TITHING IS NOT YOUR PROBLEM ~Precious Victor Akah
Stingy Christians will always debate and fight tithing. Instead of asking God for grace (to give more than 10 percent to aid the spread of the Gospel of Jesus) and to expand their giving capacity, they keep searching the Scripture, reading articles, and listening to different teachings and speeches condemning tithing in the New Testament to possibly find scriptural grounds not to tithe and give at all to the spread of the Gospel. How gross!
Some Christians say we're not supposed to tithe in the New Testament because God expects us to give freely and even give more than 10%. If you're of this opinion, please can you truthfully say that everytime you earn money or you're paid your salary, or you're gifted money, that you give more than 10% of it to God's work? Or can you say that you regularly and consistently give to God's work? Probably not! This is how we let the devil deceive and take advantage of us.
"Go out and preach the Gospel to all nations" the Scripture commands; go and evangelise to sinners and to the poor, but some Christians say: "I CAN'T. I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY." Some others say: "IT IS NOT MY JOB, BUT THAT OF PASTORS, PRIESTS AND MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL, AND EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES."
Alright, since you can't go out and proclaim the Gospel, give to support those who have the boldness to go out and preach; give to those who understand that it is the great commission the Lord gave which must be obeyed, yet some of these Christians still say: "NO! I'LL RATHER GIVE MY 10% TO THE POOR. TITHING IS NOT SCRIPTURAL. THE BIBLE SAYS I SHOULD GIVE TO THE POOR AND NOT TO THE SPREAD OF ANY GOSPEL!"
Hmmm! Okay, how many poor people have you been giving to or are you currently helping with 10% of your earnings or salary, monthly? (No response).
How then are you preaching the Gospel to the poor? Because the Scripture says the Gospel is preached to the poor (see Matthew 11:5). Is it by wearing expensive clothes and flaunting your latest car, wealth and riches before the poor to tell them that you serve a rich and wealthy God?
Preaching the Gospel to the poor in the Scripture above does not just mean giving money to the poor, feeding the poor, clothing the poor, giving job to the poor, sheltering the poor, sponsoring them in school, to express the love of Jesus to them by your actions; it much more means verbally telling them about the love of Jesus, witnessing Christ to them, because the Scripture says, "But how can they call on Jesus to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? (Romans 10:14), so the poor still need to hear the Gospel preached to them verbally to be able to call on Jesus to be saved.
Because what sense does it really make to feed, clothe and beautify someone who is on their way to hell? Does that make any sense to you? You're feeding and clothing them to enjoy for a short while on earth and go to hell to suffer for eternity. Is that really a display of God's kind of love or real hatred in manifestation? Think about it.
Instead of these Christians to tell themselves the truth that they're struggling to be generous, they keep trying to hide their tightfistedness under the cover of wrong teachings on tithing or misinterpreted scriptural verses.
I discovered that three of the major reasons why some Christians fight tithing is: (1) They are tightfisted. (2) They have not truly experienced the love of God leading to genuine salvation in Christ. Because when you have truly experienced the love of God, you would readily give to see that more people get to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and experience the love of God too. (3) They do not trust their pastor or they're not in the right place of worship. If you believe that your pastor or priest is a genuine man of God who has the true message of the Gospel with him, I don't see why it'll be difficult for you to give to partner with his Ministry and join force with him to ensure the true message of the Gospel reaches more people.
I have been wondering, if God commanded His people in the Old Testament to tithe and asked them to give to His work (Exodus 25:2, Exodus 35:29), how can God now ask His people in the New Testament not to give at all to His work and the spread of the Gospel of salvation, but to spend all their earnings on themselves and give to the poor only. How possible can this be? When both giving to the poor and giving to God's work plus tithing was commanded in the Old Testament.
If you believe God now expects you to spend all He gives you on yourself and your family alone, you're really mistaken, because when you spend all on yourself, you're simply being selfish and also demonstrating that you love yourself more than God. And what does the Scripture say about those who love themselves more than God? Jesus Himself said, "Those who come to me cannot be my disciples unless they love me more than they love father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and THEMSELVES as well." GNT
"You cannot be my disciple, unless you love me more than you love your father and mother, your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters. You cannot follow me unless you love me more than you love your OWN LIFE." CEV (Luke 14:26)
I also discovered that majority of the Christians who debate or fight tithing still have money related issues as their number one and major prayer requests. Many of them are beggars on social media and chronic debtors and borrowers. Some are forced to start stealing, cheating, defrauding, lying, doing immoral jobs and practicing illegal businesses just to earn money. If the wrong teachings on tithing you have been listening to and practicing isn't helping your financial life, why not embrace the clear instructions of the Bible to tithe?
They keep telling you that many of the rich people in the world do not tithe yet they're very rich, but the question is, do you belong to the same Kingdom with them? These rich people they're mentioning, are they born again Christians? If they are not, you should know that they're getting rich by following principles and doing things that we do not practice in the Kingdom of God. Many of them are doing unimaginable things in the secret to be rich, famous and influential. There are principles to be rich and wealthy in the Kingdom of God, if you belong to this Kingdom, you can only become wealthy by following these principles of the Kingdom.
If you decide to follow the principles of the world, you may die wretched and poor or live an average life or a life of mediocrity. Focus on the Kingdom you belong to and learn its principles if you want to be great and taste true wealth in this Kingdom. The top only is the portion of the citizens of this great Kingdom (Deuteronomy 28:13 ).
If you're tithing but still borrowing or struggling financially, there could be other reasons as to why that is so, there could be some things you're not doing well or right, and there could be some things you ought to be doing that you're not doing, tithing is not the reason as critics of tithing would want to make you believe. You cannot be tithing and be stealing in your workplace and hope that you would prosper financially.
You cannot be cheating others, you can't be wasteful, you can't be spending unnecessarily, extravagantly and carelessly and hope that tithing will fix all the wrongs and make everything right for you financially, no, tithing does not perform such magic. If you lack financial management or live above your earnings, you can't enjoy financial abundance.
You can't also be tithing irregularly, unfaithfully, uncheerfully (unwillingly) and incorrectly (giving less than 10%) and hope to excel financially.
All these are things people overlook, do not see, or fail to consider, but keep blaming tithing as the reason some tithers are not making progress.
In addition to faithful, cheerful and correct tithing (more than 10% is permitted but less than 10% is not permitted), sow seeds, give sacrificially, give quality offerings, give to Kingdom projects (e.g church building/renting, furnishing a church, purchasing Bibles, sponsoring a church programme, giving to Missionaries), and give to the poor; give to your family and parents, spend wisely, live within your means, have financial integrity, learn financial management, avoid wasteful living and spending, do not steal, do not cheat people, work hard, don't be lazy, have multiple streams of income if possible, be diligent and consistent in what you're doing, don't make money illegally or from an ungodly means, don't give or take bribes, don't do evil or conspire to pull down your colleague to unjustly obtain promotion in your workplace, avoid sexual immorality; live a holy life and shun sin in all its forms, and you'll enjoy financial prosperity.
God bless you.
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