Tithing: Enjoying one’s firstfruits with God.

TITHE taɪð noun One-tenth. 2. verb. Set aside a tenth of something, either as savings or as a charitable donation. 3. verb. Give [either a tenth, or any variable amount] to our church. Most Christians define tithe as a donation to one’s church. But what we donate is pretty variable. Might be $20 a week, or $100 a month, or two hours of volunteer work (i.e. cleaning the bathrooms, vacuuming the carpets, sterilizing the toys in the nursery… you do sterilize the toys regularly, right? Babies put ’em in their mouths ). It’s whatever we regularly donate, although some of us aren’t all that regular about it. But for small churches, what we collectively donate isn’t always enough to cover our church’s expenses. Nor does it allow us to give pastors a stipend, or do much charity work… or pay the utilities or rent. Which is why Christian preachers so often feel they should remind us the word “tithe” comes from the Saxon teóða , “tenth”: It means a tenth of something. And t