Giving
GIVING AND RECEIVING - Tithes and
Offerings
God is interested in every area of our lives including our finances.
All the riches of the world belong to Him and He has entrusted some of them
to us in order to meet our needs, and through our giving to extend the Kingdom
of God. If it was really ours, we could take it with us when we
die! God is the Owner, we are only stewards or managers of His
money and as such we must one day give an account to the Lord for how we
have used it, and He will reward us accordingly (Luke 19:1-27).
As the Lord and Owner of our material wealth, He has given believers instructions
in His Word as to how it should be used and we will be judged on our faithfulness
and obedience. In fact our use of money is a major test of our
commitment to the Lord. We must prove ourselves faithful in this area
if we are to be entrusted with greater things. Our future eternal rewards
(our permanent possessions) depend largely upon our faithfulness in material
things now (Luke 16:1-12): 'Therefore if you have not been faithful in
the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give
you what is your own?' (v11).
To be faithful in this area we must put God first: 'No servant can serve
two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he
will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve
God and mammon (money)' (v12,13). God does not mind us having money
but He minds money having us! Money is a good servant but a bad master.
The love of money leads to all kinds of evil (1Timothy 6:6-10).
If we put the Lord first in our finances, all that we need for ourselves and
to give into His work will be supplied.
The key scripture is Matthew 6:33: 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of
God and his righteousness and all these (material) things shall be added
unto you.'
Putting God first in our finances means obeying His Word in our giving(how
much and where to give) If we honour the Lord in our finances it shows Him
that we are serious in our commitment to Him.
The fundamental principle of giving which is essential for God’s financial
blessing is the Firstfruits:
'Honour the Lord from your wealth and from the firstfruits of all your produce.
So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow
with new wine' (Proverbs 3:9,10).
The first part of our income
(not whatever is left over after we have spent the rest!) is to be given
to the Lord. In a special way the firstfruits belongs to the Lord.
This is how we acknowledge it is all His and that He is the Lord of our finances.
Giving Him the first-fruits releases His blessing upon all our finances.
Any giving above the first-fruits is a (free-will) offering.
In the Bible, the Firstfruit is the Tithe (the tenth). Thus God requires a
tenth of our income (that He has given us) to be given back to Him (to His
work). We could say that He allows us to keep 90% for ourselves!
The tithe is the first way we honour the Lord. It is giving the
first 10% to Him to acknowledge that all we have comes from Him. Thus,
our giving is in Tithes and Offerings.
The tithe was introduced before the law as a voluntary thing (Genesis 14:17
-15:1, 28:22). It continued under the law as a compulsory thing (Lev
27:30-32, Num18:24-26, Deut 12:5-12 , 14:22-29, 26:1-15; 2 Chr 31:5-10; Neh
12:44), and in the New Testament it continues in a voluntary way again (Matthew
23:23, Luke 11:42). In Hebrews 7:1-10, Jesus our High Priest continues
to receive our voluntary tithes as Melchizedek received them from Abraham.
Although we are no longer under the law (and its curse), an idea of the
importance of the tithe to God can be seen in Malachi 3:8-12: 'Will
a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say,
'How have we robbed Thee?' 'In tithes and offerings. You are
cursed with a curse (never having enough), for you are robbing Me
(the firstfruits or tithe belongs to the Lord)... Bring the whole
Tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house and test
me now in this, says the Lord of hosts (angels), if I will not open for you
the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.
Then I will rebuke the devourer for you..and all will call you blessed.'
According to the Bible the Tithe belongs to the Lord (Lev 27:30; Mal 3:8)
and if we withhold it we are robbing God of His due and allowing lack to be
upon our finances. When we tithe His overflowing blessing is released.
He will send His angels to bring our finances in. We see also that the
storehouse into which the tithe is to be given is the local church, the house
of God in this age (Matthew 16:18, Genesis 14:20, Num 18:21-28, Malachi 3:8-12).
The tithe is designed by God to be small enough to be possible for all,
but large enough to require faith and to break the power of material greed
(love of money) in our lives. It is the way to put God
first in our finances rather than as an afterthought. It gives Him
access to our finances so that He can command the blessing on them.
It is how we put our finances in His hands, giving Him the freedom to really
bless them. The Tithe is our acknowledgement that our stuff comes from
Him and is really His, hence giving Him full permission to bless and the
right to stop satan’s activity in this area. He blesses all to some
degree (we are under grace, not law) but only obedient tithers can enjoy
full blessing and get fully free from financial curse (Deut 28, Mal 3:7-12,
Isa 1:19). The tithe also means that we start where we are in our giving
(however small) rather than waiting until we can give alot, which is putting
the cart before the horse. We must first prove ourselves faithful in
our management of the small things (what we have now) before we will be given
more over which to be faithful (Luke 16:10-13, 19:17, 1 Cor 4:2, Matt 25:21,23,28-30).
The tithe is the way we have to start as far as God’s financial plan
for our life is concerned. It is the first way to prove ourselves as a faithful
and trustworthy steward of God’s money.
Giving is the spirit of God for: 'God so loved the world that
He gave His only-begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish
but have everlasting life' (John 3:16).
Jesus gave Himself for us and bore our poverty to release the blessing of
Abraham to us (Gal 3:13,14). 'You know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that
you through His poverty might become rich' (2Cor 8:9). God
wants to prosper you and deliver you from the curse of poverty and debt.
Offerings. Anything over the tithe is an offering which we
can give wherever the Lord leads. As the Lord blesses us, we should
not settle on the tithe but we should aim to give more, thus storing up for
ourselves treasures in heaven rather than earthly wealth- which we can’t
take with us anyway (Matt 6:19-21, 1 Tim 6: 17-19; Luke 16:9). God
inspects our giving and is more interested in our attitude in giving than
the amount (Mark 12:41-44). He wants to see our love for Him and the
work of the church of spreading the gospel. We will be blessed financially,
when we give into His Kingdom.
To the Philippians, who were supporting the apostle Paul in the ministry
the promise is made: 'My God shall supply all your needs according to His
riches in glory by Christ Jesus' (Phil 4:19). If we put his Kingdom
first, He will add all the things to us that we need for ourselves and more, so that we can give more away (Matt 6:33, Deut 8:18).
It is not wrong to want financial blessing if our main purpose is to give.
To want just enough for ourselves is greedy - we should want an overflow so
that we can give more to God and receive eternal rewards, as well as a harvest
from our giving from which we can give even more (2 Cor 9:6-11).
Our aim, based on our love for God, should be to give more and more into His
work. When we align our finances with God’s purpose in the church
(the Great Commission of preaching the Gospel to save the lost and teaching
the Word to grow strong Christians), we will enjoy His financial blessing.
Why? - because if we show ourselves faithful in giving to His work, He can
trust us with more because He knows we will use it for His Kingdom. Our giving
releases blessing for us as well as for the Church.
When we give we are never the losers, for God honours the law of sowing
and reaping (Gen 8:22). 'Do not be deceived, God is not mocked;
for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap' (Gal 6:7). When
we sow our finances into the gospel we will also reap finances. We
receive a harvest much greater than what we sow (give). What we may
give in spoonfuls He gives back by the bucket load: 'Give and it shall
be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over,
they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure, it will
be measured to you in return' (Luke 6:38). God wants us to give
in faith- that we trust Him to multiply back to us what we have given to
Him.
As we give, we expect God to give more again.
According to our
generosity of heart He will bless us again (Prov 11:24-28). 'He who
sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall
also reap bountifully. Every man according as he purposes in his heart,
so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity for God loves a cheerful
giver. God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always
having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good
work. As it is written (in Psalm 112): 'He has dispersed abroad,
He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.' Now
may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply
the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while
you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving
through us to God' (2Corinthians 9:8-11).