Is Tithing required in the New Covenant?

Oh Bob thank you so much for that our next passage is passages out of the Old Testament it's a familiar one to many it's Malachi 3:10 and we coupled this with Matthew 5:48 because the two really dovetail yes and Richard you're gonna walk us through this particular passage and I know you're pretty spirited when it comes to this passage is teaching the confusion that it causes them so many people's lives yeah well let me read the passage you could probably quote it along with me bring the full tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and thereby put me to the test says the Lord of Hosts if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need to tithe or not to tithe that's the question this single verse is the linchpin of all arguments in favor of a required tithe and the way we use this verse typically is nothing more than extortion that has gotten millions and millions of dollars from church members over the years why do I say extortion because we use it in fear if you don't give your tithe God is gonna get you that can't be right so what is Malachi actually saying if you read Malachi you discover the answer it's only four chapters I can give you a very quick outline here of what he's talking about in chapter one he the people are complaining that God doesn't love them God responds by recounting how Jacob was chosen over Esau even though he saw was older in chapter one the priests imagined this are offering blind and lame animals as sacrifices God tells them to offer pure sacrifices remember these are pictures of Jesus after all and and to stop profaning his name in Chapter two the priests have corrupted the covenant of Levi or the Mosaic Covenant which has caused people to stumble therefore the priests are going to be cursed chapter two again men have sinned against their wives by breaking the marriage covenant and marrying pagan women without repentance these men will be cut off that is removed forever from the covenant people chapter two you have we read the with your words because you say everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delights in them chapter three the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple if you read verses 1 & 2 this is one of the great Messianic prophecies in all of the Old Testament and in Malachi 3 like the priests the people have turned away from God the priests showed this by they're tainted sacrifices and corrupting the Covenant the people showed it by refusing to pay tithe the end of Malachi 3 the people have said it is vain to serve God what is the profit of our keeping his charge then they say but God says to them at the end of 3 there are those who truly follow me and I will remember them chapter 4 starts with the great day of the Lord being on its way and then Malachi closes this out with one of his strongest statements therefore remember the law of my servant Moses that is a completely reasonable statement for Malachi to say to those people under the Mosaic Covenant so Malachi is calling the people priests and regular folks back to God via the that covenant to pretend that the only useful part of Malachi is about tithe willfully ignores that message clearly tithes was part of the Mosaic Covenant it was a tax on the people used to support the tribe of Levi widows orphans and homeless aliens passing through the country clearly we are no longer under the Mosaic Covenant just one passage out of dozens and dozens for he himself is our peace who has made the 2:1 and has destroyed the barrier the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law with its Commandments and regulations we are no longer under that covenant tithing actually was not part of the church after Jesus until a couple of counsels church councils in 567 and 585 here's a quote from the Catholic Encyclopedia as the church expanded and various institutions arose it became necessary to make laws which would ensure the proper and permanent support of the clergy did you catch that as the church expanded and various institutions arose so we're talking about building bigger buildings more buildings more churches more power etc etc and and you know we'll voluntary giving was not gonna cut it so they've started casting about looking for laws and they said we can use tithing I mean literally we can use tithing because it's in the Bible and we can use it to cajole these people into giving in fact it was so serious that later laws made it anathema not to pay tithe they could they could throw you out of the church and in effect throw you into hell if you didn't pay tithe there's a winning argument there for what you should be doing is giving as Paul describes in 2nd Corinthians 8 and 9 planned without compulsion joyfully based on what you have etc if interested we've got a booklet giving the New Covenant way it's on our online store and explains all this clearly it is a voluntary thing it is a grace given to us in the Holy Spirit by Jesus Christ himself so you've noticed that we're not afraid to ask for your support I mean we've been doing it all this month and why we're doing this is because we teach the singular beauty of Jesus Christ and want to bring that to the world but please understand we have never asked anyone to pay tithes in over 35 years of ministry and we never will ask for it the basic gospel simply is too important to denigrate with fear-based appeals to laws gathered from here there and everywhere walk by grace through faith and let the spirit lead you in your giving yeah that's yeah that's excellent Richard and I want to just piggyback because the next verse is Matthew 23:23 through 24 and so you somebody may hear your argument about Malachi and then they'll ask the question well doesn't Jesus teach tithing and they'll use this particular verse and it says woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law justice and mercy in faithfulness these you ought to have done without neglecting than others you blind guys guides straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel so somebody's gonna say well right there Jesus Alicia sigh well again context what its context is Jesus telling us that we need the tithe well no he was saying that you know those who were still living under the Mosaic Covenant they needed to continue to carry out the requirement of the Mosaic Covenant but they needed to do so not that just the external matters but the weightier matters justice and faithfulness and the likes and he's also talking about this in terms of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees they were they were tithing even down to the mint and dill and cumin yeah but they were neglecting real people they were neglecting real relationships they were neglecting Jerk justice and mercy and faithfulness that was not a part of their daily living and Jesus was jumping all over them so we can't use this passage as a passage to teach tithing that's not what Jesus was saying that's not his message there he was trying to show as we we talked about earlier in the program the matters of the heart you've missed the heart of this whole message and he was doing that in a loving way so that they could turn to him and have their hearts made right so as you were saying our you know our responsibility is to be moved by the grace of God it is by grace through faith in Jesus so as the grace of God moves in our hearts we respond and we learn to give God so loved the world that He gave he's alive living in us if he's a giver then guess what he's going to do inside of us he is going to produce that desire to give and so that we can reflect that attitude of his out there in the world and so as we grow in the grace of God we're gonna see ourselves start to excel in the grace of giving as you mentioned in second Corinthians eight and nine so no we're not required to tithe we're not required to give 10% but as we grow in grace we're gonna see this desire to give start to grow within each and every one of us and that's when giving becomes joyful it'll put a smile on your face knowing that your dollars are gonna be used by God to connect somebody to the love of Christ you

Channel: Basic Gospel

Views: 222,686

Rating: 4.6953645 out of 5

Keywords: Tithing, tithe, Jesus Christ, Christian Living, Faith, Hope, Love

Id: e_xG4Qex8hA

Length: 9min 37sec (577 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 05 2017