Posted by
Bob Siegel on Thursday, April 24, 2008 5:35:32 PM
“Are Christians really commanded to give ten percent of
their income to the church? My pastor says this is an important financial
stewardship standard of God, called, tithing.”
It’s true that in the Old Testament, under the Mosaic Law,
God commanded ten percent of the animal and agricultural produce of the
Israelites (Lev 27:30).
Under the New Covenant, however, we do not live by
laws. Instead, the Holy Spirit helps us
to make the most unselfish, decisions we can on a case by case basis.
“The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “When I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with
their forefathers, when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land
of Egypt, because they broke my
covenant even though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the
house of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord. “I
will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts…” (Jer. 31:31-33).
Jesus has fulfilled the Ritual Law by His death on the cross
and the Moral Law by His imparting of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit guides us and inspires us to
follow the one law God commands
people to obey; the Golden Rule, Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount that
tell us to make loving decisions and consider the feelings of others.
“In everything, do to others what you would have them do to
you. For this sums up the Law and the
Prophets” (Matt. 7:12).
Jesus
is offering a condensed view of the Law and the Prophets. Paul seems to understand this same concept:
Gal 5:14-15
The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love
your neighbor as yourself."
When a church tries to single out a command like tithing as
a law that we must continue to honor, they open a whole new can of worms that
Paul addressed when he wrote the Galatians.
The Galatians had isolated circumcision as a practice to continue even
under the New Covenant. Paul told them
that if they were going to return to the law they must embrace the entire law. They could not cherry
pick the ones they wanted and ignore all the others.
Gal 5:2-4
Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised
that he is obligated to obey the whole law.
“But doesn’t the work of God still need finances? Aren’t we supposed to support our pastors and
missionaries?”
Yes, we are. It is the legalism, the burden of an exact
amount that we are free from:
2 Cor 9:7
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to
give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
I have heard many a sermon about the blessings that will be
withheld if people do not tithe. Call me a romantic, but that sounds like
compulsion and Paul is telling us not to give under compulsion.
On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with picking an
amount of your income for consistent giving and maybe that amount should be ten percent. Or, just to avoid
being legalistic you may want to consider giving nine percent or eleven percent
and steer clear of the figure ten. The
truth is, most churches would not get by and most pastors would not be able to
do ministry full time if people were not giving ten percent and feeling
obligated to do so. Therefore, even
though I am trying to be theologically honest, I am not eager to see Christians
embrace this new freedom with too much enthusiasm. I myself could have made
ends meet far more easily as a pastor if I had taught tithing in my church and
my current radio ministry could use more money right now. But I still have to
be true to myself.
If you have been
giving ten percent to ministry, that is not a bad discipline. As humans, we are
creatures of habit. If we do not stick
with some kind of constant figure month to month, we will end up making
excuses. We will discover that we are seldom if ever giving to the church and
that would not be right either.
SUMMARY: No, you
don’t have to tithe but if you already are, I would hate to discourage an
admirable impulse.
Scripture
taken from THE HOLY BIBLE
New
International Version NIV
Copyright 1973, 1979, 1984 by International Bible
Society
Used
by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
All
rights reserved.
Also by Bob Siegel:
Did
Jesus Fulfill Bible Prophecy? Isaiah 53
Jesus
Didn't Rise! Wait Until You Hear How They Decided
Did
Jesus Really Claim To Be God?
Can
The Existence of God Be Proven?
Are
Christians Expected to Keep the Sabbath?