Lesson #12: Tithe review and conclusion

According to the Bible, we are now in the New Covenant, and for those who are able, we are simply called to give freewill offerings, as directed by the Holy Spirit.

But there are 2 very important questions we should ask: how do we give to God, and does He care more about religious purposes or does He care more about people who are truly in need? Fortunately, the New Covenant teaches the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:5-9), rather than only a select few like in the Old Covenant, and we’re now all empowered as priests to give directly to people in need, especially to other believers who are struggling (Galatians 6:10). Furthermore, in both the Old and New Testaments, the majority of the giving of money was intended for people who were in need because God cares about people who are struggling financially.

We’ve learned that not only does the New Covenant not teach the tithing of money to a religious organization, the Mosaic Old Covenant tithe was exclusively centered around FOOD, yet when people in the Old Covenant gave actual money, the primary destination of that money was people who were in need.

The Biblical tithe was always a tithe of FOOD, and was collected so that there would be EQUALITY. We’ve learned that farmers in the land of Israel had received free land (everyone except for priests and Levites received land), and in exchange for that free gift of valuable land, all that was required was to give back a small portion of their harvest. Much of that food was to go to widows, orphans and foreigners living among them, rather than only for religious purposes. During the tithing years, there had originally been a penalty if someone wanted to convert their tithe of food into money to give, because tithing wasn’t about money, it was about providing food for those who needed food, and food is the most basic necessity of life. Yet every 7th year there was no harvesting (no tithing of food), all debts were cancelled, and every 50th year was the year of jubilee when, again, there was no tithing of food. When do modern-day tithe teaching churches offer their congregations their year off from tithing, the cancellation of their financial debts, or their year of jubilee?

We’ve learned that the Old Covenant nation of Israel was a theocratic government, and the only “tax” gathered to fund the government was the tithe of food, and tithe receiving Levites were the ones chosen to work in the government, and this provided for their most basic necessity of life in exchange for their work.

We’ve learned that Israelites were supposed to give to anyone who was in need who asked for help, and then every 7th year all of those debts were canceled. Therefore, the lesson for us to apply to the New Covenant is that, again, in the Old Covenant, the PRIMARY destination of the giving of actual MONEY (as opposed to the tithe of FOOD) was to people in need.

We’ve learned that the context of Malachi 3, which is often used by modern-day preachers as their primary “tithe” text, was actually a passage focused on disobedient priests. As a matter of fact, the entire book of Malachi is a question and answer session between God and disobedient Old Covenant priests. The priests and Levites were the only ones who ever had access to the best of the tithe which was known as the “tithe of the tithe” (see Nehemiah 10:38). This “tithe of the tithe” was transported only by priests and Levites into the Temple storehouse, but they were the ones who had stopped that practice, and were instead using the storehouse for their own purposes. Furthermore, not only did ordinary Israelites not have to directly bring anything to the storehouse, they were actually told this in Leviticus 27:32–33, “concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock, of whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. He shall not inquire whether it is good or bad.” Sick or injured livestock were actually to be given if it was the tenth one, yet if someone’s increase was only 9 animals then none of them had to be given away.

Regarding the promise of blessing found in Malachi 3, we’ve seen that the Mosaic Old Covenant specifically stipulated that the practice of tithing food had to be from the land of Canaan. This promise was exclusively centered around food, and if food was brought in, then God would cause more food to grow in the land of Canaan. But it was God Himself who forever destroyed the Old Covenant and its Temple in 70 AD after He had established the more glorious New Covenant. The entire Temple system and its accompanying practice of tithing food was forever destroyed, and has not been transferred in any way to the New Covenant.

These things are obvious to anyone who takes the time to actually study Scripture, and we’ve seen how it’s been obvious to theologian after theologian, century after century. Countless theologians have declared that it’s unbiblical for any religious organization to attempt to receive a tithe. We’ve learned that America was founded by denominations that declared that modern day tithing was unbiblical. Yet many of our modern leaders wish to remain stubbornly ignorant of what Scripture actually teaches on this subject, simply because its become an established tradition in some of their denominations, and they benefit from their ignorance. Yet we read in Mark chapter 7 that Jesus condemns manmade traditions that are taught as if commands from God.

Many Christians simply can’t tithe because of financial struggles. Some struggle just to achieve the basic necessities of life. Some are drowning in debt from unforeseen medical bills as well as family hardships. There are real needs in our congregations, yet many times these same people are given stress and guilt from the unbiblical thought that God commands them to tithe to Him when they’re simple unable.

If most of the money raised by churches actually went to people in need, especially if the focus was on those struggling within our own congregations, then perhaps some of what they teach about giving might be justified. However, even our secular media knows the sad truth of how our religious organizations use their funds. Article after article has been published exposing the lavish lifestyles of some of our “professional” leaders, who do so in spite of the struggles of their own congregations. The majority of denominations each literally raise billions of dollars each year, and typically around 50% is for salaries, only 22% is spent on their buildings, only 5% for missions, and only 3% for those in need. Studies have been published showing that our religious organizations have become more inward focused than outward focused.

It’s undeniable that good leaders and teachers should be honored, and when they truly are in need they absolutely have the Biblical right to ask for financial support. However, we’ve seen that Paul, who was a traveling missionary who supported himself and those around him, pointed out in 1 Corinthians 9:12 and verse 18, that not only is taking money a hinderance to the gospel, it can even be an abuse of the gospel. Paul, as a traveling missionary, gave himself as an example to our leaders of how they should be working to support themselves, and in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 he even provided the rule that those who don’t work to support themselves don’t get to eat.

These are words from Paul to Church leaders: “For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, LABORING AND TOILING SO THAT WE WOULD NOT BE A BURDEN to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but IN ORDER TO OFFER OURSELVES AS A MODEL FOR YOU TO IMITATE,” (2 Thess. 3:7-9).

Also, when Paul exclusively only gathered the leaders together, he gave them these words, “You yourselves know that THESE HANDS OF MINE HAVE SUPPLIED MY OWN NEEDS and the needs of my companions. IN EVERYTHING I DID, I SHOWED YOU BY THIS KIND OF HARD WORK WE must HELP THE WEAK,” (Acts 20:34-35).

It’s clear from these verses that our leaders have been encouraged to work hard to support themselves and those around them, but instead of following this advice, we’ve created a “professional” class that absorbs the majority of giving. These leaders themselves have also unfortunately been burdened by too many responsibilities that should instead be shared by the whole body (the Church), and it’s because of these burdens that they often don’t have enough time to be able to support themselves.

Paul sums up giving this way in 2 Corinthians 8:12-14, “give according to what you have, not what you don’t have. Of course, I don’t mean your giving should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves. I only mean that there should be some EQUALITY. Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with YOU when YOU need it. In this way, things will be EQUAL.”

Rather than empowering us to be the priests that we already are (the Biblical “priesthood of all believers” has been recognized for centuries), many of us have instead been left to be helpless sheep to be sheared, but the Good News is found in Ezekiel 34, especially verse 10: “I will deliver My flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them.” God rescues us from those who take advantage of us. Our leaders should instead be getting the whole body (the Church) prepared to be a healthy, fully functioning body where each member is allowed to fulfill their individual role. Our church body was designed to be made of many different parts with many different functions, but when it’s primarily a stick figure body attempting to support the weight of an enormous talking head then it’s clearly become unhealthy.

In the New Covenant, we’re now to be led by the Holy Spirit and when it comes to giving, we might be led to give most of our freewill offerings to our local assembly, however, it naturally feels good as well as just feels right to be able to give to people who are truly in need. And that’s because that’s how God made us, and giving to people in need is undeniably how we give to God (also see Matthew 19:21). As priests, we’re all empowered to give directly to people in need, rather than being forced to only funnel our giving to a religious organization.

Luke 12 even directly spells all of this out for us. Verse 21 introduces the topic of how to be generous towards God, the following verses provide comfort for our anxieties in life, and concludes with verse 33 which shows when we have extra possessions, we can give to God by selling those possessions and giving to those who are in need (the word used there is “alms” which is money, food, or other material goods donated to people living in poverty).

It should now be clear that the primary Biblical destination of giving is to people who are truly in need. Unfortunately, it’s a deceptively false message when a religious leader (someone who ought to know better, someone who ought to be proclaiming the truth) tells people that God commands an unceasing tithe of money to a religious organization, and that God blesses those who tithe to their local church but might curse those who can’t afford to tithe. They even tell their struggling congregations that they can only give “offerings” to the poor after their tithe has been given to their Church (they’ve made up an unBiblical definition of “offering” as being what’s given above and beyond the “tithe”). Those types of leaders are blatantly misrepresenting what Scripture says and are taking verses out of context.

Should we as the Church be trying to physically build a physical Kingdom (such as separating ourselves in elaborate Church buildings)? In John 18:36, Jesus declared, “My kingdom is not of this world.” In 2 Peter 3 we see this question asked, “what manner of persons ought you to be,” and this was part of the answer: “the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” Therefore our current mission isn’t to primarily focus on building things here because it will all soon be destroyed by God.

Clearly, God really does care for those who are struggling financially, and He wants to set them free from the unbiblical heavy burdens that might’ve been placed on them by those claiming to be teaching commands from God. This was the first public message Jesus gave: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR. He has sent me to proclaim FREEDOM for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to SET THE OPPRESSED FREE.”

“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed,” (John 8:36).

Jesus is the current King of His people, and regarding the religious Temple tax, He taught us this in Matthew 17:25-26: “‘From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?’ Peter said to Him, ‘From strangers.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Then THE SONS ARE FREE.’” What this means is that we’re the children of the King, King Jesus, and we’re free from being forced to pay religious “taxes.”

Again, we’ve seen that what made Jesus very angry was the religious leaders who teach “heavy burdens” of “manmade doctrines” as if they’re commands from God (Mark 7:5-13). This is what Jesus said about some religious leaders, “they tie up burdens heavy and hard to bear and lay them on the shoulders of men; but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger,” (Matthew 23:4).

Fortunately, this is the Good News that Jesus proclaims to those who struggle to carry those heavy burdens placed by their religious leaders: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light,” (Matthew 11:28-29).