Should New Testament Believers Tithe?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Malachi 3:10, Matthew 23, 1 Corinthians 8, 1 Corinthians 9

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--should-new-testament-believers-tithe
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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let me start by saying certainly and absolutely the bible teaches good financial stewardship it actually teaches that a hundred percent of what we have belongs to god because god has given us life health strength ability intellect time so everything we earn is because of god so we shouldn't think of just a portion belongs to god 100 belongs to god that means we should be good stewards of everything it's not just well if i give a certain amount to the church then i can spend the rest however i want no actually 100 of what we spend should be in accordance with biblical principles and the bible certainly teaches us that we should give to god's house to god's cause to god's kingdom and to ministers of the gospel that's clear the question then becomes what's the exact mechanism now tithing as such is considered 10 of income now when we talk about income it's of increase it's not simply if you um if you have a business for example you may have some expenses of operating that business so you would not necessarily tithing would not be considered on all the revenue that comes in you have to take your revenue less your expenses and what is the increase that's your true income and then tithing would be on that increase or that income well having said that it is true that the detailed system of tithing was given under the law of moses however tithing as a principle actually preceded the law of moses from the very beginning god's people were giving offerings and sacrifices you see cain and abel giving of cain gave vegetables and because he was a farmer and abel gave a lamb because he was a shepherd now cain had a wrong spirit wrong attitude and god didn't accept his sacrifice but there was no question they was supposed to be an offering to god a sacrifice and even in a rural agrarian economy where they probably didn't have money or not much in the way of what's called money they were expected to give something of their increase of what was produced by their labor that was more than what they had before so that's a principle that far precedes the old testament god's people abraham when when uh he gave a tithe or 10 to the priest at melchizedek jacob when he made a commitment to god he pledged i'll give 10 of my income to you so we see godly people not only giving in sacrifice and offerings from the very beginning but having a specific system of tithing now in the new testament uh there is no new system instituted there's no statement that we're abolishing the ten percent now it's going to be seven and a half percent or 15 or whatever you can do in fact jesus just assumed people would continue to pay ties in matthew 23 he talked to the jewish leaders he said you know it's good that you pay tithes you're so precise you even pay ties on the mint in your garden so we would expect everybody if you're a farmer and you raise wheat and you gather in the harvest then you should pay ties on all your wheat but many people might think well i'm growing a few um little i you know i have a little vegetable garden okay i'll pay ties on my vegetables but i'm growing some mint for you know flavor for my food so very few people would think well if i pick off 10 leaves of the mint i should set aside one give it to to the priest or something most people would even think that but jesus told these religious leaders you are so meticulous about keeping the law that you even pay ties of the mint in your garden now jesus didn't say how ridiculous he said you should do that but more important you're neglecting justice and mercy and so he's saying if you're so meticulous of the least detail how much more should you be meticulous in the bigger moral issues but interestingly jesus did not say paying tithes is wrong or legalistic he's saying you pay tithes to the nth degree i commend you for that you should do that but they're much bigger things then if you read first corinthians chapter 8 first first corinthians chapter 9 and there are other passages but the apostle paul goes to great length to talk about we should support the church we should support needy christians we should support preachers those who who preach the gospel have a right to live of the gospel they have a right to be supported well how is that going to happen if our preachers and our pastors particularly should be supported by the gospel work how how do we do that well the new testament doesn't give any new method so i i feel that tithing is still that method now i will say this we're not under the law we're under grace so i don't say that all the detailed um instructions that you might find in law moses regarding tithing would necessarily tithing first fruits offerings i don't think we're bound by those specific regulations and i wouldn't say well if you don't do this you're going to hell or if you miscalculate your ties you're going to hell or you didn't pay ties on the mint in your garden you're going to hell let's get away from that legalistic orientation but let's go from the opposite side we know god wants us to give and first corinthians 8 1 corinthians 9 other passages talk about giving generously giving as god enables you a giving according to your ability so that indicates it should be tied to your income in some way now what's going to be fair for everyone an absolute dollar amount would be ridiculously small for very successful people but uh unbearably large for people who are struggling so just by looking at the principles of the new testament we should give generously we should give according to how god has blessed us uh we should invest in god's kingdom we should support god's kingdom even if it causes sacrifice when you put all that together what what are we talking about and you say well what would god consider fair do you want to give the the minimum god would really expect i mean let's say there is no specified amount do you want to give so little that god thinks you're stingy i don't think so he says give generously so how do you know how do we know what god thinks well interesting that you ask under the old testament the law was a school master to lead us to christ it was a tutor god said well i know you don't know what's fair so i'm going to tell you what's fair if everybody gives 10 of your increase that'll be fair i'll be fair for the rich for the poor everybody can do that if you don't have any income you're not obligated you know and then you can give offerings in addition to that so we already know the answer to the question what does god consider reasonable what does god expect what would be the minimum well you already have the answer so i don't look at the old testament as or the law of moses specifically as a legalistic requirement for my salvation i look at it as teaching me and long before the law of moses we're children of abraham both jesus and paul talked about children of abraham and we're children of abraham by faith so even if i'm not a jew and i don't follow the law moses aren't i supposed to follow the example of my father abraham who was the father of the faithful so just based on the fact that abraham did it before the law jacob did it before the law moses did it under the law jesus commended it in his earthly ministry paul said you've got to be generous even after the law well is generous giving even less than