TITHE: GIVING IS A CONVICTION NOT COMPULSORY (Part II)

In case you missed part 1, go read it now.

Now let’s ask ourselves another question her:

Why is it called the Tithe?

The answer is simple because it is a ‘Tenth’. Tithe means a Tenth, it is a percentage. In other words what we logically face. two things:

1. An ACT and
2. Its PERCENTAGE.

The ‘act’ is Giving and the percentage is a ‘Tenth’. So tithe is when you give a tenth of your increase (income/profit). Essentially then, the principal act of tithe is giving. The percentage is relative but the principal is a standard. We, therefore, do a disservice to the tithe debate when we focus on the percentage at the expense of the principal. In a community where people are faithful in giving their tithe, the 10% is never the same and equal in amount, the only equalizer and what matters is the GIVING.

God, therefore, is not interested in the compulsory 10% as he is interested in our honest conviction to give. Again we waste our time fighting the percentage attached to giving for, in my experience, I know that there is no giving free of percentages. If you give all like God did, it is 100% still. We might contest the 10% but still, we will replace it with our own percentage in whatever we give.

Because the Tithe literary means a tenth, the Old Testament has three types of tithes and wherever you see tithing in the Bible it is one of these three in perspective:

• The Levitical, or sacred tithe (Numbers. 18: 21, 24).
• The Tithe of the feasts (Deuteronomy. 14:22-27).
• The Tithe for the poor (Deuteronomy. 14:28, 29).

The first tithe and commonly known tithe is the Levitical tithe. It is the sacred tithe, given to the Levites and priests for their service to the temple and the congregation in the Old Testament. This is the tithe I recommend to be given under a setting of permanent churches with pastors and church workers.

This tithe belongs to church pastors, deacons, singers and other ministers whose business is ‘exclusively’ church business. Whether a pastor has a job or not, pastors must know that pastoral ministry is a fulltime business. Nothing should interfere and that is how it differs from apostleship of people like Paul in the New Testament. So whether you give 10%, less or more, you must have a conviction to consistently give and support your ministers.

The second tithe had an entirely different aspect, and we would do well to contemplate its meaning and purposes. A casual study of this second tithe demonstrates that Israel utilised the tithe for other purposes like what we would call today; a saving scheme. Israelites had to save a 10% (Tithe) this time not for Levites and priests, but for themselves in the festival seasons.

By setting aside the second tithe, the one described in Deuteronomy 14:22-27 was a tithe for the feasts. Thus the second tithe was dedicated to the good of man himself, for a vacation and specifically, a vacation with a religious purpose. This was the tithe they depended on as long as they participated in those religious holidays away from their homes. Consider the funds you are saving for your trip and vacation to be this tithe talked about here. Am sure you need no motivation here since it is about you.

The third tithe was the tithe for the poor. According to our text in Deuteronomy 14:28, 29, this tithe was given only every third year. As the text states, the produce had to be laid up in “your towns” for the Levite, sojourner, fatherless, and the widow. The distribution was not left to the individual but was a community project to which everybody had to contribute.

This tithe was not merely charity or a philanthropic act but community members had a conviction that the poor and needy amidst them were their responsibility. Imagine a community that has this obligation every after three years, what would be the levels of poverty in the world if we all had this persuasion? I hope you see how the idea of tithing goes beyond spirituality to our sociology!!

Finally, we expose our poor Bible Study abilities when we argue against this kind of giving by emphasizing that it belonged to the Old Covenant. Without even going into too much unnecessary debate, of the over 32 differences between the Old and New Covenant illustrated in scripture, there are essentially in two aspects:

• Old Covenant is a Symbol/Shadow while the New Covenant is a Reality.
• Old Covenant is a Promise while the New Covenant is a Fulfilment

As you can see, there was nothing symbolic or promissory about giving since the Old Testament times to to-date. Nothing either was fulfilled about giving since people were not giving for their salvation and whoever gave for securing a favour with God was wrong as I pointed out earlier. To insist that the New Testament does not teach tithing is to imply that:

1. The Old Testament is saying a different thing from what the New Testament is saying.
2. To conclude that tithing is wrong since Tithe is not mentioned by the apostles and Jesus elusively talks about it twice in the New Testament (Mathew 23:33, Luke 11:42) is to focus on the percentage at the expense of the principal. And this would be selective Bible study.

As I began by saying that the issue of the tithe is contentious, it is not a theologically contentious issue as it is a self-concern. Matters of who gives what and who gets what are never resolved easily. However, the truth of the matter here is; Giving is a matter of the heart. People who are in a proper relationship with God, themselves, their pastors and their property have no problem at all to consistently give in whatever percentages.

The Bible says:

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mathew 6:21).

Giving is both formal and informal, let us not be tempted to restrict it to any. Giving is not because of what you have, it is a fruit of who you are. Jesus in Mark 12:41-44 witnessed a poor widow out-give all the wealthy givers of the day. Tithe-giving is a conviction, not compulsory, don’t do it until you know and feel so. It is who you are not how much you give (Malachi 3:5, Mathew 23:33).

God bless you I invoke TRUTH, REASON and FAITH (2Tim 2:7)

Pr. T.I.M WHITE

The Gospel Hawker

iTiS Well of Worship Ministries (John 4:24)