Tithing

I have severally said that tithing is an Old Testament doctrine that pastors use to keep rebellious members in comfort without caring whether they are headed to heaven or not. That is the reason very few, if any pastors who preach about the tithe will consistently preach against sin because they know that such preaching might chase these spiritual fools away. But even scarier to those pastors is that those who heed the message against sin will establish a connection with God that could put these superstars to shame as it will paint them for who they are.

Spiritual ignorance is bliss to these ‘servants’ of God, as if God is excited when His people are ignorant. But it is very dangerous for the preacher and his flock as such ignorance is abominable to God and punishable by the standards of heaven.

God seeks to have His people not only reverent but especially connected to Him. He desires for His people to know and be led by Him.

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:34)

Is it then in order for the pastor or any other imposter to be the only one who can hear from God? Does it please God when the majority of His children have to wait for Him to speak to the leader so that the same leader can pass that voice to the ignorant sheep?

Produce the verses. I know someone is shouting. I will therefore not disappoint you. We will look at giving in the New Testament and compare it with Old Testament giving. But for the most part I will want us to look at the NT type as I am sure we all are conversant with the OT type. What with all the preaching about the tithe! But we may have to look at why the OT giving was insufficient in the NT dynamic.

For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living. (Mark 12:44)

Do we realize that the widow’s giving was better because the others were giving the OT way?

Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year. (Deuteronomy 14:22)

One aspect of the tithe was the abundance that the land produced. We are not told that these rich people who were out-given by the poor widow had given stingily, even by implication. I believe Jesus was giving a new standard of giving, a standard that went beyond the rules in the OT. I think most of those rich were giving their tithes and that is the reason the word abundance was used.

And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. (Luke 19:8)

Again we see the fruit of an encounter with Christ was not the tithe but way above the 50% mark. The fact that Jesus did not treat that act as exceptional meant that it was the norm for Him, meaning that the OT expectation had been overtaken by the new order Christ was establishing. We do not see Him commending the short guy as He had the faith of the centurion or the Canaanite woman whose daughter was possessed of demons.

Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. (Luke 18:22)

From Christ’s conversation with this man, it is apparent that he must have tithed faithfully. The fact that he was unfulfilled meant that there was a pull to a new level of obedience. Christ’s order to him demonstrated the extent of giving Christ expected from His followers.

Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. (Luke 12:33)

Here we see Christ introducing not only a new level but also a new motivation. Though giving in the OT pleased God, in the NT Christ introduced another motivation, our giving to those who do not qualify or deserve is an investment in heaven. Therefore we are not just giving to the needs of our society but in so doing are confessing our belief in the existence of heaven and investing there. Again this explains why people who only give strategically, people who are so full of themselves as they give have issues believing in the existence of heaven.

And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. (Mark 14:3)

I am sure this lady was not wealthy. From the passage it appears as if that ointment may have represented her life’s savings. Again Jesus accepts that offering, highlighting the kind of giving He was establishing.

Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. (Acts 4:34 – 37)

In Acts, we see the fullness of that kind of doctrine. Here people are selling property and bringing all the proceeds to the apostles to meet the needs of the growing church. In chapter 5 we see a couple die for giving less that the full amount craftily.

But I need to add that that giving was not ordered from any pulpit. People gave out of the leading of the Spirit. The couple died because they feigned that guidance.

Christ expects His followers to give all, even their own selves. But such giving will result in our giving as He directs. That is why the tithe is a very backward formula of teaching giving. Tithing simply means that I am giving after the flesh, leaving no place for the leading of the Spirit.

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? (Luke 9:23 – 25)

Christ expects us to give everything to Him. He then releases the same to us to manage under His direct orders. In the parable of the talents, we are able to see the same principle applied. Servants are left with talents which they were to put to use. After some time they were asked to give an account of their stewardship. They then were given the same talents with the one who refused to utilize being punished.

Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. (Matthew 25:28)

Giving in the NT dispensation is therefore totally different from the OT one since in the OT it was your property that you took a portion from and gave it to fulfill God’s requirements whereas NT giving is actually not giving but a stewardship. In the OT only the land belonged to God and that is the reason God’s people were not allowed to sell it. In fact that was the main purpose of the jubilee. In the NT all I am and have have been bought and I am actually the property of God. He then makes me a steward of all those things that He has placed under my stewardship. And that stewardship is not autonomous. I have to be in constant contact with the owner of the property as His steward. Look at this verse.

And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. (Acts 4:32)

It is very clear that the reality of this kind of giving was not being prompted by the apostles. In fact we see them avoiding getting involved in those affairs. That was the reason deacons were chosen.

Christ is the one who was running the show by taking charge of His people and their resources which they had surrendered to Him.

Why the difference? You may be asking.

Let me give you another example. When Israel left Egypt and the priesthood was established, there were duties for the Levites which came about because of the journey. Levitical families were divided to include ferrying the tabernacle and its articles.

When they reached their land nothing much changed until God gave a revelation to David to reorganize the duties of those Levites to serve in the temple that would be built. That can almost be treated as starting a new thing. But it took God changing the old order to establish another one.

The tithe was the same way. It was established for the dynamic of Israel in their own land. Spiritual responsibility was therefore limited to the maintaining of religious observance in their own land. Anybody who sought the God of Israel had to come to Israel to make the connection. Even in captivity we do not see any attempts at spreading their faith. Israel disappeared because of that. Judah was preserved because some of those who were exiled still clung to the faith of their fathers as we see in the books of Ezra to Esther and Daniel. But even then they did not spread that faith. They just kept it.

Then comes Christ. He reveals from the start that He has not come to do any housekeeping of the Jewish faith. He is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham.

… in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.(Genesis 12:3)

This was the reason the dynamic of giving had to change to take care of this new development. God’s people had to be prepared and resourced to take the Gospel to the nations.

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. (Mark 16:15)

The tithe was a housekeeping level of giving that maintained the Israeli society and its structures, including the spiritual ones.

In the NT one clear development was missions. The Gospel had to be taken to the nations. It was therefore essential that the resources God had entrusted to His people had to be available for this new thing. But more important is that this responsibility had to be handed down to every member of the body of Christ.

This is necessitated by God’s call to ministry. Since the time of Acts we have God calling people clearly outside the leadership structures. Philip was not sent to Samaria and the desert by the apostles. Paul’s call and ministry were a mystery to the leadership in Jerusalem and no wonder there was the Jerusalem conference in Acts 15. Most of the ministry we see in Acts was of an individual level.

How could those ministers access support if they depended on the church leadership to go as Christ had ordered? Could it have been possible for Paul to receive any support from the headquarters of the church that had enough issues not only with his calling but his methods and message?

It was therefore essential that God speaks to individual believers concerning the support of those who have been called to ministry outside the existing structures.

Even when we look at church history we know that most very effective missionaries obeyed their call against the general agreement of even their mission agencies. Many had to ‘rebel’ against their spiritual superiors to go where God had ordered them.

Could the tithe then be trusted to meet their obedience? Could the apostles in Jerusalem be trusted to use the resources they received to fund Paul whose ministry they had a problem accepting, at least initially?

God had to release another dynamic. He had to raise support for ministers like Paul through individual believers as they listened to His voice. He was then able to direct them to give to ministers and ministries that did not fit the billing of the church leadership.

And by the way it was not only believers in Acts whose call went out of line with the church leadership. Martin Luther, John Wesley, Hudson Taylor among others obeyed in rebellion to the established church structures and were therefore rebels as far as the ‘church’ was concerned. That is the reason giving had to change from the OT type. God simply raised other supporters for these ‘rebels’. And now we celebrate them! Could it have been possible if we had gone the OT way?

Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. (Luke 10:2)

As the Lord of the harvest He not only sends laborers into His harvest, He provides for those He sends through the partners He raises. Remember this?

And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece. (Luke 9:3)

Was He sending them to churches? Of course not. In all my missions outside the country, I have always gone at the invitation of individuals and not churches. Sometimes I am given just enough money for a one way ticket to the place I would minister yet many times I do not even know the person I am being sent to. My insurance is God’s release. Yet I never had to hassle for anything as I ministered.

There is another reason giving had to change. In the OT God appeared to a few persons who had very particular assignments. We therefore see the presence of the Holy Spirit in select persons as the rest simply depended on the revelation of those few to hear from God.

 But again Christ came to fulfill another OT prophecy.

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh… (Joel 2:28)

And this is what we see in Acts. The Holy Spirit is not constrained to a few super spiritual characters but to all who join themselves to Him as John 1:12 says.

He therefore takes His Lordship not to a few but to all who accept His salvation. He then takes charge of their lives to minute details. You see He is the Lord of all flesh and therefore available to lead all who are ready for that Lordship.

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (Romans 8:9)

Why should the Spirit lead us from sin and not do the same concerning resources? How is He able to convict us concerning sin, righteousness and judgment yet leave the responsibility of giving to pastors?

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. (John 16:13)

What is the extent of the truth the Spirit will guide us to? Is that truth only limited to ‘spiritual’ things? Can it then be called all truth if there are areas He does not touch? How can it be all if finances are excluded?

Simply speaking Christ not only is in charge of our finances, He wants to guide us in the way we use them. The truth is that as our redeemer He legally owns us. Reminds me of Abraham and those kings he rescued.

And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. (Genesis 14:21)

This is the principle at play here, only that with Christ He agrees to take us and ours and gives it back to us to manage. He will then direct us in the use of those resources.

And that is what many pastors are scared of. A church that has a membership that has released their resources to the control of the Holy Spirit is a church that will not necessarily give to fill the church coffers. They will be giving to the ministries God is involved in whether the pastors agree with them or not. They will be funding missions to places the church structure thinks are not worth the effort. They will be meeting the needs of people the church leadership may think are a waste of resources. Above all they will be giving way above the meager tithe the pastor preaches about. In fact some will sell their all to pursue or fund calls church leadership may have issues with. But they will give not in rebellion to their pastors but in obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

I doubt such giving will be used to build monuments in the name of mega churches. Yet I believe the same would eradicate poverty faster than any government could. I doubt such giving will be used to pamper pastors. But I am sure it would result in salvation reaching the nations we think unreachable. This because the people God has called to reach those nations will be able to connect with the people God has called to support that effort.

Why are there sections of society that are barely reached with the Gospel? Who will reach the drunkards and prostitutes, especially those in the down and out sections of society? Which church will support such outreach without smearing the messengers with disrepute? What about persecution? Which church will support people who lose their jobs or livelihoods because of their faith? What about those who have to live in hiding because they have been condemned to death for coming to Christ?

As I write this I remember one time God sent me to a church that had serious sin issues. The young people had open sins they did not care to address. I doubt they even thought of them as sin. As an example after they sung several would run outside to smoke before they came to hear the preacher. Fornication was rife.

But I was not sent to them as a prophet. They had called me to train their choir. I remember also struggling with God concerning that commission. But God dealt with my resistance, as I was really struggling with what my association with that church would do to my reputation.

As I got involved, I remember a very respectable and mature lady who was as much my mother as my own came to see me with a lot of concern. She asked why I had backslidden. When I answered her in the negative, she then started to tell me some of the rumors doing the rounds in the church I had been attending and where I had been the leader of the youth before God gave me that assignment. I had become a fornicator, I had even been given a girl from that church to marry, and so on. It was difficult to explain to her that I was still as committed to God as I was when I was serving in the former church. I don’t know whether she was convinced about my lack of contamination.

Anyway, I was there for several months and then left to join college. That was when the transformation occurred. There was such a revival in that church that their leaders were unable to contain. You see the church had been very traditional and ritualistic. Probably that was the reason they were not able to deal with sin as they may not have noticed it. Many of those young people I was teaching to sing are now notable ministers.

Now do you think my former church could have supported my ministry to this church that God had sent me to? Absolutely not. In fact they came for the guitar I used to play, a guitar that nobody else could play as nobody was interested in learning the many times I offered to teach. They therefore took the guitar and stored it for fear that I would use it in this new ministry. To them it was better for it to rot than be involved in the ministry God had sent me.

That, as I have explained, is the reason all believers are supposed, even expected to listen to Christ before they give. Then they will give in line with God’s agenda as opposed to the church leadership’s agenda.

Again we see another aspect in Acts. God will speak to His people concerning needs in far off places.

And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea: Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. (Acts 11:28 – 30)

The tithe, localized as it was had no capacity to meet the needs of that nature. It therefore required a different dynamic of giving, a giving that put the responsibility of giving to individual believers as they were led by the Spirit. The leaders’ responsibility would be to consolidate that effort.

Pardon my verbiage, but I think it is my responsibility to give the message God gives me to those He wants to reach. If it involves many words, so be it, provided the message is clear to all who read it.

How do you give? Who determines what you give? Is it your spiritual leader or does the Holy Spirit give the directions? Who is better at directing your giving? Is it a person or the one who bought the church with His own blood? Can the pastor know the needs of the world better than its creator? Does a pastor feel the pinch of sin more than the one who died for that sin? Can a pastor be more missionary minded than the Lord of the harvest?

I am no trashing pastors and teachers. I am one of them. But if my teaching does not help believers establish an active and living connection with Christ, I might be serving another master instead of Christ. If those I teach must get my take on anything they do instead of getting counsel from the Great Counselor Himself, then I am not serving God. If I must really convince people to support me instead of challenging them to ask for God’s order concerning the same, I am simply looking for a livelihood from toddlers in the spiritual realm. This portrays me as a person who does not get any security from serving God but must hassle as if I am running my own business.

Tell the tithe goodbye and ask God to tell you how you ought to give. In fact it starts with the way you spend those resources He has released your way. You see the advocates of the tithe teach that what you do with the 90% is up to you. Yet the Bible teaches that 100% belongs to Christ. He should tell you whether you should eat that chocolate or buy that sweet (candy) or buy that house. He is the owner and expects your stewardship to reflect who He is.

The tithe might be the reason obesity is a big issue. This is because we are taught that we can do whatever we want with the 90% as God does not care provided we gave Him His cut (tithe). We can therefore die from too much even as our neighbors are dying from hunger. We then blame them for lack of spiritual connection yet we are the ones too lazy to think and especially listen to the Lord we claim to be submitted to. We will then get into sin and abominations because as we know unfettered excess naturally leads to sin as we see concerning Sodom.

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good. (Ezekiel 16:49, 50)

Yet one is able to be comfortable in that sin because the pastor who was supposed to guide him from that lifestyle continually tells them that they are fine as long as they brought the tithe to the storehouse, meaning the church they are leaders of (sometimes only the pastors). In fact they really fight the notion that someone can tithe anywhere other than where they are even though they are doing nothing close to what the tithe was meant to do even under the Old Testament dynamic. You see the tithe was meant for three main kinds of people; the Levites and priests (who incidentally were denied lands so that they could focus on ministry), the disadvantaged and needy (orphans, widows, aliens, poor), and celebration for the givers every third year.

For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? (1Corinthians 4:7)

May we value hearing God’s orders concerning what He has entrusted to us.