Blessings,

Charles W. Frank(Chuck) lightofthenation.us

I’ll be looking forward to your comments. I do not wish to go unchallenged. It is healthy for us to encourage each other to examine our beliefs and throw off whatever may be unbiblical.

May the Lord keep you as well.

I would like to shake your hands. Your civility in this discussion has been very refreshing. I look forward to visiting your site, praying for you, and sending you my observations and comments. Finally, we will meet in heaven and rejoice together, having served our calling with clear consciences.

May the Lord keep you.

Regards, Seth

1. I agree that our common ground is that teaching tithing under the letter of the Law is spiritually unhealthy. In your entire comment we could replace “tithe/tithing” with “give/giving” in nearly every instance and your points would still hold. My reason for moving away from tithing language is not to dismiss it as an example but to get away from using it as our basis for living. As the apostle Paul said, the Law was our tutor to guide us to Christ. Now that we have Christ – the Master Teacher – why would we cling to the tutelage of the Law?

2. If we have not been freed from the curse of the Law, then why did Christ die for us? If not to free us from the curse of the Law, Christ died in vain!

3. You are mistaken regarding the poor and the tithes. (I say this humbly.) There were three tithes – the Levitical tithe (which you reference), the Feast tithe, and the Poor tithe. Of the Levitical tithe, only 10% went to the priests – that is, 10% of the 10% meaning 1% of Israel’s agricultural increase went to the priests and the remaining 9% went to the Levites. The Israelites were to include the poor in their feasts, so that tithe went to benefit them as well. Finally, the Poor tithe was every three years and went specifically to care for the poor.

4. Finally, my writing about tithing and giving is in no way meant to excuse Christians from giving at all. If anything, I have written that we should be giving more! My concern is that we teach tithing on the basis of the Law far too often – telling people to “be good”, give their tithe, and God will bless them (materially). But the message of the Gospel is that we cannot be good, we have nothing to offer God, and that spiritual riches are to be desired above all else. In teaching generous giving, my goal is that we would have the mind of Christ in us. He gave all for us and taught us to do the same – even for our enemies. That motivates me to give far more generously than “tithing” any day.

Brother, I appreciate our discussions but again I think we mostly agree on things. I just have an aversion to teaching about giving by using the word “tithe” simply because of the misconceptions so many Christians have about it. If you read what I have written on this subject, I think you will see that my heart is for Christians to be extremely generous and compassionate – not stingy and greedy. To me, that is the spirit of tithing and it is what Jesus taught us about giving. May God keep you as well.

2. Tithing merely took on a legalistic character under the law. And even then, where was the enforcement similar to those of the injunctions against adultery, murder etc. ? This was left to God’s direct judgment.

3. The motivations of blessings and curses prevail even in the New covenant. Blessings for generous giving so that you can enjoy giving is promised. Curses for stinginess (akin to being dishonest about giving to God according to how much He has blessed you, not only in monetary or wealth terms) is a New Covenant principle as espoused Jesus’ parable about the unaccountable servants, and the one who hid his talent (He who does not have, even the little he has…). Jesus is even more specific about monetary wealth in Luke 16:10-12.

4. We have not been freed from the curse of the law, for we (gentiles) were never under the law. Is throwing in tithing specifications under the law (23 1/3%, etc.) helping this discussion? Because I have admitted that tithing as we are discussing is not a law matter at all. It is even part of Abraham’s faith practice that is commendable.

5. Before the law tithing was not about the poor. It was about priesthood. You partially admit that in the title of your article. Those who teach not to tithe because it is not friendly to the poor therefore miss the point, I think. As I have stated, Hebrews teaches that the priesthood (whose mere shadow showed through the law).

6. The effort to tithe itself is a blessing. It requires a discipline that eventually releases a person from the tag of poverty. To tithe accurately, one ought to
(a) Acknowledge that God is the source of all that he has, and his tithe is but a token of such acknowledgement (You will notice that the first time we see Abraham tithing he did not even make use of any of those things he tithed from)
(b) Admit to having, rather than not having anything (again the hidden talent)
(c) Be accountable, and therefore practice the principles of good accounting that eliminate wastage (Jesus demonstrates this after feeding the multitudes). You may say one does not have to tithe to be good in basic accounting, but you realize that in tithing God motivates and schools us in the same, and makes us less dependent on financial coaches (at least to some extent, my apologies).
(d) Give (for the expansion of the Kingdom of God and to the poor)
(e) Be consistent and reliable in giving-receiving-accounting-having-giving (Peace of mind from want). Any poor person who begins to tithe conscientiously develops a mindset that take him out of poverty (and you know that). Plus God blesses His increase. The promise of blessing for giving is not limited to the law (I beg to repeat). Seed time-harvest time; What a man sows…, etc.

7. Jesus did not make it His priority to teach tithing because wealth is not principal. Eternal Life is. Life on this side without wealth however is quite limiting. He gave enough hints that the principle is endorsed.

8. I do not think it is right to assume that the law was not about the love of God. Perversion is perversion. Jesus repeated and so did Paul, that the law is good. The perversion of the law is what we should stand against. Law only tends to legalism when the spirit is quenched. Let us teach the spirit of the law, of the tithe. I am interested in how you begin to do that if you will not let the tithe be mentioned.

9. Finally, I sense your warm fellowship and love for God in this enterprise. I think our common ground is this: If any teaches the letter of tithing he does injustice. If he teaches the spirit of tithing he does well. I am sure we should leave it at that, unless you insist that the priesthood that necessitate tithing (not legalistic tithing) has changed!

Paul, my brother, having come this far, I think I qualify for some free basic tips on provident planning.

May the Lord keep you, as you teach the have-nots to have.

1. I actually do believe that there is a point where the poor should not give. The Law makes several exceptions for poor who could not afford certain sacrifices. One of the tithes went specifically to the poor. And since the poor were not landowners and likely owned no livestock, the tithes would never have applied to them under the Law. If we are to give to the poor, does it make sense to demand that they give? I am not saying we should stop those who wish to give, but many who teach tithing use it to cause the poor to give far more than they can afford. (Side note: I don’t believe many Christians in America fall into this category of being too poor to give. It would be rare to find someone in America who cannot afford to give something.)

2. First, we should not hold to a doctrine simply because it’s convenient for us. This also applies to #6 in your comment. Second, if we are going to use the Law as a guide in this respect, then the minimum should start at 23 and 1/3% – not 10%.

3. The promise in Malachi is directed specifically at the Israelites who were under the blessings and curses of the entire law. So no, I do not believe it applies to Christians today. The idea of it may – but only in the sense that we are promised immeasurable heavenly riches. Consider how most of Israel’s promised blessings are material but our promised blessings in the New Covenant are primarily spiritual.

4. I do not teach against planned giving. That is a good and wise way to honor the Lord. You do not need tithing to do that.

5. You are right that Hebrews was not written specifically to discourage tithing. It was written to show how Jesus brings us better things through the New Covenant. In that sense, it is showing us how the way of Christ replaces the way of the Law. In the case of tithing we see it replaced by generous, sacrificial, and freewill giving. I was not particularly inspired by Hebrews to write about this. My goal was to look at every verse that mentions tithing in its context in a series on tithing in the Bible. This is simply the last article of that series. Tithing was not singled out for any other reason except that this is a personal finance blog and tithing is likely the most often taught financial principle from the Bible.

6. As I said before, we don’t need to hold on to a doctrine simply because it is convenient. There is enough clear teaching about supporting those in ministry that you don’t need tithing to teach it. The passage where Paul mentions not muzzling the oxen is one, but there are others. We should simply give enough to meet the needs of those whom we have called to full-time offices in the church.

7. There were plenty of chances for Jesus or the apostles to clearly endorse tithing for believers under the New Covenant. Instead, we see teaching about generous, sacrificial giving motivated purely by love (and not a desire for blessings). Jesus spoke mostly about giving aside from tithing. He had to tell the Pharisees that they should tithe because they were still under the Law and the New Covenant was not established yet. Again, in regards to Hebrews read verses 7:5, 7:11-12, 7:18-19, and 8:13. They clearly show that the Law which required collection of a tenth (referring to one of the three tithes) has been set aside and replaced by a better hope.

My main point is that we cannot hold on to one aspect of the Law (in this case tithing, and only very loosely since no one teaches that we should give all the tithes) and hold to Grace at the same time. Would you rather base giving on the Law where it is motivated by blessings and curses, or on Grace where it is motivated by God’s pure love as shown through Jesus Christ?