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There are so many myths about tithing that it is hard to enumerate them all.  One of the more popular ones is this—If you tithe, then
God will necessarily bless you far more than you have given.   This is based on sayings like “Ask and it
will be given to you” (Mt. 7.7).

Alas for this reasoning, the context of Mt. 7 gives the illustration of asking for
a basic necessity–mere bread or a fish to eat! 
Jesus reassures that when one seeks such things from God,  God is able to
provide good gifts to those who ask. 
This does indicate that God enjoys blessing those who seek him and his
aid in such matters.  It suggests God has
an infinite store of such things, never running out.

There is some truth then
to the saying “you have not because you ask not”  when it comes to such necessities.  But texts like this say nothing about a Quid
pro Quo, or a reciprocity cycle set up with God such that if we give X to the
Lord’s work,  we will necessarily receive
Y from God, which is assumed to be greater than X.  Often the blessings of God are not material
ones in any case. And the notion that we could put God in our debt, such that
he was bound by promissory note to give us Y because we gave him X is simply
false.  God’s gifts are free and
gracious, not things owed to someone with a bad theology of reciprocity. And one more thing— many of the promises of God are conditional promises–‘if my people called by my name will repent, then I, your God will….’  Conditional promises God has no obligation to fulfill if we do not live into the condition he stipulated in the first place.

Yet another myth about tithing is that If I am tithing Christian, I am free to do as I like with
the 90% I have not tithed.  In the first
place, the Christian standard is sacrificial giving which may mean more than a tithe in
some cases.   In the second place, the
90% still belongs to God, we are only its stewards and must use it in accord
with God’s will.    

            In the end,
it would be wise for us to take to heart and put into practice what Paul says
about a theology of ‘enough’, of godliness with contentment, which he calls
‘great gain’. Phil. 4.11-13 is an excellent guide line for the Christian life in
this sort of matter.

Can we as twenty-first century Christians learn to be
content, whatever our material circumstances?  Or will we succumb to the siren
song of advertisements that suggest to us all sorts of things we ‘have to have’
when in fact they are not necessities of life at all?  Can we learn the secret of being content
whether in plenty or in want? Paul says he had learned this as a Christian
having had both plenty and been in want. 
My prayer we would learn this secret of contentment as well.