I think I’ve mentioned on my blog that God seems to be sifting everything I believe so that I have to understand why I believe what I believe. I thought He’d touched about everything – divorce, baptism, santification, etc – but yesterday He hit me with one I wasn’t expecting – tithing. For about 2 years now, we’ve given our 10% and never even thought twice about it. Until now. Not only are we kind of just scrapping by, there’s some frustration with how the church is spending that money (actually in this case – not spending it). It’s obviously a temptation – give less to the church; fix our money problems at the same time – but it is causing me to seek answers about tithing. Why do I believe what I believe? How do you ask someone to tithe 10% when they are struggling financially? How do you justify asking someone to give to the church when it causes them hardship but they don’t perceive the church as being in hardship? What do you tell someone that really disagrees with how the church is spending the money? Is 10% biblical – particularly in the New Testament? I don’t have answers yet.
Sifting my thoughts on tithing.
December 18, 2011 by ready2change
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Hello there. When I woke up the topic of tithing was open on WordPress (not sure why I don’t recall searching it). If you don’t mind I was hoping to address your concerns. I did a post on tithing as well as wealth on my blog if you want to read them.
Tithing should not be looked at from the standpoint of money going to the church. Your tithes and offering should be viewed as a form of worship to God:
“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘in what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” Says the Lord of hosts; and all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” Says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:8-12 NKJV)
If you have a concern about whether the church is using it properly, say you would like them to do more community work with the money, pray about it and ask the Lord to give you an idea to present to them. God doesn’t need your money it is a way of honoring Him and showing Him your faith in that He will multiply what you have sown and protect your finances from the enemy.
Check out my blog under the topic: Finances. It answers some of your questions and someone asked me some questions and those responses may help.
God Bless.
Ready2change,
It is a blessing to see someone state an honest position on how they are feeling concerning tithing. Remember Christ did not die so that we may again be in bondage but He came to set us FREE!!!
I have done a few studies on my blog concerning tithing – this is the topic I am focussing on at the moment if you care to take a look. I do not want to indoctrinate anyone but like the Bereans study the scriptures I point out to see if the things I say are so.
The short answer to your question is that 10% IS NOT Biblical.
We can patiently look at the Word together if you would like to.
Henry
ReignofFaith,
The verses of scripture from Mal 3 which you qouted was not an address to the CHURCH. It was an address to Israel if not more specifically the priests of the Levite tribe (see Malachi 1:6).
It seems Malachi 3 was the continuation of the address to the priests because it says in verse 9: “for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.” Here we can see that the prophet was addressing someone else and then extented the rebuke to the whole nation (of Israel). Malachi 3 was a reference to the Law of Moses and this is evident from verse 7. These ordinances which constituted the Law have since been abolished by Christ, including the legal requirements to tithe. The new covenant church is under no obligation to tithe but are free to give what they purpose in their own hearts. I will be doing a study on the “whole tithe” to demonstrate that contrary to what advocates have claimed it in no way constituted 10% of all gross income.
I’m trying to see where you have found in the Bible that the law is abolished. Jesus Himself actually says something to the contrary In Matthew 5:17. We no longer achieve righteousness through the law, but it never says the law is completely done away with.
And what do you say to the fact that tithing was done prior to the law? Abraham tithed to Melchizedek…
The amount of wrong teaching concerns me because I feel as though it’s setting people up for a life outside of God’s shalom (peace, wholeness). Ultimately the choice is on the individual but I wish that no Believer would live in lack in any area of his/her life.
ReignofFaith,
In Jer 31:31 (Heb 8:7-8) God promised to make a “New Covenant” with Israel so by implication the new covenant replaces the previous one thus abolishing it. But I need not speculate on that as Hebrews 8:13 tells us that the old covenant is gone:
13In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant and replaced it with a new one in His blood and the old decays and vanishes away. We the new testament church therefore are not bound by the old covenant because the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us through Christ.
Abraham tithe to Melchizedek of the spoils of war – we do not know if Abraham tithe regularly or if this was just a one-off, so are we robbing God if we do not choose to follow Abraham’s example of voluntary tithing? How can Abraham’s example of a voluntary one-off tithe be used to compel the church to tithe?
Assuming that we are to observe Malachi 3:10, how much constitutes the “whole tithe”? Is this 10 percent of everything one makes as many pro-tithers teach? I tell you the truth this idea of 10 per cent of everything one earns is not found anywhere in scripture but is merely an invention. The biblical tithe that went to the Levites (or the storehouse) was all the tithe of the 3rd year in three-yearly cycles. The tithe of the first two years in the cycle belonged to the tither to eat before the Lord, he and his household, that they may learn to fear God. Now who is robbing God when they demand 10 percent gross on everything? In the 7th year of a seven year cycle no sowing, or harvesting was done and the increase of the land which grew naturally was for the tither (the owner), his household and the stranger etc among him to enjoy. This did not go to the Levites (or the storehouse). Read Deut 14 from verse 22 and Lev 25:1-12.
So whichever way you look at it the tithing teaching in the church today is an erroneous doctrine which is not of God (see my most recent study on the whole tithe).
Henry,
I have had this same discourse with reignofFire and she avoided answering my questions with her usual excuse of avoiding arguments. The book of Acts tells us that the Jews in Berea checked scriptures to see if all Paul said were contained in it and I think we are doing pretty much the same thing. I am the person she referred to on her blog as leaving a comment or “looking for an argument” on her post on tithing.
If as the she claims, the law still exists, why isn’t the Law of the Sabbath still being enforced, dietary requirements of the Old Testament still being observed and so on? Of course Jesus said He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it because all of the Old Testament ordinances where shadows of Him.
Abraham paying tithes to Melchizedek was a shadow of a coming High Priest who was not of the tribe of Levi. This was to show that there was a class of High Priests whose priesthood were not made so by the law but by an oath from God. Jesus was foreshadowed as the Passover lamb, He is our Sabbath, through Him we receive a spiritual circumcision, He is our kinsman redeemer and so on. Thus, He fulfilled all the requirements of the law on our behalf thereby freeing us from continually observing the law.
ReignofFire, was tithing the only thing Abraham practised before the law thus making it valid in today’ church? I did ask you this question and you would not answer. Circumcision was practised by Abraham before the law. Animal sacrifice was also practised by Abraham before the law. Even the kinsman redeemer was practised by Jacob’s sons before the law. If all of these things ended at the cross, why not tithing?
Rather than shrinking away when being called upon to defend your beliefs under the guise of avoiding arguments, why not provide solid scriptural proof? If you view is present in scriptures, it will be rather foolish of us to argue with you.
I actually meant reignofFaith and not reignofFire
Tony Isaac,
I think ReignofFaith has her own reasons why she is avoiding legitimate questions posed to her and I am confident that it has nothing to do with avoiding arguments. I think both you and I are saying to her that if she presents a certain belief how does that belief reconcile with what we see in scriptures which contradicts her position? Such a discourse need not be argumentative.
For the benefit of ReignofFaith and others let me just restate what I meant in my third comment when I said the Law was “abolished”. To rephrase the point, Christ fulfilled the Law and set it aside so that no one today is expected to attempt to observe the Law by the letter. Christ fulfilled the Law so that the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1-4).