A question many Christians have
is whether we should tithe. And tithing for most people means
giving 10%. We'll return to that question. The first thing I want to say
is good Christians disagree on this. This isn't the clearest
thing in the scriptures. And maybe the second thing I'd
want to say is It's an important question, but it's not the most
important thing. It's the kind of thing that we as Christians
can disagree on and have good fellowship together if we disagree
on that matter. I would say, is a tithe required,
10% tithe? I would say no. because the tithe is part of
the Mosaic covenant. It's part of the Mosaic law.
The covenant made at Sinai with Moses and with Israel. And the
New Testament is very clear. We're not under that covenant
any longer. Galatians 3, Romans 7, Hebrews 9 and 10. So there's a lot of texts that
indicate we're not under the Mosaic law. The tithe, the 10%
that was given, is actually tithe to the tabernacle and the temple,
to the Levitical priesthood. I mean, where did those tithes
go? They went to the temple, they went to the tabernacle,
they went to the priest. Well, we don't have a temple
or a tabernacle anymore. We don't have Levitical priests
or Aaronic priests anymore. Jesus is our great high priest.
The Church of Jesus Christ, we are the temple. So clearly the
tithe, As part of the Mosaic Covenant, since that covenant
has passed away, it's not required of believers. Sometimes people
appeal to Abraham and Jacob giving tithes. They gave 10% on occasions
in their life, Abraham and Melchizedek. Jacob, when God met him at Bethel,
promised to give 10%. But those are one-time, temporary
events. There's no indication that this
was something they regularly did, nor is there any command,
universal command, given to believers from those passages. It gets
even more complex. Jesus commands tithing in Matthew. So, some people look at that
passage and say, look, Jesus commands tithing. But we have
to be careful there. Jesus also commands forgiving
your brother before you offer a sacrifice at the altar in Matthew
chapter 5. Jesus spoke to his contemporaries. Jesus lived himself under the
Mosaic Law because that covenant was in force until after his
ministry, death and resurrection. So Jesus commending tithing when
he's speaking to the Pharisees is no indication that it's still
in force today. We always have to think when
we read a passage in scripture, where is this? in the Bible. So what does the New Testament
emphasize? It emphasizes 2 Corinthians 8
and 9, sacrificial, generous giving. For most of us, that's
10% at least or more. However, I still am hesitant
to give any particular percent. Sacrificial, generous giving. I would say for virtually everyone,
if you're one or two percent, that's not sacrificial, generous
giving, is it? So God calls upon us to give
sacrificially, but we want to heed what the scripture says
and to say to believers in Jesus Christ that we're to give 10%.
Well, I don't think that's in accord with the scriptures. One
other point. Actually, when we read the Old Testament, this
is a very difficult question. They gave more than 10%. There
are several tithes. And sorting that all out, I tried to sort
it out once. I didn't spend oodles of time
on it, but I tried to sort it out. It's really hard to know
how much they gave, but it's probably somewhere in the 20
percentile range. So the tithe, you know, we say
10% today. That's our tradition. But the
tithe, when you add up all the different tithes, the tithe is
somewhere in the 20% range. So if we're really going to tithe
according to the Old Testament, it's not 10%, it's somewhere
around 20%. And as I said, we're not under
that covenant, we're not required to tithe today, but we have the
opportunity The joy of giving sacrificially and generously.
Don't take this answer as an invitation to say, oh, I don't
have to give generously. I can keep my money for myself.
God calls upon each one of us to be generous, sacrificial givers. He tells us that will increase
your joy. Thanks for watching Honest Answers.
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