Christians are not required to tithe

And if you follow the text, Jesus spoke of circumcision of the heart, they demanded circumcision of the flesh.

We're talking about tithing, please don't hijack the thread.

 

It appears you misunderstand the context of his argument.

But to help out a bit - Circumcision, in the NT, is declared to no longer 'need' be done. Can you find that in the NT about tithing?

Now, as I stated before Tithing is not 'required' of believers in NT because they were to give more than that but at the very least - that.

 

I never said we were under the Old Covenant. What we are speaking of regarding the tithing is same thing with other OT commands, we opporate according the principles of those commands.

Take for instance the paying of the Minister/Pastor by the Body/Church.
Where do you find a command to do so, and more specifically WHY and from Where it comes? You will find it bound up in the OT tithing.

Secondly, your verse doesn't apply to what we are speaking of. It speaks of being bound to the Law looking for salvation.

 

Christians ought to understand the basic difference between law and grace.

If you attemp to keep one part of the law to please God you are then obligated to keep it all.

We are the children of God begotten of the Father, born and led of the Spirit. We are not Hebrews under the law. We have entered into His rest.

The Spirit will not lead us in the wrong path. We do that on our own when we leave off following Him and wander off into the world. Then the Good Shepherd comes and gets you/me. Sometimes in a not so gentle way.

The just shall live by faith, whether you give 1%, 10%, 50% or 100% it should be willingly by faith, not out of necessity or obligation but "cheerfully" for the love of the brethren and humankind.

If you have purposed in your heart to tithe, then tithe you should.

No one is saying you can't or shouldn't tithe, just that it is not a NT "requirement".

There is a promise attached to NT giving:

2 Corinthians 9:6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.​

If you sow sparingly you will reap sparingly, not receive a punishment of 40 lashes less one or banishment or death by stoning.

HankD

 

Read it and obey!

 

But he was talking to pharisees who were supposed to tithe.

 

Acts 20:35 (New King James Version)

35 I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” :jesus:

 

Exactly. It is more blessed to "give"...

 

You know if we heard sermons on FASTING as much as Tithing we would be skinny bunch of spiritual giants! :laugh:

 

And have I disagreed with you?
Have I stated that tithing is a NT command? No, I said tithing is a principle on which we are to build the foundation of our giving.

Of course it is. Now go back and look up to what it refernces - the OT and more specifically that which corrisponds to from where their living/food came (tithes and sacrificail offerings);

Paul references this as a 'principle' for us to understand how to care for the ministers of His word to His Church body. Thus the verse 14 is not a command either but a principle that is understood by a mature Church.

Thus my point, there is no command to pay a pastor but a principle that is based off the OT commands. So it is with tithing - it is a priniple.

Nope. It is exactly what I said it.
And you just proved six times over
Look up what a covenant is and then look to see what it means in relation to the OT and NT. It deals with Gods operation regarding His salvation toward men.

Notice that he states the NT is 'silent' regarding the tithe. The argument is often made that the silence illstrates it was something commonly accepted but the NT writers were encouraging Christ's follows to not only tithe which was also seen and spoken of as 'giving'.

Again, nothing there that dismisses tithing at all but actually validates my point again and also previous comment on calling it 'giving'. All of these simply acknowledge the spiritual maturity that goes beyond the law and into grace and faith and thus encourages us to give more. Thus Pauls illistrate of sowing small reaping small, sowing big reaping big. We are not to continue in little faith but continue on toward greater faith.

Everything you gave above shows that the NT is somewhat silent on it mandate. But neither does it negate a tithe either. Our problem shouldn't be about whether or not to give 10% but whether or not we will give more

 

I would say 'fasting AND prayer' but I agree with you 100%.

 

Can you really prove even this assertion? I see nothing in the Bible that in any way obligations Christians to tithe of monetary income to a church. The inference is based on conjecture and tradition.

There is nothing in the Bible about tithing in the form of money.
There is nothing in the Bible about tithing from a regular source of income.
There is nothing in the Bible about tithing to a church.

The passage still does not say tithes. It says that those who minister at the altar should partake of the altar. It does not say tithes. If we want to infer a tithes and offerings specifically (as it references the Law) we would also have to justify not inferring more specificity about exactly what the priests received at the altar: annual tithes of crops from the Temple storehouse chambers and livestock for food and burnt offerings. One cannot simply infer a "tithe" without inferring the exact context of the tithe laws. Since the text does not mention a tithe, the principle is merely about sustenance from the source.

It is a principle about supplying the needs of ministers, but it has nothing to do with a tenth of one's monetary wages, which is found nowhere in the Bible.

There is a command to pay an elder who labors in the Word and doctrine. There is no command (or "principle") of "tithing" in this passage.

"Tithing" and "giving" are not synonyms. The silence of tithing in the NT is not an assumption that it existed in the church. Since the church consisted of both Jews and Gentiles, the apostles would likely have had to educate the Gentiles about tithing. However, I have no doubt that many Jewish church members before the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70 still brought their tithes of crops and livestock of the increase of their harvest every three years to the Levites who delivered them into the storehouse chambers, and that they assembled in Jerusalem every year at the Feast of Tabernacles and brought their tithes of crops and livestock to eat and share with Levites and foreigners. There is simply no justification for the idea that the Jews gave their harvest tithes to the Temple while also giving tithes of monetary wages to the church, nor that they replaced the former with the latter. There is simply nothing in the Bible about tithing of monetary income to the church. Why do we have to insist that the Bible obligates us in any way to do this. The Bible simply says concerning church ministry to give freely, cheerfully, and abundantly so that no need is left unmet. If someone wants to give a regular tenth of his income to the church, that is fine and good; however, one should not feel in any way obligated to give in this manner as it is not a threshold of any kind.

Your bolded statement is really the whole message of giving in the NT. The commentary is wrong. There is nothing in the NT that in any way equates giving to the ministry to any form of "tithe." I agree with the commentary's statement about "cheerfully, voluntarily, systematically, and with open-ended generosity." However, the commentary is wrong in that the OT tithe was not of each year's income. It was the tenth part of the annual increase of the harvest, and it was always only crops and livestock no matter what kind of economic system was in place. If any kind of rough equivalent could be drawn in terms of money, it would not be of income but of revenue.

Because there is no "tithe" mandate for Christians.

Heb 7:5 And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham:
Heb 7:12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
Heb 7:18 For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.

Since there is no practicing Levitical priesthood government, there is no need for tithes to sustain them. The tithe command is now canceled. We are no longer obligated to give tithes of crops and livestock from the land of Canaan to Levites and priests.

There is no realistic way to draw an accurate comparison, if one had to be made, between the annual increase of a harvest and one's monetary income. It would be good if everyone gave more than 10% of their income for the ministry. However, 10% of one's monetary income is not the context of the tithe in the Bible. Using the term tithe to refer to an action of giving 10% of one's monetary income to a church confuses and jeopardizes the context of the term in the Bible.

 

This is still incorrect terminolgy as it is still a "requirement".
We have to outdo the law.

The New Covenant abrogates the old.

If anyone wants to give more or less than 10% of their income to the work they are free to do so under grace.

Obviously pastors, deacons, missionaries, etc, want you over on the "more" side but that is your decision to freely purpose (without fear of reprisal from God) by faith in your own heart.

The just shall live by faith.

HankD

 

What a nonsense statement to bring into this. Why not cop out and give nothing, then?

 

Oops. I meant profit.