TITHE, IS IT NECESSARY UNDER GRACE?
As it is now, many Christians are confused and concerned about the of matter, do we still in to pay tithe in New Testament and is it a must?
IS TITHE NOT ABOLISHED IN NEW TESTAMENT?
As tithe has become a popular topic, as many Christians are finding it hard to faithfully pay tithe, and as many churches and pastors are abusing and misusing tithes, many are asking, that in the first instance, do we as Christians in the new covenant of Jesus Christ, still need to obey the Old Testament law of tithe?
I’m not going to give my own answer here, but we must get the answer from the Bible, let’s see what Jesus Christ said in Matthew 23:23
““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.”
From this Bible verse, you, by yourself and for yourself here can see three things:
1, To Jesus Christ, paying tithe has weight before God, even in the New Testament, but justice and mercy and faith are weightier, right? So when something has weight before Jesus, that means it’s still applicable for believers today. What it means is that, paying tithe is important but living a life to please God is more important. So if you ignore a weighty matter before God, you are weightless.
2, Jesus said, “These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.” He said they ought to have done justice, mercy and faith without leaving tithe undone at the same time. So who say Jesus did not support paying tithe or it’s Old Testament stuff? It means we must not leave tithe undone even in the New Testament.
3, If you are not a genuine child of God, if you are not living a holy life, you have not business paying tithe. Paying tithe is not a privilege for everybody. If you are not genuinely saved in Christ and your pastor says you will be cursed if you don’t pay tithe, don’t mind that pastor, since you are still living in sins, you are already cursed, you are already living under eternal curse because all sinners or worldly Christians are accursed children. Until you are genuinely saved before you can be free from curse and before you can freely pay tithes.
All the tithes and offerings you pay before you are saved are useless before God. Jeremiah 6:20, Isaiah 1:11-13.
So How?
Since Jesus said tithe is important and has spiritual weight, then it is a must for every genuine child of God to pay tithe, but how do we pay tithe? Tithe is 10% of your income or profit or gain (Please, it is not 10% of a loan or capital for business) in which we must faithful pay.
To Where?
Where do we pay tithe to? There are several places we can pay tithe to as long it will 1, support people of God and meet needs. You can pay your tithe to your church, but it’s not a must to pay to your church especially if your church is misusing tithe. You can give your tithe to support missionaries, ministers of God in need, people of God in need when you don’t have any other means, etc. (But you don’t use tithe to support family members in needs) You have to pray and let God lead you to where or who to profitably pay your tithe to.
There is no place in the Bible that says tithe MUST be paid to the church. Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse” Storehouse is not a church, it is a place where stuffs are distributed to meet the needs of people, so it can be missionaries, the local church in your village, a minister of God who really needs it, or Christian orphanage.
And Who?
Who are the people to pay tithe? They are children of Abraham, the co-heirs. If you are not yet saved, ignore every call to pay tithe, until you are saved, your tithe is useless to God. But as children of God, it is a must to pay tithe, for God’s blessing on earth and in eternity.
Tithe is not a means of getting automatic blessings of God upon your business or life as prosperity preachers over-emphasized, there are many unbelievers who don’t pay tithes and God bless their businesses and they even live long, but no heaven; so tithe is simply a mark of obedience and trusting God for your finance.
God bless you
RTEM: rtemoutreach.org