One of the frequent questions made by many Christians is “Where does it say in the new testament that we must tithe?” Now I understand your emotions and feelings on this line. Many of the modern churches push you to a great extent to part with your hard earned money, and although you have no problem giving of your money to God, you do maybe have a problem with giving it to the church if it is not a direct biblical instruction.
The most used scripture in the bible about tithing is Malachi 3:8-10. This is not the only scripture used about tithing as there are many tithing scriptures, but it is probably the main tithing scripture. The New Testament was an alteration of and addition to the Old Testament and has it’s foundation in the Old Testament.
You are correct in saying that there is no direct commandment in the new testament that we should tithe. However this does not mean that the commandment falls away as it remains a foundation to the New Testament. I will show you two examples from the Old Testament instructions contained in Malachi, that proves that the Old Testament commandments are still in force today, as strong as ever before.
Acts 12:23 “Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didi not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died.” This is the description of the death of Herod, who the people started to call a God. Herod made no effort to stop them and hence was struck. This is in accordance with the Old Testament curse contained in Malachi 2:2 “If you will not hear and take it to heart, To give glory to my name, says the Lord of Hosts, I will send a curse upon you, And I will curse your your blessings, Yes I have cursed them already.” This example clearly shows how an old testament curse came into the new testament and ended the life of Herod.
Acts 5:1-10 relates the story of Ananias and Sapphira who sold possesions to help supply to the needs of the early church. However they secretly decided amongst themselves to withhold some of the money they received. When Ananias came before Peter, he fell over and died. A while later his wife came before Peter and not knowing that her husband had died, she also died. They died because they promised to God and then withheld that which they had promised. Malachi 1:14 “Cursed be the deceiver, Who has in his flock a male, And makes a vow, But sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished.”
I have encountered a similar story to the one above, where a certain man was owed a fairly large sum of money. He approached us and asked us to pray that God would make a way for Him to receive this money back and that if God did this for Him he would give the church a percentage of the money. We prayed and within a week he received his money in full. Of course , needless to say, the church never received the sum that he promised. This man spent the next 2 to 3 months almost as a deranged man, with no peace in his heart. It was 2 to 3 months of total mental turmoil before he ended His own life to escape the turmoil that had suddenly come upon his life.
Now back to the original topic, tithing is not a New Testament commandment, but it’s power stays in force throughout the New Testament and will remain in force until the end of time. The fact that Jesus did not directly command us to continue tithing does not negate our responsibilty to continue to act in obedience to the commandments of the Old Testament.
Continue to tithe and if you have never Tithed before, I urge you to read this teaching on the importance of tithing.
