Thesis 17- We must support the work of the Lord with our first fruits.
I don’t have the raw numbers, but I have a deep suspicion. We come to the issue of the tithe, and too often we turn it into an occasion for theological debate. We have a plethora of questions to wade through. Is the tithe just Old Testament, or does it apply to the New Testament too? Do we pay on our gross, or on our net? Does it all have to go to the local church, or can we send some off to other ministries? Does it have to be other ministries, or does the Cancer Society count? Here is what I suspect. However we were to answer these questions, I’m guessing that precious few of us give ten percent of our net income away to any organization. We squabble about the details; we bicker about what it means; and in the end we keep our wallets and our hearts closed.
It is not my intention or desire here to argue for one perspective or the other on these issues we debate over. It is interesting to note however, what Jesus had to say about tithing in connection to the theological quibblers of His own day, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel” (Matthew 23: 23-24).
Just to be clear- Jesus pronounces judgment on the scribes and Pharisees. He notes, in the New Testament, that they tithe on their spices. Understand that these men are so scrupulous that when their herb gardens grow, they are certain to tithe on even them. Jesus then upbraids them for neglecting the weightier matters of the law. Finally, He affirms that the scrupulousness with which they paid their tithes was actually a good thing. We, on the other hand, neglect justice, mercy and faith, and fail to tithe at all. Our sense of justice, mercy and faith is that we believe it okay to dicker over whether or not we should rob God (Malachi 3:8-12).
We complain about God’s provision when we live in the most prosperous time the world has ever known. We grumble against the grasping hand of our Uncle Sam, but we in turn rob God. We wonder why He is judging us, and yet we refuse to even do as well as the Pharisees who came under the judgment of Jesus. We are proud of our ability to unpack the nuances of the command to tithe, and are not ashamed that we do not actually tithe. We wonder why the church is invisible or despised by the watching world, and yet we refuse to finance the war on the seed of the serpent. This one is simple. We need to spit out the camels we are swallowing, repent, and believe.