Malachi 3:10
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouses so there will be enough food in My Temple. If you do”, says the LORD of Heavens Armies, “I will open the windows of Heaven for you. I will pour out blessings so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put Me to the test!”
I believe the standard set for tithing starts in Deuteronomy 14:22 where it says, “Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.”
We actually see this principle in effect earlier though in Genesis 14:20 where Abraham gave a tenth of everything he owned to the high priest Melchizedek. Abraham was recognizing the blessing he received from Melchizedek as being from the Lord.
This standard is part of the OT covenant but we as Christians are still called to obey and as the opening verse implies, God wants us to test Him on this standard. However Jesus gives a clear example that it is not only the amount you give but also the attitude in which you give. In Luke 21:1-4 Jesus praises a widow who was only able to give a small offering. To Jesus a generous person is not one who gives conveniently or comfortably out of abundance but one who sacrifices cheerfully with risk and gives without demanding attention or expecting a reward. God wants us to turn everything over to Him and trust Him and part of that is giving Him the first 10% of our income.
Most Christians recognize this important principle of tithing and whether or not they give 10% is not for me to judge or criticize after all this is an area that I struggle with. That is an issue to take up with God while on our knees. The point is that we are taught by the church to give God a portion of our income but we aren’t taught all that well about what to do with the rest in a way that can continue to give God glory.
There are however ministries out there like “Crown Financial Ministries” that help us manage what God has allowed us to have in a way that bring glory to Him and peace to us. Ministries like that need to be supported and we need to do a better job of not allowing the body of Christ to manage the other 90% of their income from a worldly perspective. When we are ignorant of the financial principles found in God’s Word it can lead to an incorrect attitude towards our possessions which causes us to make flawed financial decisions which may lead to painful consequences and distance from God.
As we continue to look at this topic we will observe and study what God’s financial principles are as found in the Bible but remember.....it all starts with faithfulness. Tomorrow we will look at the principles of faithfulness.
May God bless you. Have a great day.
The Garth Brooks Dilemma.
11 years ago
Hey bro,
ReplyDeleteI can see your sincerity in the post you have written but it is incorrect from a biblical stand point to say that today's believers have to tithe. No such command exists in scriptures.
Let us start with your Malachi 3: 10 supporting text. The real question about that verse is "who was that book written to?" If we fail to answer that question correctly, we run the risk of quoting scriptures out of context. If you read that book from chapter one you will see that it was the priests who lived during Malachi's time that were being addressed and not today's church. If we want to hold tenaciously to Malachi 3: 10, then all that was written in that book should be binding including the bit in chapter 2 where God says He hates divorce. We simply cannot pick and choose.
Deuteronomy 14:22 actually states what tithes were. There were a TENTH and not TEN PERCENT of the produce of the ground which comprised of crops and livestock and never money. there is simply no scriptural verse that tells us to tithe money.
Abraham never tithed from his personal possessions. He gave a tithe of the plunder he recovered and besides that is not enough reason for us to make it binding on us today.
When you bring the widow into the mix, you are talking about something else entirely. She did not give a tenth but gave everything! Are you ready to do that?
The long and short of it all is that we in this new dispensation have been enjoined to give what we can afford without a ten percent being put forward as a benchmark.