The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. - 2Corinthians 9: 6-7 (ESV)
It seems there is no subject that causes even the best pastors to chuck the Bible out the window like giving. Amongst the charlatans and false teachers, giving is routinely abused as the sheep of God are fleeced every week. Consider these quotes:
God is a businessman. He is not going to do business with someone who shows no sign of potential return. - TD Jakes
There's a reason you can't keep your kid out of the hospital. - Perry Noble
"Yes, the church wants your money!! Guess what? It's not your money! God gave you that money, Big Boy!....my name is Steven Furtick, and I approve this message!" - Steven Furtick
So according to "Bishop" Jakes, God is a businessman who will not invest in you unless He is assured that you will guarantee some form of financial return unto Him? Are you serious? According to Perry Noble God is striking your kid with sickness because you are not giving according to what He wants? Are you serious? The only one who came close to the truth here is Furtick when he admitted what is really going on - the church wants your money! I checked with God before I wrote this. He assures me He is not short on cash. All Biblical teaching about money shows it to be a tremendous stumbling block to our relationship with God yet it seems those in charge of the flock haven't received that message. This leaven runs the full gamut. You have snake oil salesmen like Mike Murdoch who pretends you are a farmer sowing seed and then God is somehow bound to supply your harvest. You have scam artists like Robert Morris who actually teaches that if you do not give him the first ten percent of all of your money, then God will actually curse the remaining 90%. This insulting heresy is actually endorsed by Ronnie Floyd, the new President of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The tithing deception however is far from limited to those who are false. It has been taught since the church foundations. Even the most well intended and biblically sound pastors still preach tithing. They do so because it is what they know and deep down there is fear that abandoning it will result in plummeting resources needed to keep their church doors open. Let's examine that for a moment. The hard reality is the majority of churches today no longer preach the full counsel of God. Biblical exposition has been replaced by diabetic topical motivational speeches designed to make people feel better about themselves when they really need to feel worse about themselves and better about God. They then implement a ridiculous sinner's prayer system, which grants absolution without repentance as the pastor proclaims the individual saved based upon three sentences. The result as Paul Washer once said, is you end up with a congregation filled with goats and you try to teach them to act like sheep. What's the relationship to giving? The New Testament model for giving does not work without the indwelt Holy Spirit.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. - John 16: 13-15 (ESV)
Without the Spirit of God the things of God remain foolishness to those who are perishing - regardless of whether they go to church. So if you leave giving up to goats, you will not receive much I would imagine. Which is why the false love tithing. It gives them the ability to demand a certain portion and blame it on God. The truth is if you left giving up to solid biblical preaching and the indwelt Holy Spirit - you would get more than 10%. Pastors sell God short and show an incredible lack of faith to preach tithing. The key verses today is the model for New Testament giving. It starts with the general principle of sowing and reaping. As we sow, we shall reap. What makes this a general principle, and not just in money, is that it is fully corroborated by the entire canon of Scripture:
One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. - Proverbs 11: 24 (ESV)
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. - Galatians 6: 7-8 (ESV)
If you are in a solid, Bible based church, that preaches the full counsel of God - then giving to the work of that church will become the most important investment you make. The Bible teaches to store up treasures in heaven, not here on earth. Only things that are eternal have eternal value and there are no hearses with luggage racks.
The next part of the model from the key verses show that we must decide what it is we will give. Not the church. Not your pastor. We must place a value upon what we get from our church. How well we are fed and how well they are preaching the Gospel. We need to pray and then give as God leads us to give. Then God gives us two conditions that must not be part of the equation. The first is that we must not give reluctantly. God does not want our money as much as He wants our hearts. Fully committed to Him and the work of the kingdom. If you are going to give and then regret the giving - God does not want it. The reality is tithing often results in reluctant givers. Which brings us to the second condition - God does not want our giving to be compulsory. Did you hear that tithing teaching pastors? The dictionary defines compulsory as something that is required. That is the very definition of the nature of tithing as it is taught today. One cannot just walk away from this Scripture without concluding that enforcing tithing is UNBIBLICAL. It creates a compulsory giving system which then violates 2Corinthians 9:7. God loves a cheerful giver - not a coerced giver. God wants people to be invested in the work of the kingdom; not just financially but with their hearts as well.
I have written about this before and received some expected pushback from faithful tithers. A quick word to those in this system already. If you feel led to give 10% there is nothing wrong with that. Just do not call it tithing because tithing was an Old Testament system that ensured the Tribe of Levi had a share of the agriculture that was produced by Israel. I have had good brothers and sisters swear that "tithing works." They usually offer up some story of faithful deliverance by God such as their job being saved from downsizing etc. My answer to that is God protects His own and we are bound by sowing and reaping. So if you are a faithful giver into the work of the ministry it does not surprise me that God would protect you or give you some level of favor (although He is not bound to). So it is not that "tithing works." It is that you are obediently following the Lord in giving and probably most other areas of your life and thus you see the results of that.
To be honest - if a pastor preaches the full counsel of God and still refers to giving as tithing, I have less of an issue with it. If he is encouraging cheerful giving and not demanding cash, I have less of an issue with it. It is when it is wielded like a cudgel against the sheep of God that I take issue. When the people of God are threatened with judgment for not tithing or promised blessing if they do. Listen beloved, don't ever believe me. I am a human being just like you. Open your Bible. Make sure what I am saying lines up with Scripture. My words have no power. Only the Words of Almighty God does.
Rev. Anthony.
