“Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God
with sincerity, like men sent from God.” 2 Cor. 2:17 (NIV)
In the previous teachings we clearly pointed out how the concept of a reverend/pastor earning a salary is not a New Testament principle. In fact, the Word explicitly warns against it. With the non-Biblical practice of salaries and full-time ministers now having been dealt with, it is important to briefly speak about the financial responsibilities of believers.
Centuries of manipulation and emotional pressure by learnered church leaders, urging their congregations to not “rob God” (á la Mal. 3:8), has brought about an allergic reaction when money and church is mentioned in the same sentence. Not that this blood money even really goes to God – He doesn’t need it. “‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts.” (Hag. 2:8). “All the tithes” that need to be brought “into the storehouse”, is interpreted in contemporary terms as money that should go to the spiritual leaders of a congregation. We are so conditioned by guilt that we believe that God can only bless us if we give our (full) tithe. Often people will then also ask a pastor – is this before or after tax has been deducted? (To which the pastor will glibly answer – “It depends on whether you want God’s gross or net blessing.” I kid you not.)
Where does this tithe go? Perhaps a part goes toward the evangelisation of the unsaved world; perhaps a little for the orphans; a little less for the widows; maybe a few cents for those in the church that are poor (but not a lot – one should teach a man how to fish …). Statistics show that the average church spends only 2.6% of its income on people who are in need, on evangelism and church planting. Most of the money the believers tithe (97.4%) instead gets used for the salaries of the full-time staff and the church building’s running costs, both alas supported by non-Biblical myths.
Even a new thinker on the church, like for instance Donald Miller, writes an entire chapter in his book Blue Like Jazz about how he felt guilty about not tithing, and how he was confronted by his conscience and a nonchalant tither – of course based on Mal 3:8-11, and how he started doing it, and how his life was completely transformed. Too blessed to be stressed! The book is written in a hip, contemporary vernacular, but the deception it is based on is very old.
The tithe the church enforces is an Old Testament principle, misunderstood in contemporary terms, founded on false motives.
In his book Beyond Tithing Stuart Murray points out how this principle found its way into Christian tradition, through European farmers hiring land from the aristocratic land owners, paying them with a tenth of their harvest. As church and state became increasingly integrated, the ten percent hire shifted from the secular land barons to the clergy. “And the tithe became the ecclesiastical tax.” (Viola & Barna: Pagan Christianity). Over time church leaders started justifying it by likening it to the Old Testament system of tithes. It did however have no foundation within a New Testament context, although it is strictly presented as such. The researcher Alan Kreider, in his book Worship and Evangelism in Pre-Christendom, points out that the origin of this consciousness is found around the synod of Tours in 576 AC, gained stronger emphasis at the synod of Macon in 585 AC, where believers were even threatened with excommunication if they did not pay their tithes.
It is then also important to note that the only “synod” of which the Bible speaks, if we can in any way even refer to it as such, and of which we read in Acts 15, does in no way focus on this Old Testament law, and does NOT present it as a New Testament principle. Four other laws or guidelines (verse 29) are to be kept for the sake of the Jews, but tithing is definitely not one of them. In fact, Peter makes a statement which in the spirit of today’s conversation can still be considered the most valid guideline, also concerning tithing: “Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (verse 10).
God’s nature is love (1 John 4:16), and love always involves a choice. God also does not exact choice by force or punishment (or by blessing, for that matter), but requires choice born from a joyful heart. Therefore 2 Cor. 9:7 is one of the most important guidelines when it comes to God’s perspective on finances: “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” This Scripture makes it absolutely clear that the New Testament does NOT work with the tithe as a set law.
The context that precedes this Scripture is very insightful (my emphasis): Now concerning the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you … Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time, and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation. But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor. 9:1; 5-7).
It couldn’t be stated simpler! God works with your cheerful sense of choice, as the CEV beautifully outlines: “Then you will have the chance to give because you want to, and not because you feel forced to.”
Along with this we find that there is no set guideline for a fixed percentage of your earnings required. Acts 11:29 spells it out: “Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea.”
In 2 Cor. 8:1-5 (Message) Paul tells of another group of home churches that fully understood and lived this principle: “Now, friends, I want to report on the surprising and generous ways in which God is working in the churches in Macedonia province. Fierce troubles came down on the people of those churches, pushing them to the very limit. The trial exposed their true colors: They were incredibly happy, though desperately poor. The pressure triggered something totally unexpected: an outpouring of pure and generous gifts. I was there and saw it for myself. They gave offerings of whatever they could–far more than they could afford!– pleading for the privilege of helping out in the relief of poor Christians. This was totally spontaneous, entirely their own idea, and caught us completely off guard. What explains it was that they had first given themselves unreservedly to God and to us. The other giving simply flowed out of the purposes of God working in their lives.”
Therefore then this very clear general guideline that Paul suggests: “Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have. Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don’t have.” (2 Cor. 8:11-12, NLT).
The bounty of Scriptural evidence above makes it undeniably clear that we do however need to provide for two specific groups – firstly to the saints, the orphans and widows, and the stranger in your gates (selah specifically about this), and then also for those who “minister to the saints” (Rom. 15:25).
Giving money and means to those in need (Gal. 2:10) is also regulated by certain Scriptural principles, but is not immediately relevant now. But for the sake of the unfolding argument, I would like to present one of these principles, from 2 Thess. 3:10: “For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” Paul uses the same metaphor in 1 Cor. 9:13, when he speaks of those who are called to pour out their lives for the spreading of the gospel: “Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar?” In Heb. 6:10 it is made clear why this is the case: “For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.”
If we then do not need to pay salaries to ministers of the Word, do ordinary believers have a particular financial responsibility toward them? We presented 1 Cor. 9:13 as a New Testament measure earlier in the discussion, but now read verse 14 along with it: “Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.”
1 Tim. 5:18 offers an unambiguous guideline: “For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer is worthy of his wages.’” A generation of readers that are not familiar with the agricultural metaphor used here, will perhaps appreciate the contextual explanation of the first part of this verse: “”When an ox is working in the grain, do not cover its mouth to keep it from eating,” and “A worker should be given his pay.” (NCV).
The task is thus explicit – no full-time salaries or compensation for those who are called and seen as faithful to minister the Word (1 Tim 1:12), but Rom 12:13 makes it clear: “distributing to the needs of the saints … ”. This argument is presented in full in 1 Cor. 9:7-11: “Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock? Do I say these things as a mere man? Or does not the law say the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.’ Is it oxen God is concerned about? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?”
In short: 1 Cor. 9:14 (NLT): “In the same way, the Lord ordered that those who preach the Good News should be supported by those who benefit from it.”
In the next teaching we will grant a detailed look at the Old Testament tithe, the role the Levites played in the receiving thereof, and what the implications were for the priesthood of “this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all” (Heb. 7:1-2).
- Selah: How open is your heart and hand towards those who minister the Word of God?
- Read: 89, 96, 100, 101, 105, 132, 2 Sam. 7, 1 Chr. 17; Ps. 25, 29, 33, 36 & 39.
- Memorise: 100.
