Why is this question important? Because there are some Christians who do not give their tithes because they believe that giving your tithes was only an Old Testament practice. They also believe that tithing is not necessary to practice because Christians today are no longer under the law of the Old Testament. Also they say because there is not one example or command in the New Testament that directs a Christian today to tithe 10% of their income, therefore they believe giving tithes is no longer valid for a Christian today.
Last week we made an attempt to give a copy of the article, Four Basic Questions About Tithes And Offerings to everyone from our Hope Chapel church family. The third question of this paper, ARE CHRISTIANS TODAY OBLIGATED TO TITHE? briefly addresses this question. “Any Christian today who thinks that tithing is just an OT practice and does not apply to believers now is missing the point of God’s call for us to be willing givers. We do not have the choice to ignore godly principles simply because they came through the OT law. There is a definite relationship between the Christians today and God’s law. Jesus himself tells us that he did not come to eliminate (i.e., get rid of) the law, but to fulfill it, Matthew 5:17-19, 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”
We need to be very careful when we believe that Christians today are not under Old Testament law but under grace and do not have to tithe. In my sermon last Sunday I asked a question. “If we as Christians believe we are not under Old Testament law but under grace and don’t have to give our tithes, what other Old Testament laws are no longer valid or necessary for me as a Christian to observe today?” What commandment of the ten commandments can I choose that no longer applies to me today as a Christian? Or, what Old Testament commands of the Law do we as Christians still follow with no objections?
In the bulletin message of last week I stated that, “The Bible is full of commandments, a great deal more than the well known ten that are found in Exodus 20:1-18.” Actually there are 613 commandments in the Old Testament they are called “613 Mitzvot“. What about the 24 commandments of the Old Testament concerning Forbidden Sexual Relations? I am deliberately not going to be specific here but there are some sinful sexual practices mentioned in the Old Testament that the New Testament does not mention, which ones of these detestable acts are not valid anymore?
Yes, there are some Old Testament Laws that the New Testament clearly states that are no longer necessary to practice, such as some dietary laws as in Mark 7:18-19. This is Jesus talking, “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? 19 For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”) And circumcision, Galatians 6:15, “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation.” But carefully look at, 1 Corinthians 7:19, “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts.” Did you notice the second sentence of verse 19? For those Christians who believe that giving tithes is not relevant for Christians today, what do you do with the last sentence of this verse? “Keeping God’s commands is what counts.” Paul, when talking to the Corinthian Church, was not and could not be referring to the New Testament commands because it had not been totally written and compiled yet! He was talking to Christians referring to the Old Testament commandments.
God knows Christian’s tendencies with money and the greed, which can control some believers, and also how easy it is for them to disregard what His Word says concerning money. Note what James says to believers in Christ of his day. There is no difference for some Christians today. “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” James 4:3. The writer of Hebrews comments concerning some Christians who had the problem of loving money. “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have…” Hebrews 13:5
The apostle Paul writing to Timothy who was sent to the Church in Ephesus also wrote about the problems of money for some Christians and how easy it is to control them. 1 Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
In Malachi 3:6-12 it states that God says we rob Him when we do not give our tithes. The commentator Warren W. Wiersbe wrote concerning this. “Whenever we rob God, we always rob ourselves. To begin with, we rob ourselves of the spiritual blessings that always accompany obedience and faithful giving (2 Corinthians 9:6-15). But even more, the money that rightfully belongs to God that we keep for ourselves never stays with us. It ends up going to the doctor, the auto body shop, or the tax collector. Haggai 1:5-6, “5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “‘Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.'” If we don’t trust God to care for us, whatever we do trust will prove futile. People who lovingly give tithes and offerings to God find that whatever is left over goes much farther and brings much greater blessing.”
For Christians who have no problem with giving their tithes, giving more than ten percent is usually a normal practice. This is because they usually also give offerings in addition to their tithes. A person who gives their tithes from experience knows that God’s Old Testament law is good because He recognizes and blesses them in more ways than they can imagine.
“We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.” 1 Timothy 1:8
Pastor John
