There has always been an inner reservation that I have had about tithing. As if there was something missing from the teachings, something not fully understood by myself and most everyone who is asking for money at church.
For years I accepted the teaching that we are to give 10% +, so we have given 10%+ of our income to our church and I do believed that God has blessed us for that.
But recently (2016) I discovered something in scripture which I think is hidden in plain sight from those who do not fully understand or accept what scripture teaches about the eccleisa (church) gatherings and the nature of the church itself.
2 Corinthians 8, 9 teaches this plainly and Acts 5 displays it for us.
Let’s look at the go-to verse for tithing in the Old Testament Malachi 3:8-10, paraphrased from memory: “will a man rob God?, …you have robbed me in your tithes and offerings…bring all the tithes into the store house so that there will be meat in my house.”
Jesus also said when teaching once “we should do the one without neglecting the other”, referring to tithing, paraphrased from memory.
So I firmly believe that scripture teaches and that Jesus wants his people to be givers of at least 10% of their income. But not out of obligation as some necessary display of loyalty or maturity or as a pre-requisite for more blessings, as it is typically taught (by those who get to manage the money after given).
But a sacrificial giving out of selfless love.
What We’ve Missed About The Tithe
What I think we miss is that the nature of the ‘house of God’ changed dramatically with Jesus Christ. We miss it because almost no one views the house of God this way…right now.
Before Jesus All of the “houses of God” were buildings (the tabernacle and the temples.) But these houses symbolized something greater that was yet to come; it symbolized the ecclesia, poorly translated as church which are the gatherings of people in whom God is living by the Holy Spirit.
The Church today is not a place or a building or a series of buildings, it is the communities of Christians.
To say it another way, the heart of the teaching in Malachi 3:10 concerning the tithe still apply to Christians but the nature of the “storehouse” is now the real thing, it has changed within Jesus Christ. It is no longer a temple building and its organization with rituals symbolizing something in the future. The house of God is spiritual and is a thing that we can have now only in the community of Christians.
The “storehouse” now is the gatherings of Christians, it is one another, we make up the house of God. It is not physical it is spiritual. We are the living stones being built together by Jesus Christ personally (see 1 Peter 2:5). So now we are taught to bring our “tithes” to one another as we gather. We are to give to and receive from one another as we have abundance or need.
The church is not a human organization with pecking orders and with organization charts representing lines of authority. The church better translated community, is the gatherings of the believers.
If this seems crazy, it is explicitly taught in 2 Corinthians 8, 9 please read.
We gather then we bring our supply to as many as have need in the community meetings, some have abundance to supply the lack of others. Then at another time the same ones may need help at other times and in other ways.
Equality Not Heirarchy
The purpose of all this is that there be equality among the gatherings of Christians. Jesus wants there to be equality among us. It clearly and specifically teaches that in scripture. Everyone giving up into a human organization of hierarchy (commonly called our church) ignores inequality.
The money model most churches follow today out of tradition is a hierarchical organization with a dominant clergy at the top who receive tithes and distributes accordingly. With the bulk of the money going to buildings and salaries, NOT to equality among the members.
Giving to existing members is almost a non-issue today, but in 2 Corinthians it was normative and commanded.
In 22 years of church attendance I’ve only seen a handful of times where money was given to existing members who were struggling and there were always strings attached, it was not a loving personal gift, it was more like a rich benevolent father giving to a needy child.
Most of the time they stayed poor and the rich members barely spoke with the poor.
The famous verse “God loves a cheerful giver” is often taken entirely out of its specific context. Which is the giving one member to another for equality! And it is mistakenly used to support tithes flowing up through the organization. This is out of context and borderlines on false teachings.
This is the most common (weekly) example of ‘wrongly dividing scripture’ I have seen. Done almost in every protestant church meeting when its time to collect money.
Unequal Hierarchy Model: green arrows represent flow of money, orange arrows represent flow of teaching/ supposed revelation of the Spirit
The Real Tithes / Giving In the Ecclesia
Another way of saying this is that it is more biblical to give your weekly gift to a struggling brother or sister or family within the church. Than it is to give to a church corporation. This is the real “tithe” now.
If everyone agrees to pool their money and if trusted leadership is distributing to anyone in the congregation for the purpose of equality that would be biblical as well.
God wants equality among his people. This is true in spiritual gifts, referring to us as human body differing parts, yet all are equal. He also wants this equality reflected in our financial lives.
Equal Living Stones make up the house of God, green arrows represent a flow of money, orange arrows represent a flow of revelation of the Holy Spirit. From All and To All.
This happened in the Jerusalem church, in Acts 5 we see all members sharing everything financially in the Jerusalem church. Not because they were forced to, it was not a law or a guilt-laden obligation. But because they willingly chose to. They would even sell their property and bring the proceeds to be shared.
If this all sounds crazy read again 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 repeatedly.
God can still bless his people who give outside of the way it is taught in the New Testament. We saw his blessing was not withdrawn when the Israelites were in Babylon meting in synagogues. BUT God wanted them in Jerusalem building his real house at the time (the temple). And a few even responded to his wishes.
He asked them to return to build how he wanted things, ~2% of the Israelites left Babylon to build God’s real house in Jerusalem (read the book of Nehemiah).
Lets give the way the New Testametn teaches not tradition, lets please the Lord with our giving by doing it his way again.
