lord.’ The New Testament does not reenact the law of the tithe, as it does not that of the Sabbath; for the validity of both is assumed, and their deep spiritual import explained. . . . While we as a people are seeking faithfully to give to God the time which He has reserved as His own, shall we not also render to Him that portion of our means which He claims?” - Ellen G. White, Counsels on Stewardship, p. 66.

What can you do to help keep the realization alive in your heart and mind that your tithe is, indeed, “holy”?