I can almost hear the groans from some of you at the thought of yet another blog on tithing, but I have a different slant that I would like you to consider and dialogue with me.
First let me summarise what I have understood up to now.
Many have said that tithing is an Old Testament concept that Jesus eliminated. This does not stand up to even cursory examination. Jesus is quite clear that we are to continue tithing but to recognise that there are greater things we are to worry about.
Matthew 23:23 NIV
[23] “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices---mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law---justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
Jesus condemns the legalistic adherence to the minutiae of the law (tithing of even the herbs and spices) but ignoring the crucial matters of the law (justice, mercy, faithfulness). So Jesus certainly draws attention back to the important issues, BUT, they were not to ignore the tithe.
Tithing is mentioned in the time of the Patriarchs, if not earlier. Abraham offered the tithe to the mysterious figure of Melchizedek. I take from this and other passages that tithing comes from creation rather than from the Law of Moses. In other words it belongs to the Kingdom of God.
I will not detail the many references to tithing, or first fruits, in the Old Testament, but will go straight to the oft quoted verse from Malachi.
Malachi 3:6-12 NIV
[6] “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. [7] Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you ask, 'How are we to return?' [8] “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, 'How are we robbing you?' “In tithes and offerings. [9] You are under a curse---your whole nation---because you are robbing me. [10] Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. [11] I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe, ” says the Lord Almighty. [12] “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.
Many, including me, have written much on this, usually concentrating on the ‘storehouse’. I have usually interpreted this to mean that we are to pay our tithes into the place where we get our spiritual nurture. This I interpreted, at that time, to mean the local church. However I now believe that Jesus is the store house. Jesus made it very clear that 100% of what we have and earn is from Him and belongs to Him. This is seen in the sermon on the mount and elsewhere.
Matthew 6:19-21 NIV
[19] “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. [20] But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. [21] For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:25-34 NIV
[25] “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? [26] Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? [27] Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life ? [28] “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. [29] Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. [30] If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you---you of little faith? [31] So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' [32] For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. [33] But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. [34] Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
The tithe was originally, so I have taught, equivalent to the rent we pay to God for the environment within which we live: the sun, air, soil, etc. As such it is to be PAID and not seen as an offering, which is what we are to give above the 10%. However now we see that the tithe is 100%. Everything we have belongs to God. The only question we have to ask is “how much can I keep, and what do I spend it on?”
There is much more to say about these basic matters but the new emphasis I have seen recently is found in Deuteronomy 14:22-29
[22] Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. [23] Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always. [24] But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the Lord your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the Lord will choose to put his Name is so far away), [25] then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the Lord your God will choose. [26] Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice. [27] And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own. [28] At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns, [29] so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
What hits me here is the matter of how the Israelites were told to deal with the tithe. They were to use it for themselves while remembering the Lord. They were to eat the tithe, or its financial equivalent, in the presence of the Lord and so remember Him through the ages.
They were to use the tithe themselves for two years, but the third year was for the support of the Temple and the Levites.
This came as a real revelation to me. The tithe is to be used by us for 2/3 of the time. The other 1/3 is for the support of those who are living by faith for the propagation of the Gospel. This last point is still being thought through by me. In other words, do the Levites represent the clergy (I think not), or faith based ‘missionaries’, or who?
For the moment I am wrestling with the first 2/3 of our base 10% ‘giving.’ We are to EAT it ourselves in a situation that enables the Lord to be remembered. Can this mean that we celebrate the Lord in some way with other believers over a banquet, or something else.
Watch this space!!!!
I have a different take on tithing. I'm not against against it but am against the compulsion to coerce people to tithe as a requirement as found in Deuteronomy 14:22-29:
ReplyDeleteIt says very clearly in verse 22: “You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year."
For those who feel they must tithe they find themselves under the obligation to fulfill all other requirements under the law. You can't pick and choose.
I like what Paul instructs the church in Corinthians:
“Remember this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and he who sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give. Not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor 9:6-7)
You seem to defend the practice of tithing because it was introduced with Abraham prior to the law. However here are a couple of points:
(a) No one told Abraham that he should tithe. Abraham was a generous man and gave the tithe to Melchizedek without being compelled to do so. This is what God expects from us - to give out of a grateful heart. To tell people that they should tithe because Abraham tithed before the law is an attempt to create a law that wasn't meant to exist for there was no commandment. In Galatians we read that the "law is not of faith". To enforce tithing because Abraham tithed, particularly when know that he was a man of faith doesn't seem to make much sense.
(b) Abraham was instructed to circumcise (Gen 17:10) before the law and Jesus confirms that in John 7:22. Why would you enforce tithing because Abraham tithed but omit circumcision which he was told to do?
And another point. When Jesus addresses the scribes and Pharisees, about the tithing in Mat 23:23 it is based on the law and not on what Abraham did. We believers are not under the law. So I have some problem with this interpretation.
There isn't a single reference in the New Testament where Paul admonishes the church to tithe or to come under the law or even because Abraham tithed. On the contrary, in the council of Jerusalem the recommendations that the Apostles made to the new Gentile churches were very clear. Among the recommendations there are no references at ll to tithing. This is what the apostles, the elders, and the brethren of the church in Jerusalem said:
“…For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.” (Acts 15:28-29)
If this is good for the Holy Spirit why can’t it be good for everyone? As a member of the gentile church I am not required to tithe according to the law. I am not doing away with giving.However the giving should come from a cheerful heart without compulsion.
Thanks Helio. I always value your considered comments. I think we are basically on the same page about this, with just a difference of emphasis.
DeleteYou are quite right when you say you are against any compulsion here. So am I. On a mundane level however, I find that ordinary church members use the argument against tithing as an excuse for giving less, rather than more. I have lost count of the people who have said to me, in many churches, that they give what they can afford. This almost always means that they give a very paltry amount to the Lord’s work, $5 a week if you are lucky. Even a pensioner like me can “afford” much more.
There were time at View Hill Fellowship when I said that it you are giving God a tip, then keep it in your pocket. God is not to be tipped, He is to be worshipped and adored with ALL our hear, mind, soul and strength.
I totally agree that we are to give freely and joyfully and that all we have belongs to God. Generosity is the New Testament standard for giving, not the mere 10% of the Old Testament Law.
Of course we can’t pick and choose what parts of the Old Testament we are to apply to us under the New Covenant. However behind each of the Old Testament “laws” there is a principle to apply for all time. Jesus came to fulfil the law, not abolish it. He lifted the bar to a higher standard. No longer is the law something written on tablets of stone. Now it is written on the heart, soft and receptive. Our motives are now on view before God, not our legalistic obedience. A full and joyful heart is glorious in the Lord’s sight.
My point about Abraham and Melchizedek is simply that the concept of tithing was already well known before Abraham’s time, so we can speculate, with a high degree of confidence, that it had been so for all of living and orally transmitted memory. The analogy of tithing being a form of rent for living on this earth is at least hinted at in some of the parables, such as the parable of the tenants in Matt21, Mark 12, etc
You are right that no one forced Abraham to tithe to Melchizedek. He did it from a willing and glad heart. That is exactly my point as well.
Your point about there being no other reference in the New Testament is true but doesn’t prove anything. A real probability is that tithing was so well known that there was no need to comment on it, apart from the question of generosity and without compulsion.
My point still stands that tithing is analogous to rent and was to be a base level for giving in the New Testament. Cheerfulness and generosity is what is encouraged now. Everything belongs to the Lord, not just the tithe.
I will make a few other points in a new blog to save space here.
Let’s keep the conversation going.