I had just started reading your article on “tithing” and guess what? Having been taught that way, you have accepted it as Gospel and have not studied any further !
Malachi 1 vs 1 states “The burden of the word of the Lord to ISRAEL by Malachi” notice it was not to the Gentile church who incidentally only became part of the Covenant during Acts 10.
PLEASE read Deuteronomy 14 vs 22 to 29 regarding the tithing laws as given to Israel by GOD through Moses. Nowhere and I mean nowhere do the scriptures say anybody has to give 10% of their finances to God. The ‘tithe’ was grain, new wine, oil , firstlings of your herds and flocks. I have heard that ” we are not all farmers today so our salaries have replaced the grain etc” . Do these people not realise that Almighty God would have known that and would have made provision for that? The ONLY purpose of the tithe was to feed the Levites , the stranger, the fatherless and the widows within your gates after YOU have eaten to show that you fear the Lord. GOD DOES NOT NEED YOUR GOODS !
The Levitical priesthood has ended (for now) and so there is no one mandated by God to receive ‘tithes’.
By all means give and give liberally but do it with cheerfulness and don’t call it ‘tithing’ which was an old covenant law. If you accept any ‘law’ now you are not under Grace and you will be judged by the law!
So I guess murder, adultery, theft and all those other parts of the law were only for Israel too? And it’s OK to do those things now as long as we don’t call them by their Old Covenant names?
I grew up in a denominational Church where tithing was never taught. I learned about it as an adult through my own study, and I experienced the blessings that come from it first hand.
I’ve read every reference in the Bible concerning tithing and believe whole heartedly that it’s something God requires of us as a recognition of the source of our blessings, and in return for that recognition He showers down even more blessing, enabling us to give far in excess of the mandatory minimum called the tithe. (Malachi 3:10)
And just how are the clergy, the strangers, the fatherless and the widows supposed to be cared for today? Did God ordain the welfare system for them? We would all be a lot more prosperous if we cared for them in the Biblical way and had never heard of welfare. This is the way Paul suggested for the early church and it worked pretty well.
By the way, being under the Law means you’ve made a conscious decision to be obedient to it’s commandments in order to earn or keep your salvation. You can’t be under the Law just because you use the “wrong” word to describe your giving. God judges us by the motives of our hearts, not by our choice of words.
The tithe was given as an antidote for greed. It promotes an abundance mentality. And if you read Deut. 8: 10-18, Luke 6:38, 2 Cor. 9:7,11 you’ll see that the proper motivation for all giving is gratitude, not fear.