God’s Word reflects His triune nature as God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, as it describes His creation,
doctrinal truths, and practical wisdom to apply to our lives.
He asks us to worship Him with prayer,
service, and giving of our time, talent and treasure and has specified how we should give back to Him a portion
of the material blessings He has entrusted to us.
Worshipping God with our financial store (James 1:27) includes tithes, offerings, and designated
support to further His kingdom. God shows no partiality and is no respecter
of persons (Acts 10:34), and He
treats everyone fairly by commanding that we give the first tenth of our
income, or tithe, back to Him. The dollar amount does not matter to Him as long
as we faithfully give ten percent.
By giving Him the first tenth, and not waiting to see if we
can scrape out that amount once we pay our bills and other obligations, we are
showing our faith in His bountiful provision,
blessing and faithfulness. The tithe was not only part of the law given to Moses (Leviticus
27:30-32), but it preceded the
law (Genesis 14:20) and is
repeated after Christian liberty replaced
the law (Hebrews 7:5-11), including
the need to “pay” God first (1 Corinthians
16:2).
God takes the tithe so seriously that when Israel failed to
give Him their obedience, tithes and offerings, He accused them of robbing
Him, resulting in their being cursed
and in God’s judgment on them. Yet
He offered a three-step solution: bring
Him the tithes; put Him to the test
to see if He would keep His promise of blessing; and trust Him to do so beyond expectation (Malachi 3: 2-10).
His promised blessing for obedience with tithing is also threefold:
He will pour out a blessing so great
that we will not have room to receive it (v.
10); He will prevent future
financial loss (v. 11); and He
will grant us honor among others (v. 12). If we withhold the tithe, we
will not lose our salvation (Romans 8:35-39),
but how foolish to disobey God in tithing and to miss out on these great
blessings!
We give our love offerings over and above the tithe, again
as a form of worship, to express our gratitude for His many blessings. These
might commemorate a joyous occasion such as a marriage, birth or baptism. Our church has a special love
offering at Christmas, known as our birthday present to Jesus, to thank Him for
coming to earth in human form (John 1:14), dying on the cross to pay our sin debt, and rising again so that all who trust Him have eternal life (1 Corinthians 15:1-4; John 3:16).
From the early days of the church, Christians have also
provided designated support to contribute
to God’s work, to empower that work
to continue, and to share in the
blessing of being responsible for that work (Philippians 4:14-17). Designated support may be a one-time gift, such as to a specific church project; a regular,
ongoing gift to the church, as in Faith Promise giving that many churches
have to support missionaries, or a regular, ongoing gift to a specific
missionary or parachurch organization.
For giving to be a form of worship, it should be done cheerfully (2 Corinthians 9:7), sacrificially,
and faithfully (Job 1:5). Jesus praised the poor widow who put her meager
two mites into the offering and valued her gift far more than the contributions
of the wealthy, for it was all she had (Mark
12:41-44)
God does not want us to grudgingly dole out our pennies out
of a sense of duty, but to give abundantly, knowing that He will be pleased by our faith (Hebrews 11:6), honor our giving and empower us to continue giving. Jesus
honored and commemorated the woman who broke open the costly alabaster box and
poured its precious perfumed ointment lavishly on Him (Mark 14:3-9).
The law of the harvest applies to giving just as it does to planting
crops (Ecclesiastes 11:6)
or sowing the seed of God’s Word (Matthew 13:1-10) – if we sow
sparingly, we will reap sparingly, and if we sow bountifully, we will reap
bountifully (2 Corinthians 9:6).
When we give generously, we receive abundant blessings, including peace that comes from obeying God (Philippians 4:6-7), joy in helping others (Esther 9:22), and honor that He uses us as a part of His
plan (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Jesus used the analogy of receiving a measure of grain –
not only the amount we expected, but much more, because it is pressed down in the measuring cup to
make room for more, shaken together
to accommodate still more, and even running
over beyond the bounds of the cup (Luke
6:38),
We tend to hold out on giving when we forget that
everything belongs to God (Psalm 50:10).
He has entrusted us with certain resources, but if we use them selfishly
instead of to honor Him, He will reapportion these resources to others who are
better stewards (1 Corinthians 4:2).
In the parable of the talents,
the Master gave different sums to each of His three servants, and rewarded or
punished them based on how well they did for Him with what they had Matthew
25:14-30). As our first pastor used to say, “God will give much more through
you than He will to you.”
You can’t outgive God, as He has shown so many times in my
life, and I am sure in the lives of many of this blog’s readers. During a missions
conference several years ago, the Holy Spirit impressed upon me that I should
donate a certain sum to the work of a particular missionary. I struggled with
obedience to His will, as it was tax time and we also faced many other pressing
financial obligations.
Yet when I obeyed and wrote a check to that missionary,
three days later I received a totally unexpected check in the mail, for ten
times the amount of the
gift I had given, representing payment of a bad debt I had written off many years
before! Even better, the following months brought news of how my gift had
enabled the missionary to produce much fruit, reaching souls and starting
churches.
When we commit to
honor God with our tithes, offerings, and designated support, He will empower us to do so. The associate
pastor at our former church gave a testimony of how shortly after he was saved,
he had committed to give $20 weekly for Faith Promise missions, which was a
sacrificial gift for him at the time due to his financial situation.
One Wednesday evening, which was when he always put his $20
Faith Promise offering in the plate, he simply did not have it in his wallet,
bank account, or spare change, and was almost ashamed to go to church that
night. Yet he decided to go empty-handed, and as he was about to get into his
car he was shocked to spot a $20 bill lying on the pavement! Needless to say,
God enabled him to keep his promise.
God may not always
reward us financially for our
giving, but He has promised to provide
for His children (Psalm 37:25; Matthew 6:25-33), and He blesses
us spiritually exceedingly
abundantly beyond what we could ask or think (Ephesians 3:20),
giving us showers of blessings (Ezekiel 34:26).
Whether or not we
see the fruit of our giving in this lifetime, we know He will reward us in
glory for gifts given with the right motive (1 Corinthians 3:11-15).
May we give cheerfully, abundantly, and faithfully and experience showers of blessings!
© 2015 Laurie Collett
8 comments:
A great weekend to you!
Thank you, you too! God bless.
be blessed.
Dear Laurie,
I have always found tithing to be a controversial subject. In my old church, the subject of tithing was ranked so high in the Christian faith that I wondered whether we were still under the Mosaic Law. I have watched advocates of tithing swanning around the world, under the excuse of "receiving advice or encouragement from world known leaders" - something they would have found in the local Christian bookshop, and more recently, over the Internet. I have seen ministers taking vacations abroad on our expense of tithing.
Somehow it does not add up...
And so I became disillusioned with the practice, especially when going through a difficult financial patch ourselves. I wanted to find out what God says about it.
After some research, I have come to the conclusion that whoever wants to give, let him give with his whole heart. In the New Testament, particularly Acts 2:44-45 and Acts 4:32-36, believers sold their land and laid the money at the apostle's feet. It was entirely voluntary, and the purpose of all this was to ensure that the need of every believer was met, and not to swan across the globe or go on expensive vacations,or even to build a huge meeting hall with their name on it.
Nowadays, I have a preference to give to a Christian charity specified in bringing needy Third World people and children to the knowledge of the Lord, together with all their physical needs being met. Sponsoring a child is one good example, especially when letters come back saying that he is keen to know the Lord, using my generosity as an example.
My final thoughts on the subject of giving is this:
If someone wishes to tithe, let him do so with gladness of heart, but he who tithes must not consider himself spiritually above anyone who does not tithe. Likewise the one who wants to give a much higher fraction of his income, or even all of it, let him do so, but likewise he must not look down on anyone who prefers to tithe.
Like this, whoever wishes to honour the Lord can do so, according to what he has, without fear of judgement or reprimand.
A well written post. God bless.
Hi Laurie,
lovely the story of the pastor and the $20 note, I have heard many stories like this one.
I believe we know what the Lord is telling us to do regarding offerings day by day. I give as I feel led to in the church gathering, and often when I am out in the street I have felt led to give to certain people in the street. I have always believed that what it costs me to print out my leaflets for evangelizing each week is part of my giving, and I have to say that the Lord has always supplied our every need.
Money is not the greatest thing in life, and I believe that if we do what we feel the Lord is instructing us to do with what we have then we do not have to worry about the things we need in life. Every thing belongs to God.
Thank you for bringing up this subject, it is good to hear different people's views and experiences concerning this.
God bless you Laurie.
You too, Denise!
Dear Frank,
Thank you as always for sharing your insights and experience. I personally believe that God's Word calls for tithing even in the Church Age. But as always, faith, motive, and stewardship are key. I do not believe tithing done grudgingly or out of a sense of obligation is pleasing to God.
I also agree that our hard-earned tithes should be spent wisely by church leadership. Shortly after my husband and I were saved, we did not feel that the church we were attending was using its funds to spread God's Word, so until we found a new church home, we gave the funds we would have been tithing to other Christian charities. Many Christians such as yourself (and we also) contribute to worthwhile evangelistic causes outside of tithing.
I totally agree that we are not to pat ourselves (or others) on the back for tithing and giving; to judge those who don't; or to worry about losing our salvation if we don't, for our salvation is secure once we are truly saved.
Thanks again for sharing your views on this topic. God bless,
Laurie
Hi Brenda! So glad you enjoyed the story and the post. I agree that we should follow the Lord's leading in giving, and that gifts of our time, talent and other resources are equally, if not more, important, than money.
God bless you too!
Laurie
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