I will not quit tithing! I don’t care what anyone has to say about it, I’m stickin’ with it. Even if I can’t afford to pay my bills or put food on the table for my kids, I will not be moved.
Yes, I know that there’s actually no NT scripture that says I’m supposed to tithe, but, hey, the OT is the Bible too. And my Pastor said we should follow Abraham’s example of tithing. Even though he only tithed that one time, and that doesn’t exactly make him the best example of a perpetual tither, I’m still going to do it anyway. After all, he did get a blessing from Melchizedek because he tithed. Well . . . it doesn’t actually say that Melchizedek blessed him because he gave the tithe . . . he probably would have blessed Abraham either way, but who’s to say. He still ended up with Melchizedek’s blessing. Not that he needed it or anything. I mean, Abraham was already a rich man before he got that blessing. He did have those three hundred and eighty servants who fought in that battle and brought him the spoils . . . you know . . . the ones he tithed on . . . and having all those servants kind of reveals he wasn’t just living on barely-gettin’-along street before that. Then again, it is a bit interesting that he tithed only on the spoils and not on everything God had blessed him with up until then, but no one’s perfect. So, I’m just going to overlook Abraham’s poor math skills, and come-on, it’s not like they had calculators back then.
Tithing is just a rule I’ve learned to live by. And when I say rule, it’s not like I mean a law, as in an OT law. Yes, of course tithing became mandatory under the law of Moses and Jesus fulfilled the law, but surely we aren’t supposed to stop tithing. That would be ridiculous. I even remember reading about the time when Jesus told the Pharisees that they ought to tithe. Well . . . of course they were still under the law when He said that to them, but . . . He still said it. And besides, tithing was around before the law was, so . . . I’m okay with the New Testament’s lack of tithing scriptures. It’s just something that’s always been there . . . like God mandated it from the beginning or something. Well, okay, it was really only mandatory under the law, and every time someone tithed before the law they did it by their own free will, but they still did it at least once or twice in their life. And, if they tithed while not under the law, surely I should too.
Alright, alright, so the pattern of tithing that I follow isn’t the infrequent, sporadic one that’s purely by choice and not mandatory like Abraham. And, well, I actually do pattern my tithing after those under the law, the mandatory, perpetual kind; but it is, after all, my reasonable service, right? I mean, they only had to give ten percent, and we should want to give everything to God, so I think it’s reasonable that ten percent is a good place to start. For me, it’s okay that my pattern of tithing is no different from the tithing under the law. It’s not like I should consider myself dead to the law. Oh wait, I mean, I guess I am dead to the law because Paul said so, and that means that God’s blessings are mine because of what Jesus did. And I realize that if I go back and put my trust in tithing as the means for God to bless me, then Christ’s work at the cross was for nothing in that area as far as I’m concerned. But, that can’t be right, because my favorite preacher says we’re supposed to tithe. And he even says it from the pulpit so it’s got to be right.
I’ve heard Malachi 3:10 preached so many times that I have it memorized. It says that I’m supposed to bring my tithe into the storehouse. My Pastor, you know, the one who collects my tithes, says the storehouse is the local Church. And he should know because he’s got one of those concordance thingies. Never mind that Malachi 3:10 was written to the Jews who were still under the law at the time. It’s kind of funny how that’s never pointed out in my Christian circles, but that just means it’s probably not important. And I hear it preached on all the time, so it’s not like they would forget to mention it over and over. And then there are all the big-name preachers who preach tithing. These men have such powerful ministries, and I admire them so much, surely they couldn’t be wrong. After all, who am I to question their doctrine. They’ve been studying the Bible their whole lives, so they just know what’s right.
I tithe because I want to make sure I qualify for the blessings of God. This big-time preacher, who some call the oracle of Newark, says in his book that if I don’t tithe I’m under a curse; kind of scary. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t tithe out of fear or anything, even though that curse business makes my hair stand on end. He’s just quoting Malachi 3:9, you know, the one I mentioned earlier that was written to the Jews under the law. Come to think of it, that’s like the second to last chapter in the OT, so it’s practically the NT anyways. Now . . . I don’t want to be cursed, I want to be blessed. And I know that Paul said Jesus bore the curse for me and I’m free from it in Christ, but I’m just covering all the bases. Not that Jesus didn’t take the whole curse upon himself or anything, but hey, the curse for not tithing might still be out there somewhere. So, I’m going to keep on tithing.
There’s this one saying I heard and it’s kind of catchy – The Word says it (even though it doesn’t say it in the NT), I believe it, and that settles it!
To be continued . . .
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15 Responses to Confessions Of A Die-Hard Tither
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When I first learned that there was something called ‘tithing’ I ‘learned’ it from men and women of the word that I trusted to tell me the truth. So I did what they said. As I matured and grew in the word (Which we are COMMANDED to do) I learned more pieces to the puzzle picture were left out. Oh, of course, when I first started tithing, I was getting sooo blessed financially. After all, I had NEVER given that large of an amount to anything before! The principle of giving works on what you give with a right heart not on the fact that you call it a tithe. After awhile though, I kept paying my ten percent and no ‘wow-blessings’ came. I know now it was because I should have grown up and not governed my finances by the rule of tithing but by the law of sowing which God created when He created the earth. We must be lead by the Spirit in our giving, for the amount to give and where to give and even how to give. Thank God for the ‘meat of the word’ to grow thereby!
[...] Confessions of a Die-Hard Tither, John explores the idea that many American Christians are so much concerned with the Word, but [...]
And then you can go on to ask, do we tithe off our gross or our net? Most say gross but one big Word of Faith pastor says the net. Ho Hum. This post was great! Thanks.
My son made me a fathers day present last year and it was so joyful for me as a father. I never asked him to give me anything he just did. What if I told him that he had to give me something and better not come home without making me a present. That would completely take the joy out of it for both him and me. The reason God did not did not give a comandment to tithe in new testiment is because he want you to do it because you love him. The tithe belongs to God and how can you say you love God yet steal what belongs to him? The most important law in the new testiment is to love your God and you cant love God and not give him the respect and honor to give him what belongs to him. This is why Jesus came to be our new high priest in the order of Melchizedek and not Arron.(see old test.) Melchizedek was the high priest that Abraham gave his tithe to. Abraham gave him the tithe because he honored and loved God, not because he had to(no law in place). Arron was a High priest just like Melchizedek was but many years later during the levitical time period. During Arrons time it was a levitical law to tithe(law now put in place). Jesus came to fulfil the law after the order of Melchizedek and not Arron(see new test.) because the new way of tithing is out of love and not a commandment. You cant fufill the love commandment and steal at the same time. so yes tithing is in the new testiment.
I tithe off the gross, Tithing is a heart issue. You let the government take off the gross but you give God tithe off the net. Not me… I will give god off the first fruits of my income. I will not exhault goverment and let them take Gods first fruit. God will Honor your heart and allow the full promises of Malichi come to come to pass.
P.s. You havent sown a dime until the tithe amount has been met.
Kyle,
I suggest you think really long and hard about Abraham’s tithe since apparently you pattern your tithing after him, and then ask yourself two questions. Why did he only tithe on the spoils of one war (Heb. 7:4) and not on all he had? Why did he tithe just that one time? Not much of a pattern to follow. You may imagine your style of tithing to be patterned after Abraham, but functionally it’s no different than tithing under the law. As you have said, God never required a tithe from Abraham, so if he didn’t tithe he would not not have been guilty of stealing. Law regulates guilt, grace and love liberates one from it. Seems to me you have one foot in grace and one in the law. How long will you ride that fence?
With all do respect i pattern my tithe as a pattern of an expression of love. I will say for me, it’s hard for me to not tithe and to say that im fulfilling the ultimate law of loving our God. It’s both. Its doesnt have to be one or the other. I love God..Thats a commandment. I tithe because I love God and loving God is a commandment. There is no fence dividing. If i stop tithing my spirit would not feel right about it not because i broke a law of not tithing but because I broke a law of not loving my God with my tithe.
Why do you say that Abraham only tithed once? You dont know what he tithed and didnt tithe on. You are only looking at what was recorded. Maybe he didnt tithe on his personal belongings at first because he didnt know any better at the time but that doesnt mean thats how he finished his life out only tithing war spoils.. His first act of tithing may or may not have come when he gave the tithe to Melchezedek. You may only have one recorded instance of Abraham tithing but that does mean he did not continue his life as a devout tither. You dont need a bunch of recorded instances to know he was a tither all you need to do is look at the mans fruit. Look at his life, did he live a life of the a guy that God made a covantant with and him not even be a tither. God him self physically made a blood convant in blood with Abraham, Abraham was constantly listened and followed God. Give Abraham a little credit to believe that with all that God done for him and the things they shared together, Abraham would have the decency to give a tithe. The truth is that the day he tithed the spoils he discovered first hand the power of the tithe, the secret of abundance of blessings. Why would abraham quit, why would he cast down that wisdom? If he wasnt a tither then Satan could have stolen back everything Abraham ever had but that didnt happen to Abraham. But that wasnt the first time he has ever heard about a tithe, where did he get the idea? After all why was there a need of a High Priest. do you think that Abrahams tithe was the first tithe that Melchezedek ever received? He got the idea passed down from Adam. The tree of good and evil was the first instance of tithing. God said leave this tree for me, dont eat of it, its not for you. Adam and Eve tithed by not partaking of that tree that belonged to God. Like the tenth the tree was holy and for God only. What happen when they took what belong to God… the curse came in just like it said it will do im Malichi 3. Follow the blessing linage and the one thing in common is that they did not come into the blessing without tithing to God. How many times was it recorded that Jesus was tempted by Satan? Only a few, but do you think that Jesus was only tempted a few times just because thats all that was recorded. no.. he was tempted as much as us if not more. It says he was tempted in all things.
Law should regulate guilt. that is what the law is for. Its that horrble feeling in your spirit that motivates to stop sinning. If you are not loving God or your neighbor then you will reap the harvest of sin which carries guilt. The law has not disappeared it has just been summed up.
You said you loved to tithe, me too! Do you only tithe once or twice like you claim that Abraham did? I dont get the feeling you are that way and i dont need your tithing record to prove it. Im looking at your passion for tithing that you have proudly expressed for all to see. If you didnt tithed regurally then i dont think you would be as passionate as you are. If you love to do something you do it as much as possable.
I think you may have misunderstood my sentiments in this post. These are not my reflections on tithing but a montage of the thoughts of many believers out there. My intentions were to display the error of this line of reasoning, not to promote it.
So then, we both love God; you because it’s commanded, and me, simply because He first loved me. You tithe because if you didn’t you would feel that you would be breaking the law of tithing and ultimately failing to love God (your words), and I freely give because I have freely received. Excuse my frankness, but there are two different mindsets here, which happens to be my point; two covenants, two mindsets. I just happen to be of the latter.
on the contrary, I tithe because I love God, not because of a law. thats my whole point. What joy would it be for God if he made me give it to him? But… while im tithing I am also keeping the law given by Jesus in the new testiment to Love my God. There is no new testiment law to tithe. none! So I never would feel guilt for not tithing because there is no direct law for tithing, but there is a indirect law for tithing. Jesus came and summed up ALL the laws of the profits(not just the ten commandments). He summed it up with with just two laws. 1. Love your God and 2. love your Neighbor.
If you love your neighbor you wouldnt kill him, you wouldnt covet his wife and you wouldnt steal from him either. The commandments of the old testiment are still in place they are simply summed in the two laws given by Jesus. Jesus said he fulfilled the law not to do away with them.
Isnt thou shall not steal a commandment? Well jesus renamed that commandment with “thou shall love your God(you cant steal from God and love him at same time). Same law of stealing is still in place today its just been put under a umbrela law of “love your God”‘ because if you love him you wouldnt steal from him.
God had to have a way to get us to tithe without forcing a law to do it(at least directly). He wants us to tithe simply because we love him. But at the same time it needs to be a law so that there would be a law to activate. If there was no law to tithe at all then tithing would produce nothing, just like when(o.t.) there was no law for having multple wives. It wasnt a law and therefore it was not a sin. So what did he do… He never told us to tithe but what he did do is command us to love him and you cant love him and steal his tithe at the same time. Is brillance. You see the seed of tithing out of love is greater than tithing out of law. The law of tithing and tithing out of love CAN NOT be seperated. You cant do the one with out the other. There are two mindsets and you have no choice but to operate both at the same time. I dont tithe because i am commanded, I tithe because i love God, it just happens to be that loving god is a commandment.
Tithing is a new testiment law and it goes like this… love your God… so tithe out of Love.
Some will go to extreme levels of (personal) reasoning to keep the law alive and themselves alive with it; it’s called self-justification. How could Paul have been more plain when he said, “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law” (Rom. 7.4.) Instead we get, Look at me, I’m a tither.
Paul said, the just shall live by faith (Rom. 1.17,) and, the law is not of faith (Gal. 3.12.) Yet some still insist that they give their tithes in faith. And again he said, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. (Rom. 14.23) My vote is that Paul is right on this one. Insist on tithing and you will subject yourself a debtor to the whole law. Listen to Paul’s reasoning, “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” (Gal. 3.10) In other words, you can’t pick and choose. It’s either all law or all Christ. If you willingly subject yourself to any part of the law, you are bound to keep it all and Christ shall profit you nothing (Gal. 5.2.) You may have been taught that tithing will bring you under the blessing, but the Apostle of faith said it will bring you back under the curse. Go ahead, argue your case with him. If you notice how much I’ve quoted him, you’ll realize you’ve been arguing with him all along.
Wow… This is the second time I have heard about this same viewpoint (two different ministries) on tithing lately. I am going to have to really pray about this, and search through the scriptures… Thank you for giving a place to start searching the Word in these last comments. I know my husband would have a real hard time with this view…
John,
Thank you so much for this article!! I had become a tither under the law when I first went to church because that’s what I was taught. Pay a tithe, get a blessing; don’t pay a tithe, receive a curse. I thank God that He brought me out of that bondage, and I am so pleased to see a fellow Christian using his voice to cry out in the wilderness of law. Thank you!
I can remember sitting at the kitchen table crying over how to pay the tithe and the bills and put food on the table with what we had. I couldn’t do it. Our financial situation kept getting worse and worse. I did a lot of praying and came across Paul’s words you’ve mentioned. Through the ministering of the Holy Spirit, the lightbulb went off. My finances were indeed cursed; not because I wasn’t paying tithe, but because I was paying it. I was living under the law, and was therefore living under the curse of the law. When I quit tithing, our finances straightened out, and we began to prosper. From then on, I didn’t give out of trying to get blessed or because I was following a commandment, I gave out of wanting to help others in need. I still do.
Do I give all the time? No. I give as the Lord leads, and here’s the kicker, it’s not to a church, and it’s not always money. Sometimes it’s food, sometimes it’s service, sometimes it’s money, or sometimes it’s a shoulder to cry on, and sometimes it can be as simple as holding a door open for someone. Tithing has become so legalistic that Christians today don’t get that tithing was never about money, but has always been about love.
Cain and Abel’s offerings weren’t money, and Cain was punished because he gave out of a wrong motive. God straight out told the Jewish people that the sacrifice He required wasn’t tithing but was “helping the widows and orphans which is your reasonable service”. He didn’t mean it as a command. He meant it to show them that when you love, you can’t help but help others, and, thereby, you worship God with your love. It means that since God loved me first, I love Him with all my heart mind and soul and love my neighbor as myself. I give out of a heart of love in meeting a need in someone else’s life through personal giving to or contact with an individual, not as a command to fill church coffers.
I was blown away when I did some digging on how our church spent the tithes and offerings it received. I found out that the church I was attending would only help someone who asked for it only once in a year time period. If the person in need asked for help before that year was up, they would be turned away. That’s only one instance. There were many others. Please know I’m not church bashing, nor am I saying that all churches are this way. There are churches out there that do it right. However, I encourage you to dig deep into where the money is going. When you find out, you may understand that helping the woman at the side of the road with a blown tire or giving a meal to the man diving in the dumpster may be a much better use of your money. Giving to get a blessing is selfish, giving because you have to is useless, giving to help others in their need is Christ, love in action.
I tithed for over thirty one years. In Feb of 2005 I had left a church looking for another. After two week of praying and studying my bible, I realized that I had not tithed. Therefore I immediately went to Hebrews seventh chapter and read about Abram giving Melchizedek ten percent of somebody else property. (Gen 14:1-24) It was not his own. Plus (Gen 13:2) clearly says that Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold. Abram did not give Melchizedek ten percent of his own cattle, silver and gold. Then I began to wonder how did I miss this. I had been lied to, and not only that I had taught that lie being a minister of the gospel. After that I began to study every verse in the bible regarding tithing from Genesis to Hebrews and realize that tithing was to Israel only and it was not money but food products and animals. Therefore I had to repent to God for lying to the body of Christ.
I have some videos on YouTube – username -”enick3″ called ” The tithe lie & The tithing confession lie”. God Bless
I’d like to add my two cents worth. Firstly thanks to the writer for posting the original article it really sums up what people go through in trying to understand and do the right thing regarding their faith! We went through similar teaching and process, and after much prayer, decided to tithe to our local church. For a while we experienced amazing blessing. In retrospect, the blessing subsided at the point our tithe became ‘habit’ and something that was not motivated by a heart response to the Holy Spirit’s leading on what/how much to give. We include in that, as Verna, our time, talents, love, and money, all of which are of equal importance to God. A few years later we were extremely poor while my husband was a student, most weeks buying food was hard, or impossible. Did we ‘tithe’ – no, we could hardly meet all our bills, would it have blessed God’s heart to go into debt? We sincerely doubt it! We served in our local church, and God still supplied our needs both through our church family and by some miracles I still marvel over! Since then we have had a depth of teaching, emphasis on Giving, that has totally changed the way we see tithing. It’s not been easier than tithing, sometimes God has required a significant amount that has been sacrificial, to bless someone or a situation which would have gone unnoticed by our church. Church leaders rolling out Mal 3 verses are only telling a small part of the truth. In addition to Malachi, Abraham’s ‘tithe’, have a look at Deut 12:5-19 and 22-27, Deut 14:28-29, Deut 16:12-13 et al!! Investigate the scriptures for yourself. The tithe issue is summed up in the New Testament by 2 Cor 9:7, which is what my husband and I have come to live by regarding all our giving. I hope this post helps someone.
Here’s my Experience:
I have mixed feelings about both viewpoints presented above (John and Kyle) HOWEVER, I can tell you this with absolute certainty, and personal proof that when I did not tithe, my finances were miserable. When I did start to tithe, I began giving 10% of my gross and it truly feels like the blessings FLOOD my life from miraculous sources and I have above and beyond what I need.
John – thanks for your [I consider it to be teaching] on the NT Christian’s obligation to tithe. Having been raised in an extremely legalistic setting – I’ve always wanted to honor the Lord with my finances – yet viewed the tithe as “protection money” against the devourer- and yes, I’ve “given to get” in the past. In spite of this, I’ve experienced seasons of tremendous blessing as well as seasons of leanness – which has been the case for the past five years. During this time we’ve given as we’ve been able – but not an obligatory 10% -and not to the local church. During this time, we’ve also been building a new business and we’ve seen the Lord provide for us supernaturally time after time – this would confuse me because I felt guilty and thought we were “under the curse” – why would God move in our lives and bless us anyway? We’re now starting to prosper again as in the past – I can’t wait to sow seed as the Spirit directs with the heart motive of honoring the Lord and wanting to be a blessing to others – not out of religious obligation… The law came through Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ… I’ve also enjoyed your teaching on the Coming Judgment of Islam – thanks!!!