“Tithing isn't the ceiling of giving. It's the floor. It's not the finish line of giving; it's just the starting blocks. Tithes can be the training wheels to launch us into the mind-set, skills, and habits of grace giving.” (Randy Alcorn)
The tithe is the gold standard God uses in providing for the
expenses and ministries of the local church. A tithe refers to a tenth of a
person’s total income in supporting their community church. “An offering is a donation
above and beyond 10%...” [i]
There is debate on whether the tithe should come out of the gross income
(before taxes come out) or from the net (after taxes are taken out). Both sides
have a variety of reasons as to why they support their view, but God wishes you
to decide and give.
John D. Rockefeller had this to say about tithing: “I
never would have been able to tithe the first million dollars I ever made if I
had not tithed my first salary, which was $1.50 per week.” The logic behind tithing is that God can make
the 90% you have left of your income go much further than it should have as He
blesses you in ways unimaginable. Should
one tithe when the money is needed for bills, or because you were not a wise steward
of your money, and are now broke? Some
would say give the tithe anyway. I say
give what you can because God knows your heart. To me time is as valuable as
money. Do important volunteer work for
the church you attend.
Below are some of the
traditional scripture used to support tithing in the church:
Malachi
3:8-10, The Voice
8 Will someone steal from God?” Yet you are always stealing from Me! But
you self-centered people still ask,
“How have we stolen from You?” In the tithes and the offerings you have not given Me as the law requires! 9 You
are cursed with a curse, for as an entire nation you are stealing from
Me. 10 To
rectify this situation, you must bring the entire tithe into the
storage house in the temple so
that there may be food for Me and
for the Levites in My house. Feel free to test Me now in this. See whether or not I, the
Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies,
will open the windows of heaven to you and pour a blessing down upon you until
all needs are satisfied.
Proverbs
3:9, Easy-to-Read Version
Honor the Lord with
your wealth and the first part of your harvest.
Leviticus
27:30, Easy-to-Read Version
“A tenth of all crops belongs to the Lord. This
means the crops from fields and the fruit from trees—a tenth belongs to
the Lord.
Luke
11:42, Easy-to-Read Version
“But
it will be bad for you Pharisees! You give God a tenth of the food you get,
even your mint, your rue, and every other little plant in your garden. But
you forget to be fair to others and to love God. These are the things you
should do. And you should also continue to do those other things.
I would like to make two comments about the above Bible verses.
Some would say the majority of these passages are agricultural in nature, and
do not apply to us today. Can we make
assume that since point A is similar to point B that it means the same thing,
or is this taking the Bible out of context? All of the above passages
(excluding Luke 11:42) are from the Old Testament, which represents the Law
that Christians are no longer under. We are under Grace, which is the New
Testament. I don’t have your answers to
any of your questions. Ask God to give them to you in prayer.
I believe our heavenly Father knows that good test of how much we
love corresponds to how willingly we are willing to give away our money at
church (or to the needy). In Mark 8:36 (MSG), Jesus asks a profound question to
a crowd of people, which includes His twelve disciples. I know this applies to all those
“get-rich-now” people who care more about money than others (or their own true
self). How would you answer this question? What good would
it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you
ever trade your soul for? Your honest answer could
reveal more about you than you realized.
No comments:
Post a Comment