Driving in my car listening, as I often do, to a Christian radio station, I heard an interesting premise. The Bible preacher or teacher, or what ever they call themselves, was talking about tithing. They were trying to explain the requirement to pay ten percent of earnings to the business of church. I use “business of church” because they implied that gifts given to homeless shelters, orphanages, widow’s funds or other charities did not count (love offerings of any kind were not included in the person’s idea of tithes). All that counted was what went to your home church. That is not the premise I found interesting, but one needing addressed. The main assumption of the speaker was that the law of tithing outdated Levitical laws and as such was still in effect.
The first thing that popped in my head was the fact that the speaker considered Sunday to be the Sabbath. Why would I think about that? Their premise was anything that predated Levitical law was still law. The practical example they gave was that Abraham gave Melchizdek a tithe of the spoils of the battle he fought to free Lot. The main assumption was because Abraham gave Melchizdek a tithe, before the Levitical law was written, that tithing was still in effect. Now lets look at the Sabbath. On the seventh day of creation God rested and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it (set it apart from the other six). It sounds to me like that might of predated Levitical law a little. If the radio speaker really believed the premise, why did he not also see a need to enforce the Sabbath? So, the preacher / teacher is not true to their premise.
Then there is the premise that tithes are paid to your home church. Melchizdek was not Abraham’s home church. I’ll stop with that one. Back to the pre Levitical law theory. Abraham also preformed animal sacrifices prior to the law. Is that also a requirement that came into the new covenant? No. The premise is turning out to be very narrow in its application. We can at this juncture make an assumption of our own. Acts performed by patriarchs prior to Levitical law are not laws today. Enough said. With that done we have to focus on the specific law the speaker was talking about. Abraham gave to Melchizdek a tenth of the spoils of battle. If we continue to read in Genesis we find that Abraham took nothing for himself except what the young men ate and portions for them. What Abraham gave to Melchizdek was not of the increase of the fields or income of any kind.
There is a point to be made. The radio speaker was talking without thinking the premise to its final destination. In the business of church income is important and the speaker was going to ask for an offering and did not want to offend the local church businesses, or cut into their profits. To try to appease the locals, he tried to bring tithing into the new covenant. Sometimes it seems that preachers want us to trust in the Lord for our needs and they want to trust in our earnings for theirs. Please do give as the spirit puts it in your heart and not based on how much guilt the preacher can lay on to you. Do not count to see if you have met the minimum requirement of daily giving. Do not give to meet your requirement, but to meet another’s need. Give of your time and labors as well as income. Give to the widows and orphans and homeless. Jesus did not say, “When you did it to the preacher.” He did say, “When you did it to the least of these.”
There is a sub premise to the one stated by the radio speaker that deserves mention. A very stressed young woman once told me that tithing to a local church shows your acceptance of authority. The premise in that statement implies that the law of tithing is in effect without actually saying it. It would be more fitting to say to give to the business of church instead of just saying church. Then we would say that those that perform the business of church are an authority that we need to accept. The young woman mentioned above has children that she cares for without the children’s father. She works as many hours as she can and is often made sick by lack of rest. It would appear that she is one that should be receiving gifts and not being taught guilt to exact was she does not have. Of the irresponsible shepherd it was written that they feed themselves and do not heal the sheep. It is also written that the Lord will care for the sheep and the shepherds would feed themselves no more. Yes, we are to have faith in the Lord and not what we see. Why does that apply to the people that make up the church but not to the business of church? The authority is Jesus Christ and he said, “to the least of these.” Why do we keep insisting on giving to the one that would take the authority instead of listening to the One that has the authority? God has given to us a shepherd, Jesus Christ. Jesus is our shepherd and our High Priest.