Word from Gaz. 24/07/24
To Tithe or not to Tithe!
I don’t want to argue with people over Tithing, if you believe you must tithe, then you do what is on your heart, but also if you don’t feel to tithe you are not sinning either.
Many denominations push people to tithe even to their determent. That is not of God. As believers we are not required to pay off large building to keep people employed. We are to give with a joyful heart to Gods work and glory. And no, paying the bills in a church is not glorifying God.
That will make some angry, but only those who don’t understand Gods word will be upset.
There are many posts on why we don’t need to tithe and just as many on why we should but look who pushes tithing!!!
Giving and being generous, as God loves a joyful giver, and that is where the blessings lye. If giving makes you unhappy for any reason, don’t give! Or only give what you can afford and are happy with that amount. Remember God does not need our money!
In 2 Corinthians 9:7, the apostle Paul said, “God loves a cheerful giver.” While encouraging the believers in Corinth to give generously, Paul didn’t want them to give beyond their means, “reluctantly or under compulsion.” Most importantly, he wanted them to rely on their inner convictions. This passage and this devotional are reminders that God is more concerned about the motives of our heart than our actions.
Our God is a generous, giving God who so loved the world that He gave that most precious gift, His only begotten Son. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). As God’s people who are to be like Jesus, we are to be generous givers.
But I don’t have much to give!…
Yet you are rich and do not know it.
No matter how old you are there is 24hrs in a day. Be generous with your time.
God has given each of us gifts, so be generous with your gifts.
Giving must come from your heart, from a desire to bless others from what has blessed you with.
And when you are generous, Not only does God love cheerful givers, but he blesses them:
The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor. (Proverbs 22:9, NIV)
When we are generous in our giving to others, God returns the same measure of generosity to us:
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38, NIV)
If we complain about giving and the things we do for others, in essence, we rob ourselves of a blessing from God and a chance to receive back from him.
God’s nature is open-hearted and giving. We see it in this famous passage:
“For God so loved the world that he gave …” (John 3:16)
God gave up his Son, Jesus Christ, who left behind the glorious riches of heaven, to come to earth. Jesus loved us with compassion and empathy. He willingly gave up his life. He loved the world so much that he died to give us eternal life.
Is there any better way to learn how to be a voluntary and cheerful giver than to observe the way Jesus gave? Jesus never once complained about the sacrifices he made.
Our heavenly Father loves to bless his children with good gifts. Likewise, God desires to see his own nature duplicated in his children. Cheerful giving is God’s grace revealed through us.
As God’s grace toward us reproduces his graciousness in us, it pleases him.
Tithing is not the New Testament standard for giving.
Many churches promote a concept called “storehouse” tithing, based on Malachi 3:10, where God tells Israel to “bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.” They teach that the local church is the storehouse, the tithe belongs to God, and His blessing is conditioned upon faithfulness in tithing. One pastor in a church preached that if his people weren’t giving ten percent to that church, they were in sin and needed to go home and repent!
Tithing was a part of the law of Moses; believers are not under the law.
Romans, Galatians, and other New Testament passages make it clear that Christians are not under the law of Moses. That does not mean that we are lawless, because we are under the law of Christ (1 Cor. 9:20-21; James 1:25; 2:8, 12; Rom. 13:8-10). Those aspects of the Mosaic law that reflect the moral character of God are valid under the New Covenant and are repeated as commands in the New Testament. But the church is never commanded to tithe.
Those who argue for tithing point out that Abraham and Jacob both tithed prior to the Mosaic law (Gen. 14:20; 28:22). Thus, tithing supersedes the law, they argue. If the New Testament gave no further guidelines, that might be a valid point. But it does, as I will show. But there are other practices, such as circumcision and sabbath-keeping which pre-date the Law and yet are not binding on us.
If you examine the references to Abraham’s and Jacob’s tithing, you will see that God did not command them to tithe and there is no indication that this was their regular practice. On one occasion after a victory in battle, Abraham tithed the spoils from that battle, but nothing is said regarding his other possessions or his regular income (Gen. 14:20). To follow Jacob’s example would be wrong because he was making a conditional vow before God, promising that if God would keep him safe and provide for him, then he would give God a tenth (Gen. 28:20-22). That’s hardly a good example to follow in giving! Tithing was required under the Mosaic Law, but believers are not under the Law.
In the Old Testament, there was both required and voluntary giving. The tithe was required. It was commended for every Israelite to fund national worship and help the poor. In actuality, there was not just one tithe, but rather two or three ([1] Lev. 27:30-33, Num. 18:20-21; [2] Deut. 12:17-18; [3] Deut. 14:28-29), so that the total was not 10 percent, but more like 22 percent (see Charles Ryrie, Balancing the Christian Life [Moody Press], p. 86). Thus, if we are required to bring the whole tithe into the storehouse today, we had better up the percentage from 10 to 22 percent!
Tithing is not mentioned in any writings of the early church fathers.
By itself this is not decisive, but it lends weight to the biblical arguments. If the early church practiced tithing, then the concept should surface somewhere in the writings of the church fathers of the second and third centuries. But it does not, even though giving was an important part of early Christian worship (see Hawthorne, pp. 854-855).
Tithing puts the wrong emphasis upon giving.
Tithing emphasizes your obligation to God; New Testament giving, as we shall see, emphasizes your willing, loving response to God’s grace. Furthermore, tithing limits giving by making a person feel that he has paid his dues (so to speak) and thus nothing more is required, when, in fact, much more could be done. Tithing tends to put a person on a legal basis with God, rather than a love relationship. It’s the wrong emphasis.
Tithing leads to a false concept of stewardship.
It leads to the notion that 10 percent is God’s money and 90 percent is my money. In reality, 100 percent is God’s money, and He may want me to channel 90 percent into His work and live on 10 percent. Tithing can be a bad rut.
We should not think, “How much do I have to give?” but rather, “How much can I give?” We should not wait for someone to pressure us with a need; we should look for needs that we can meet. I look for and give to Christian organizations or workers that do not pressure anyone with desperate appeals for funds. You almost don’t notice these workers because there is so many pleading for your money so that they “won’t go off the air next week.” May I say, “Let them go off the air!” Christian’s ought to give based upon inner motivation, not outward pressure. Grace giving is based on relationship with the Holy Spirit, not the old dispensation of the Law. Romans 8:14 says, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” Galatians 5:18 says, “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.” The context of both passages shows that Paul is talking about the Holy Spirit leading the believer into righteous, godly living. In Galatians, such righteous living is spelled out in the context, in part, as sharing financial resources.
There are so many scriptures to uphold not tithing, but 2Tim 2: 15 says “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Let us use wisdom to know God’s word and dispense the truth not what we have been taught by others.