Fri/Sept5/14....Topic
One: The Charismatic Falsehood
Message 1: TITHING:
Written
By: Michael Morrison
Cover Picture Designed & Emphasis Added by: Samuel Kwasi Forkuo
The first time the Bible
made mention of tithing was after four Mesopotamian kings had taken Lot
captive, Abraham attacked them & recovered all the booty. The king of Sodom
came out to meet him, and so did Melchizedek, a priest of God who had neither
beginning nor an end (typifying Christ Jesus). Melchizedek blessed Abraham, and
then Abraham “gave him a tenth of everything” (Genesis 14:20). We’re not told whether Abraham had ever tithed before, or
ever tithed afterwards – We’re only told Abraham was generous, and gave the
rest of his booty to the king of Sodom (verses 23-24). Abraham kept all of
God’s laws that were relevant in his day (Genesis 26:5). (Emphasis Added)
The next mention of
tithing is in Genesis 28:20-22. Jacob had a miraculous dream at Bethel. In the
morning, Jacob vowed to tithe if God helped him during his journey. He was
trying to make a bargain with God. He wanted special help, and in return for
that help, he was willing to worship God, and to tithe as a part of that
worship. Tithing may have been part of the common worship practices of that
time and culture, or it may have been an extra-special vow for those who desperately
desired divine help. (Emphasis Added)
Firstlings
Biblical commands about tithing are
generally about grain, wine and oil.1 A
different system of giving was required for some animals. In the last plague on
Egypt, God killed the firstborn male of every animal and human, but he spared
the Israelites and their animals. Therefore, God claimed ownership of every
Israelite firstborn and firstling male animal (Exodus 13:2; Numbers 3:13).
Tithes
Tithing was required on flocks:
“every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod”3 (Leviticus
27:32). Was this in addition to the firstlings, or was it instead of
firstlings? We do not know exactly how these laws would be administered. It is not necessary for
us to take a position on these details.
“A tithe
of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the
trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord” (Leviticus
27:30).4 The
tithes and firstfruits belonged to God, and he assigned the Levites to receive
them on his behalf (Numbers
18:12-13, 21, 24). They
could keep 90 percent of what they were given, but had to give 10 percent as an
offering (verses 26-32). Tithing was done in the
days of Hezekiah (2 Chr. 31:5-6), Nehemiah (Nehemiah 10:35-39; 12:44) and Jesus (Matthew 23:23; Luke 11:42). In Malachi’s day,
tithing was required (Malachi 3:8-10), and
physical blessings were promised for obedience, just as physical blessings were
promised for obedience to the old covenant.
Additional
tithes?
God gave
the tithes to the Levites, but the people could eat their tithes during
festivals (Deuteronomy 12:5-7, 17-19; 14:23). Some
have concluded that Deuteronomy is
talking about an additional tithe, a festival tithe. It is possible to have two
tithes, but it is not possible to have two sets of firstborn animals. The
firstlings were holy to the Lord, and given to the Levites (Numbers
18:15-17), but Deuteronomy
15:19-20 says
that they were eaten by the people. Apparently the firstlings were shared
between the original owners and the Levites. It is possible that the same is
true of the tithe.5
The people needed a tithe for
the festivals, since the festivals constituted about 5 percent of the year,
plus travel time. During sabbatical years, farmers would
not have their regular income, so they may not have been able to go to every
festival in every year. Or perhaps they saved the festival tithe from year to
year.
At the
end of every three years of farming, the Israelites were to set aside a tithe
for the Levites, resident aliens, orphans and widows (Deuteronomy
14:28-29; 26:12-15). It is
not clear whether this was an alternative use of a previous tithe, or an
additional tithe.6
Tithing
in the new covenant
Now let
us consider whether tithing is required in the new covenant. Tithing is
mentioned only three or four times in the New Testament. Jesus acknowledged
that the Pharisees were very careful about tithing (Luke
18:12), and he said that they should not leave it undone (Matthew
23:23; Luke
11:42). Tithing, like other old covenant rules and rituals, was a law
at the time Jesus spoke. Jesus criticized the Pharisees not for tithing, but
for treating tithing as more important
than mercy, love, justice and faithfulness.
The only
other New Testament mention of tithing is in Hebrews. The fact that Abraham was
blessed by and gave tithes to Melchizedek illustrates the superiority of
Melchizedek and Jesus Christ over the Levitical priesthood (Hebrews
7:1-10). The passage then goes on to note that “when the priesthood is
changed, the law must be changed also” (verse 12).
There was a change of the
priesthood from the Levites to Jesus Christ, and this implies a change in the
law that assigned the Levites to be priests. How much has been changed? Hebrews
says that the old covenant is obsolete. The package of laws that commanded
tithes to be given to the Levites is obsolete.
Humans
should honor God by voluntarily returning some of the blessings he gives them —
this is still a valid principle. The only place that a percentage is required is
within the old covenant. There is good precedent for tithing before Sinai, but no proof
that it was required.
Responding
to the better covenant
Under the old covenant, tithing
was required for the support of the old covenant ministers. The Israelites were
required to give 10 percent — and their blessing was only a physical one!
Christians in the new covenant have much better blessings — spiritual ones. How
much more willingly ought we to give in thankfulness for the eternal blessings
we have in Christ Jesus?
The
Israelites were commanded to give 10 percent under a covenant that could not
make them perfect (Hebrews 7:19; 9:9). How
much more joyfully should we give to God under the new covenant? We have the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which does cleanse our conscience (9:14). And yet it
seems that in America today, even though we have so much more than the
Israelites did, people give on average a much smaller percentage. Many people
give less to the church than they spend on luxury items. Some people cannot
give very much, but many people could if they wanted to. God calls on us to
examine ourselves, to examine our priorities, and to be generous.
The old covenant gave us
condemnation; the new covenant gives us justification and peace with God. How
much more should we be willing to give freely and generously so God’s work can
be done in the world — to proclaim the gospel, to declare the new covenant
ministry that gives us true life, and gives that message of life to others?
People
who entrust their lives to Jesus Christ do not worry about whether tithing is
commanded in the New Testament. People who are being transformed by Christ to
be more like Christ are generous. They want to give as much as possible
to support the gospel and to support the poor. Christians should give
generously — but giving is a result of their
relationship with God, not a way to earn it. We are given grace through faith, not through tithing.
Some
people act as if Christ liberates us from the law so that we can keep more
physical blessings for ourselves. That is false — Christ liberates us so that
we can be free to serve him more, as loving children and not merely as
slaves. He frees us so we can have faith instead of selfishness.
When it
comes to money, the real question is, Is our heart in the gospel of Jesus
Christ? Are we putting our money where our heart is? We can tell where our
heart is by seeing where we are putting our money. “Where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also,” Jesus said (Matthew
6:21).
Needs
in the new covenant ministry
In the new covenant church,
there are financial needs — to support the poor, and to support the gospel by
supporting those who preach it. Christians are obligated to give financial
support for these needs. Let’s see how Paul explained this obligation in his
second letter to the Corinthians.
Paul
describes himself as a minister of the new covenant (2
Corinthians 3:6), which has much greater glory than the old (verse 8). Because of
what Christ did for him in the new covenant, Christ’s love compelled Paul to
preach the gospel, the message of reconciliation (2
Corinthians 5:11-21).
Paul exhorted the Corinthians
“not to receive God’s grace in vain” (6:1). How were they in danger of doing
this? Paul had gone out of his way to serve them, but they were withholding
their affections from him (6:3-12). He asked them for a fair exchange, for them
to open their hearts to him (6:13).
Paul told the Corinthians that
they had a duty to give something in response to what they had been given. This
response comes in terms of morality (6:14-7:1), which the Corinthians had done
(7:8-13), and in terms of affection, which the Corinthians had also done (7:2-7),
and in financial generosity, which Paul addresses in chapter 8. This is the way
in which the Corinthians had closed their hearts to Paul and withheld their
affections.
Paul cited the example of the
Macedonian churches,
who had given generously, even to the point of self-sacrifice (8:1-5). The
example is powerful; the implications are strong that the Corinthians needed to
respond to Paul’s sacrifices by making sacrifices themselves. But Paul did not
make a command (8:8). Instead, he asked first for a turning of the heart. He
wanted the Corinthians to give themselves to the Lord first, and then to
support Paul. He wanted their gift to be done in sincere love, not from
compulsion (8:5, 8). Paul reminded them that Christ had become poor for their
sakes; the implication is that the Corinthians should make financial sacrifices
in return.
But then Paul reminded the
Corinthians that they could not give more than they had (8:12). Nor did they
have to impoverish themselves to enrich others; Paul was only aiming for equity
(8:13-14). Paul again expressed confidence in their willingness to give, and
added the peer pressure of the Macedonian example and the boasting he had done
in Macedonia about the generosity of the Corinthians (8:24-9:5).
Paul again noted that the offering
must be done willingly, not from compulsion or given grudgingly (9:5, 7). He
reminded them that God rewards generosity (9:6-11) and that a good example
causes people to praise God and puts the gospel in a favorable setting
(9:12-14).
This was a collection for the
poor in Judea. But Paul said nothing about tithing. Rather, he appealed to the
new covenant environment: Christ had made many sacrifices for them, so they
ought to be willing to make a few sacrifices to help one another.
In
asking for this offering, Paul was also making a financial sacrifice. He had a
right to receive financial support himself, but instead of that, he was asking
that the offering be given to others. Paul had not asked for any financial support from Corinth
(11:7-11; 12:13-16). Instead, he had been supported by Macedonians (11:9).
Paul had
a right to be supported by the Corinthians, but he did not use it (1
Corinthians 9:3-15). This passage tells us more about our Christian duty to give
financial support to the gospel. Workers should be able to receive benefits of
their work (9:7). The old covenant even made provision for oxen to be given
benefits of their work (9:9).
Throughout
his appeal, Paul does not cite any laws of tithing. He says that priests
received benefits from their work in the temple (9:13), but he does not cite
any percentage. Their example is cited in the same way as the example of
soldiers, vineyard workers, herdsmen, oxen, plowers and threshers. It is simply
a general principle. As Jesus said, “The worker deserves his wages” (Luke
10:7). Paul cited the oxen and wages scriptures again in 1
Timothy 5:17-18. Elders, especially those who preach and teach, should be honored
financially as well as with respect.
Jesus
also commanded, “those who preach the gospel should receive their living from
the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:14). This implies that those who believe should provide a living for some who
preach. There is a financial duty, and there is a promised reward for
generosity (though that reward may not necessarily be physical or financial).
A
need to be generous
Christians have received riches
of God’s grace, and are to respond with generosity and giving. Christians are
called to a life of service, sharing and stewardship. We have an obligation to
do good. When we give ourselves to the Lord, we will give generously.
Jesus
often taught about money. “Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and
you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me,” said Jesus to a rich
man (Luke
18:22). He said the same thing to his disciples (12:33). The new
covenant demands all that we have, and that is fair, since Jesus gave all he
had for us. He praised a widow who put two coins into the temple treasury,
because she gave “all she had” (21:4).
Wealth is often an enemy of
faith. It can “choke” people and cause them to be spiritually unfruitful
(8:14). “Woe to you who are rich,” Jesus warned (6:24). He warned us about the
dangers of greed (12:15) and warned about the danger of storing up wealth for
self without being “rich toward God” (12:16-21). When we use wealth to help
others, we gain “treasure in heaven” (12:33). This helps us have our heart in
heavenly things instead of earthly, temporary things (12:34).
“No servant can serve two
masters…. You cannot serve both God and money” (16:13). But money competes for
our allegiance; it tempts us to seek our own desires rather than the needs of
the kingdom. After the rich man went away sad, Jesus exclaimed: “How hard it is
for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the
kingdom of God” (18:24-25).
Conclusion
Christians need to give, to
share their resources and blessings with others. They have a duty to support
the preaching of the gospel, to give financial support to their spiritual
leaders, and the church needs this support. If disciples of Jesus Christ can
give, but do not, they are falling short.
The old covenant required 10
percent. The new covenant does not specify a percentage, nor do we. However,
the new covenant admonishes people to give what they can, and tithing still
provides an instructive point of comparison. For some people, 10 percent may be
too much. But some will be able to give more, and some are doing so. Christians
should examine their own circumstances and the better blessings they have been
given in the new covenant through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us
and the gift of the Holy Spirit to us. Contributions should be given to the
church for its collective work of preaching the gospel and the expenses
involved in the local ministry and congregational needs.
Likewise, the new covenant does
not specify any particular percentage for assisting the poor. Instead, it asks
for equity — and we certainly have room for improvement in this.
The old covenant required
simple percentages. Everyone knew how much was required. The new covenant has
no set percentages. Instead, it requires more soul-searching, more training for
the conscience, more selfless love for others, more faith, more voluntary
sacrifice and less compulsion. It tests our values, what we treasure most, and
where our hearts are.
We Give All The Glory To God
Admin
Warning: Church, Get Prepared (WCGP)
Endnotes
1 The Bible describes tithing
in an agricultural economy. It does not tell us whether, or how, potters,
carpenters, merchants, etc. calculated tithes.
2 For
the generation that left Egypt, God made a grand substitution: Instead of the
firstborn male of each family and flock, God accepted the tribe of Levi and all
its animals (Numbers 3:40-50; 8:16-18).
3 It is not clear how this
worked. Was the entire flock counted, or only the lambs? In bad years, the
flock would come back no larger than it had been the previous year, so it
wouldn’t make sense to tithe on all the adults again, since there would have
been no increase. Perhaps the “rod” served in some way to separate lambs from
adults.
4 It might be argued that the
tithes were holy and therefore had always been holy, even before the old
covenant was made. That is possible, but it cannot be proven. The firstlings
were also holy to the Lord, but this was based on events of the Exodus,
not on creation. “Once holy, always holy” is not a valid principle.
5 A
separate tithe for festival use is described in the apocryphal book of Tobit
1:6-8, Josephus’ Antiquities 4.4.3; 4.8.8; 4.8.22, and the
second-century B.C. book Jubilees32:10-14. Some
sources suggest that this second tithe was calculated on the basis of the 90
percent left after the first tithe, not the original 100 percent (Sanders, Judaism:
Practice and Belief 63 BCE–66 CE, p.
167; International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, “Tithe,” vol. 4, p. 863, citing the
Mishna Maaser sheni 2.1.)
6 As noted above, Tobit,
Josephus and Jubilees give evidence for three tithes. The Mishnah, however,
combines the festival tithe and the poor tithe: the second tithe being used for
the festival in years 1, 2, 4 and 5, and being used for the poor in years 3 and
6 out of the seven-year farming cycle (Sanders, p. 149). Since farmers had an
increase in only six out of every seven years, they gave on average 3.3 percent
of their increase to the poor. If tradesmen tithed (and no biblical law
required them to) they would give about 2.8 percent on average, since they had
income even during sabbatical and jubilee years.
