Somebody in my circles recently indicated the other day how all their blessings were a result of their tithe.
My left eyebrow went up, well, kind of.
They went on and on about how many rewards they’d obtained from God as a result of paying the 10 percent. it all sounded like a Bank ATM scenario, but I listened, generally thankful for the Christian commitment to support the church, first.
But something else stirred, in this meeting, everyone around the table went on and on about “the blessing of tithe.”
Then another justified the feeling in the air by quoting Malachi 3:6 in isolation, he continued to press it on (apparent) believers in the room to almost guilt all present on the demerits of not paying your a tenth.
Another employed Paul’s argument of supporting ministers to feed the “ox while it muzzles”
Yet I still mused.
How come we were only willing to pluck out Old Testament laws and leave the others? didn’t the same Lord that required tithe also require women not to wear male apparel? (Deut 22:5) or we only chose the money bit.
How come we no longer stone the promiscuous outside gates (Deut 22:4) or carry goat blood as part of our Sunday morning luggage? What about Jesus, what did he abolish and what did he fulfill?
This right here stood out as a classic confusion of the gospel common in many Ugandan churches today. Largely ceremonial Old testament laws that don’t apply to Christians today being pressed on a people redeemed.
Now, for disclaimer reasons, I am not quite good at it, but I regularly support my church after ‘”calculating”, yet I aim for “generosity”, in fact, the first often gets swallowed up in the later, and that’s the point of the New Testament. Sometimes it is more than 10 percent other times it’s less, yet I know my freedom in Christ not to lose sleep over this, where do I derive my confidence?
God is not a merchant, we don’t transact with him, if he were hungry, he wouldn’t tell us (Ps 50:12), the earth and the fullness therein is his, He loves a cheerful giver, in fact, it is possible to give lots begrudgingly and little with joy. (or the other way round)
But we fallen humans like to be in charge, ever since the fall, we have attempted to self-cleanse of sin, even financial sin, as a result, legalism rises, we look at tithe, contextually meant to support underprivileged temple Levites (Num 18:21-24) and use that to buy our way into God’s favor. Well. at least many Ugandan churches implicitly present it that way.
We transact percentages with God in ways that feel conscience-cleansing, ways that feel like – ‘Phew!- I just got off God’s required percentage, nothing can be further from the truth.
Of course, our often notorious Ugandan church leadership, love it, of course, but biblically unwarranted obligations like these have a tendency to obstruct the primary things, namely, the gospel.
Put differently, Jesus fulfilled the law, meaning “do not kill” still morally applies but “slaughtering your goats as a sin-cleansing duty” (or paying a mandatory levitical tenth of your income) doesn’t.
Christians are new covenant people, there is no other sacrifice of sins left, (Heb 10:26) so in the words of Apostle Paul, we are not compelled to give, we give as your heart has decided, this is generosity, this freedom, freedom from financial burdens put on many consciences today. Jesus bought our way back to God with an amount no monetary percentages can match!
So out of this conviction, we keep a generous spirit, This is the gospel, this is freedom, blood-bought freedom!
When you don’t understand it, everything you do in church, whether communion or tithe, or church attendance or carrying chairs, will take on the form of legalism. Tragically.
Oh, by the way, you know I can pay my tithe and go on to be the meanest workmate? I can pay my tithe to “protect” my business or to only cleanse my greed as I head out to only spend on myself?
I can pay my tithe even if I don’t really believe this Jesus stuff, I can pay my tithe as a cushion to my hardened heart, the very heart Jesus died to replace. you know that?
I hope you do.
Hullo Eddie thank you for your post but I like to disagree with you a bit on the issue of tithe. A tithe is a matter of one’s heart. The issue of tithing precedes the mosaic law. The patriarch ‘ s that is Abraham and Jacob tithed. In Genesis chapter 14:20-24. We see Abraham tithing to Melchizedek and then with Jacob, he promised to give God a tenth of everything that God would give him if God would provide for him and protect him. So tithing as a concept precedes the law of Moses. Jesus talked about it in the New Testament. I’ll look for the verse where it is mentioned. And it is true that when you give God blesses you. For the promise attached to the tithe as God promises it in Malachi 3:6-12. He surely fulfills it and blesses those who tithe. I’ll write more on this but I believe that the tithe didn’t end with the law. No we can still give it. Not all things of the law apply to the New Testament believers but there are some good things in the law that we can pick from it. I’ll add on on this topic to show you that we should continue tithing even in the New Testament and there is nothing wrong with it but certainly something wrong with those who argue that as New Testament believers we should not tithe. Something is certainly wrong with that position.
Alvin thanks for passing by, Sure tithing is mentioned in Genesis 14 but descriptively not prescriptively, that’s how we learn to interpret scriptures. Otherwise, you’d have to sacrifice your firstborn on hills just like Abraham did without connecting to the cross.
My rationale in this article is not to discourage giving, as Paul already encourages it in 2 Corinthians 9:7…), but to unburden many caught in the conscience snare that tithing is “mandatory” for Christians. we give as our hearts have decided,
Many Churches simply go against this NT understanding and compel Christians to a “10 percent”, yet God calls for ‘over and above’ (sometimes the 2 percent you have, or the willing heart), not percentages, and God holds no one captive because they don’t meet the percentage, we give as the heart has decided, not compellingly. for he loves a cheerful giver 2 Cor 9:6-7
This is blood-bought Christian freedom, this is Christian Freedom many in transactional mode are unaware of!