Is Tithing for Christians?

 

Is Tithing for Christians?

For a long time now, the church has taught that people should the faithful should pay their tithes. During most church services (even now when online services are being conducted), a time for giving is scheduled in. At this time, the most adept pastor at convincing people to empty their pockets is assigned the role of leading this activity.

Believers are reminded that for God to open the windows of heaven they must first bring in the full tithe into His house. Envelopes are provided some of which have boxes where you tick whether what you’ve put in is a tithe or offering. In some churches the faithful are asked to raise their tithes while the pastor prays for it so that God may open the windows of heaven (Mal 3).

Then the regular offering is collected which many churches emphasize is a whole different affair from tithe. In fact this is a message across most churches where believers are taught that the tithe is a ‘payment’ made to God and therefore cannot be considered as an offering.

Woe unto you if you don’t pay your tithes. The pastor has no choice but to let you know of the curses prepared for such as yourself. Malachi 3:6-12 is the passage used.

Mal 3:8-9  Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. 

Because of the above verse, believers are taught that they are under a curse. That's why things are not going right in their lives. This is the reason why they are suffering financially and in dire straits.

Then they are assured that the answer is in paying their tithes. And the verses below are used for proof.

Mal 3:10-12  Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts. 

The question that every believer should ask here is: Who is being addressed? Verse 6 gives the answer.

Mal 3:6  For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

The position of a believer

The first thing to know is your blessed position as a believer. Remember how you were saved.

Eph 2:8-9  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. 

At the very moment of our salvation, the Lord emphasizes that He did it all- He finished all that was required. That's why the verse above says that we are saved by faith - by believing. This faith was not something we worked at, it is a gift from God. How did we receive this gift? By hearing the Word of God as we are told that faith comes by hearing the word of God.

In short we brought nothing to the equation. We heard the Word of God and God put faith in our hearts and we believed and were saved.

What if we had tried to work for it?

Isa 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

These filthy rags are blood stained garments from a woman's monthly period. That’s how we appear to God when we have done our best to be righteous. Therefore we rely on Jesus Christ the perfect Lamb of God who is acceptable before God.  

Heb 10:12-18  But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 

In short we as believers in Christ have been perfected by Christ Jesus already. Once we believe we receive this gift and it is forever.

If you are perfect before God, what else is required of you? Can you add to perfection? How would God call you perfect and then curse you because you did not tithe? Have you at that moment stopped being perfect? Was your perfection dependent on you to begin with or was it based on the merit of Jesus?

If it was based on the merit of Jesus, how is it then your responsibility to stay perfect? Remember all your righteous acts are as filthy rags. More importantly you have been perfected forever! Hallelujah! That's why believers in Christ are saved eternally. They cannot lose their salvation as they cannot lose their perfection before God.

Malachi 3 was addressed to Jews who were under the law of Moses. Christians are not under the law as they have come in under a new covenant. Therefore Malachi 3 does not apply to you. Stop paying tithe! God doesn't require it of you. The sacrifice of Jesus is enough - you don't need to add anything to it to be blessed.