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Bribing God: The Truth About Wealth and the Bible
Does God Really Want You to be Rich?
June 2007
Introduction
Millions of sermons have been preached instructing people to give, and God will let you have the car you want, the house you want, and the life you want. In fact, this essay is found frequently by many pastors Googling for prosperity sermons to preach on Sunday.
It seems strange, though, that a people who profess to follow Christ are so anxious to convince the church that God wants them to be rich, when the Bible teaches no such thing. So are our brothers just in error, wanting to see their congregation blessed, or are they
talking up promises of breakthroughs and open floodgates because they will likely reap some of the benefits?
In either case, we Christians shouldn't be so much concerned about getting what we want from God, as much as we should be concerned about getting what God wants into us.
Money is so inconsequential in the realms of the heavenly. What if God wants you to live in poverty so you can reach someone specific, who might later lead
millions to Christ - which do you think God would rather you chase after?
Many rebuke that thought, or call it false humility, but that's what many of the men closest to Jesus did.
The Bible can be easily twisted or misunderstood to mislead the lay, who in all sense should not be so easily led astray. A few good sounding sermons in the absence of reading your Bible,
and a church can quickly find itself in a position where money becomes a
substitute for seeking first the kingdom of God. Even preachers with good
intentions have frequently led their churches down the road of gold bricks and
praying for wealth. It's easy to believe it too - most people want to believe
that God wants them to be rich. Regardless of whether Jesus shows up in the pastor's toast
every morning, he can still be dead wrong when it comes to what the word of
God actually says about the subject. The Word of God represents the ultimate apostolic authority - namely the written word of the original Apostles. It's really the only authority that truly matters, and it's every Christian's responsibility to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.
The reality of the early church is that those who were closest to Christ were so
affected by Him that they chose absolute poverty in favor of a greater
reward. The Corinthian church is a great example of a prosperity-driven church. They had gotten to the point where they believed the Apostles to be irrelevant, and had already abandoned spirituality in favor of their
prosperity. 1 Cor 4 describes the living conditions of the apostles - God's
sent - as a voluntarily meager and demeaning life. Chiding the Corinthian church, Paul explained the humility that he and other
servants of God lived in for the purpose of advancing the Gospel:
11 To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 12 We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13 when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.
1 Cor 4
Paul referred to the Apostles as being treated like "the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world". And yet, this was largely voluntary. Paul loathed what little financial support he did accept so much he considered it to be "robbing the church". The apostles put everything they were into advancing a Gospel they
believed in. They would only rarely accept money, and nowhere was it ever documented that they used it to buy a Cadillac.
Today's prosperity-centric Christian propaganda is that "God wants you to be rich" - but even Paul denounced this, and declared it to be the biproduct of men of corrupt mind (1 Tim 6:5).
...men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
Contrary to the lifestyle of true men of God - who were martyred either in
body, in posessions, or both - the western culture of the church dictates
that finances are to be poured into an organization as an investment.
This mentality teaches that you can get whatever you want from God
if you give just enough to let your wallet hurt a bit.
Rarely do you find men who are willing to make tents and smell like fish to
preach the Gospel anymore. When they do appear, we ship them off to third world
countries.
Not to say there's anything wrong with having wealth. Joseph of Arimathea was
a very wealthy man, as were many members of the early church as expressed in Acts, who had
land and property to simply give away. James even recognizes and legitimizes wealthy
Christians in his letter, reminding them to be generous and share. God can (and does) certainly bless some individuals. The
real problem with wealth is in its clever marketing from the pulpit - namely, in the form of prosperity sermons disseminating the attitude that one's
success as a Christian is somehow tied to prosperity. This couldn't be farther from the truth.
If you trace the prosperity movement back to its roots, the teaching originates from
an often severely misinterpreted and out-of-context passage
in the book of Malachi. Malachi 3:8-12 is taught in many churches as a key
passage for the belief that tithing brings approval from God and lack
of such brings a curse; a teaching which is both very dangerous and misleading.
The next section picks apart this myth and explains what Malachi was
really talking about.
The "bless me because I give" philosophy is not only scripturally unsound,
but dangerous - apart from the feelings of condemnation it can
heap on an individual, it can introduce them to a compulsion that can truly
put them under a curse.
After this, you'll take a look at how giving was transformed in the New Testament, and what giving looked like in the early church. Finally, the real dangers of prosperity sermons will be explained.
Dispelling the Myths of Malachi
Malachi 3
8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
"But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'
"In tithes and offerings.
9 You are under a curse-the whole nation of you-because you are robbing me.
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty.
12 "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty.
If you look at the verse above out of context, you could jump to a rather quick (and wrong) conclusion that God puts curses on people who don't give, or that
if we give crazy, we can somehow turn his will to throw heaps of cash our way.
The problem is, this is terribly wrong, but most people want to believe it
anyway. Lots of Christians have been taught this kind of giving all their lives, and would be shipwrecked to find that it simply isn't true. This
false doctrine of prosperity hinges on the following mistakes:
- Failing to give tithes and offerings was not the sole reason for a curse to be placed on the people, and really had very little to do with it when put in context.
- The storehouse is not a metaphor for the church (as an organization), but was a physical room in the temple, which today is inside the Christian.
The idea of giving to the church's organization structure is Biblically inaccurate. The real New Testament application of this concept is in
meeting the needs of others, explained in more detail later.
- The common belief that there is a devourer corrupting the livelihoods of all people is false. Instead, the
devouring going on here is done by God as part of the curse He has ordained
for wicked nations. He himself inflicted the devouring of crops on the nation,
and makes a plea to the people for the removal of this curse.
- The test in this passage is intended as a one-time concession for a
fallen people - and this, out of their immaturity. This passage makes no claim
that tithes and offerings obligate God to bless individuals or that opening
the floodgates is a recurring event. True giving, in fact, is a display of submission to God's will, and if it's done in the
right attitude, will bend the person's own will to steer away from their
own desires and line up with God's desires for physical things.
- The offerings referenced in Malachi did not refer to monetary offerings over and above the tithe, suggesting that you should give your tithe, and then another 50% on top of that to win God's favor.
The Reason for the Curse
Most teachings on Malachi 3 suggest that slack giving is the reason a curse was placed on this people. Looking closer, the extent of the problem was much more
serious than this. The chapters in Malachi leading up to this passage paint the picture of
an unfaithful people - a people who have abandoned their faith in
God and followed foreign gods (2:11), sacrificed crippled and diseased animals (1:8), and even taught false doctrines including marriage to pagan foreigners
(2:8, Ezra 9:1, Neh 13:27-29). This growing abandonment of God leads up to
the treasury running barren, hilighted by this passage. The true problem with
the people was an entire abandonment of God and subsequent turn to
wickedness. Slack giving was a footnote compared to the real problems.
In context, the temple treasury running barren is the climactic conclusion of
a people's apostasy, and not the basis for a curse.
The True Meaning of "Storehouse"
Many refer to the storehouse from this passage as "the place where you're fed",
namely the church organization, trying to make the point that the organization you belong to (and namely, the leadership of that organization) are the appropriate
channel to direct your finances to. The storehouse actually refers to the treasury room of the Temple of God - a physical place which existed - and was not a
mere abstract metaphor (1 Ki 7:51, 2Ch 31:11-12, Neh 13:12):
2 Chronicles 31
11 Hezekiah gave orders to prepare storerooms in the temple of the LORD, and this was done. 12 Then they faithfully brought in the contributions, tithes and dedicated gifts. Conaniah, a Levite, was in charge of these things, and his brother Shimei was next in rank.
Nehemiah 13
12 All Judah brought the tithes of grain, new wine and oil into the storerooms.
The treasury room of the temple sanctuary is portrayed as being barren in verse 10.
This likely referenced the grain, wine, and oil as opposed to gold, but
in either case this verse suggests one of two things: either God was metaphorically starving,
or possibly in a literal sense that there weren't enough resources in the
treasury to care for the needs of the temple or to provide for charity (a major function of the temple).
So if the storehouse is a physical place in the temple - and under the new
covenant, the temple of God is His people - then the storehouse is no longer
representative of the church in its physical or organizational sense, but
rather the church as a people, and their own treasury room; the storehouse
reflects both the needs of the Christian (as an individual) and their means
to provide charity to others. If you were to give into the temple treasury in a New Testament sense, you would be sowing into someone's direct needs as well as that person's ability to minister to someone else's needs.
A Corporate Curse
The first two chapters of Malachi make it very clear that this apostasy was an act committed by the entire people, and not any one person.
It was the people who abandoned God, and only such a corporate act could lead
up to a barren treasury room in the temple. Verse 9 shows that God dealt
judgment to the nation corporately and not on an individual basis. There is
no evidence, in fact, to support the notion that even under the law, God
cursed a sole individual for failing to give. Verse 11 is a direct reference to
the curses listed in Deuteronomy 28, which are applicable only to an entire
nation as judgement. The conditions outlined in Deuteronomy 28 extend far
beyond mere giving, but rather the state of a nation's fear of God at its core.
No Natural Corruption
It is erroneously taught that this passage supports the claim that there is a
natural corruption occurring in the world, apart from God, that we require
God's protection from.
The confusion exists when God promises to withdraw His curses if the nation
repents. Verse 11 could easily be construed to think that God will
bless them and make their crops last longer, but in context, what God is
really saying is that He will stop afflicting their land - pests will no longer devour their crops,
and their vines will not cast their fruit... because God will stop afflicting
them.
The notion that nature or the devil has been given a license to slowly corrupt
the prosperity of the believer is false. What is demonstrated in this passage
is not an acknowledgement of an uncontrollable corruption, but rather
God's own intentional afflictions placed on the people as per the curses in
Deuteronomy 28 for a wicked nation:
Deteronomy 28
15 However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
...
18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
...
30 You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit
Doesn't God Have to Bless Me?
Verses 10 and 12 are key verses for claiming, "give and God will throw open
the floodgates". The blessings in this passage are even sometimes taught as
God having an obligation to react to giving. It's not. Waving checks
around in the air and naming your blessing is the exact opposite of what God
tells us to do in the New Testament - namely, not to even let our left hand
know what our right hand is doing. In verse 12, God's blessings are a result
of covenant - not money - and really have very little to do with giving at all, but the kind of relationship that comes out of restoration with His people.
This misconception is probably the result of the blessings in verse 10
being commonly mistaken as the "antidote" of God's curse, but that's actually
verse 11 (God removing His curse).
The blessings in verse 12 show a completely separate event occurring as a
followup to repentance - relationship. And if you look at Deut. 28, you won't
find these blessings there - instead they are the blessings of the Abrahamic
covenant:
Genesis 12
2 "I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."
Isaiah 61
9 Their descendants will be known among the nations
and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge
that they are a people the LORD has blessed."
In other words, God was offering to restore the nation back to the blessings
promised through Abraham if the nation came back into covenant with Him.
The people were "cursed"; verse 11 allowed them to go to "not cursed"; and the
blessings in verse 12 were reserved for even further covenant with God.
In addition to this, opening the floodgates with blessings does not
necessarily refer to a monetary reward for tithing. It could easily be an
example of a step God will take when His people take a step toward reprentance.
Regardless, the floodgates of blessings are a temporary concession - a good faith
gesture and desperate plea to those who would come back to Him. At best, it's
a carrot dangled in front of the nation to repent. It's God bribing us to repent, not
us bribing God for a blessing. Do you really want to be on that list?
The notion that God is obligated to bless all those who tithe presents a
rather significant problem in fact. Namely, if God was required to bless those who
tithe, then He also would have also been required to open the floodgates of
blessing for evil men. The Pharisees, whom Jesus affirmed were tithing under
Mosaic law in the New Testament (Mat 23:23), were anything but on Jesus'
to-bless list. This would have created a paradox, as He was vehemently opposed
to them, and in fact didn't bless, but later cursed them because they were
out of covenant with God. If giving money forced God's hand, the most wicked
wealthy people on Earth could reap blessings from God, and that's simply not
happening - unless, of course, you measure God's presence in dollars.
God's blessing comes to those who are in covenant with him, whose hearts are
of the right attitude and whose wills are submitted to Him, rather than
their own wallets.
What Malachi Really Says
Malachi paints a picture of a just God in His wrath, casting a curse upon
the nation causing their prosperity to corrupt and wither. He also illustrates
the undying love and mercy of God in pleading with the nation to repent and be
delivered of this curse.
What can be concluded from Malachi is that, under Mosaic Law, God judged the
nation as a whole for abandoning God, worshipping foreign gods, and ultimately
leaving His temple to ruins. He provided a means of reconciliation that would
lead to the withdraw of His curses, and further restoration into covenant with Him.
This concession was offered on grace and not through the law.
This same pattern (redemption from the law through grace) is reflected in Jesus Himself, bringing reconciliation
through faith and repentance, and not through the law (Gal 3:21).
Believing that one can give their way into blessings is just as dangerous as
believing that salvation can be earned by works or some other means. Both
are based on covenant, and not the law or works.
What absolutely can not be supported by this passage is the idea that God
curses any one individual for failing to give, or that justification can be
achieved through obedience to the law - it was a concession provided through
covenant. Christians need not be concerned with the concept that there is a
devourer slowly chewing away at their prosperity, or that God's hand of
protection requires payment. God is not the mafia, nor does Malachi 3
support this concept.
Giving Transformed in the New Testament
Under the grace of the New Testament, which is the fulfillment of the
Abrahamic Covenant, and where the blessings from Malachi 3:12 flowed, much of
the Old Testament's representation on giving has been completely transformed -
and this, in a beautiful way.
Three Key Transformations
Three key events occurred in the New Testament that affected the law and how it applies to giving.
End of the Curse
Just as reconciliation was provided through covenant in Malachi 3,
reconciliation to God was provided in the New Testament in Christ
through covenant. Gal. 3:13 teaches that Christ redeemed us from the curse
of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is
everyone who is hung on a tree." Christ absorbed the curses of the
law (Col 2:8) and fulfilled the law's requirements on our behalf through His
obedience. The curses of the law are therefore null and void for believers in
Jesus Christ (Col 2:14), including the curses outlined in Deuteronomy 28
(although they did not apply to individuals in the first place). This
means that when God looks at a genuine Christian who is living under the
"law of grace" (Jas 2:8), it is as if that individual has fulfilled all of the
requirements of the law, including those of the tithe.
NOTE: This does away with the curse, but remember that blessing came under the
Abrahamic covenant with God. Gal 3 shows that we are grafted into Abraham's
line as believers, but it is our choice whether to remain in covenant with God.
The Temple [and Storehouse] of God Reissued
The temple of God dramatically shifted in the New Testament. It was no longer
that of a physical building but rather believers themselves were made the
temple of God (2 Cor 6:16). In other words, the temple as "a corporation"
ceased to exist in the New Testament. Notice throughout Christ's entire
ministry, not once did He tell people to sell their possessions and give the
money to an organization, but rather give it to a people; and
this even before there was any fellowship of believers! Giving began with "the
poor". It later grew to include any believers in the church who were in need
(Acts 4:32-35), although alms giving continued. Jesus sowed himself into
people rather than organizations - he was setting an example of what New
Testament giving should look like based on a New Testament temple - the temple
inside us.
"So that there may be food in my house", which now calls for need to
be met in others, as temples of God, for the purposes of worship and sacrifice and
for charity, just like the original temple. This is perfectly in-line with James'
definition of the "royal law" as Christ's commandment to "Love thy neighbor as thyself".
The storehouse doesn't refer to the church as an organization in the New Testament, but rather the believers
themselves! This pattern of blessing people, and not a corporation, can be observed throughout the entire New Testament.
Bear in mind, this didn't mean "free for all". After the body of believers
were established, some respects of giving became somewhat organized and was
funneled through the Apostles and later the church elders (Acts 4:35),
however they acted as mere intermediaries to transport and redistributed the
funds accordingly to those in need. There is no evidence to suggest that the
church had a bank account or any type of organizational fund.
The purpose was to bring the tithe into His temple, now the living temple -
the people.
Most church leaderships are still treating the church as an organization or
a building, which is Old Testament thinking, where they really ought to be
viewing the temple as existing inside individuals. They make the mistake of
investing their money in material things such as buildings, projectors, sound
stages, paved parking lots, and other things the New Testament church
intentionally steered away from. The "organization" never touched the money
in the New Testament. Rather than spend money on a physical building, the
church gathered on public property (Acts 5:12) and in homes (Acts 8:3,
Romans 16:5, 1 Cor 16:19) - and not because they didn't have the finances to
build a building. In fact, there were several occasions noted in scripture
where people sold land and gave the money to the apostles, where it would
later be used to help those in need. Not only were the
finances abundant enough to build a dedicated facility, but the land was
already owned by members of the church. The church was also well respected by
the people (Acts 5:13) and were not (yet) under persecution. Instead of a
building, however, the purpose of giving shifted away from a temple treasury
and funneled directly into affecting people's lives, with the church elders
as stewards only.
Law Transformed
Because of grace, the entire law was summed up into a single commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Gal 5:14) outlining that all of the outward characteristics of a Christian would be demonstrated merely by following this one command. This further illustrated that matters of the heart were what was really important to God, rather than compulsory giving:
Hebrews 10
8 First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings
and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them"
(although the law required them to be made).
Paul refers to the church's offerings to his ministry as not only voluntary (Phlp 4:15) but also as a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice (Phlp 4:18) which was an offering of thanksgiving and praise (Lev 7:12-15, Rom 12:1, Eph 5:2) - not an offering of compulsion and begging. So to love your neighbor is to fulfill the law, and part of loving your neighbor involves
ensuring their needs are met. Follow me?
What is "real" Tithing, and is it Obsolete?
So if we're no longer under the law, why does the church still tithe? After all, if the requirements of the law have been met in loving our neighbor, then why would a requirement of the law (tithing) even be considered by the church?
Lets first take a look at whether there is any justification to believe that the New Testament made a command to continue tithing. The most commonly used verse to support this is from Matthew 23:
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices-mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
Matthew 23:23
Many misquote Jesus to try and prove that He specifically ordained the continuation of tithing under the law, but at this point in time, He had not finished His work on earth, and therefore the Jews were still bound by the law. Jesus would have been sinning to tell the Jews not to obey the law, and even He Himself would have tithed on His own finances (John 12:6) in keeping with the law. It was only after Christ's crucifixion that the law was fulfilled in Christ (John 19:30) and people would fulfill all of the requirements of the law through faith in Christ.
The law is a funny thing, in that it's quoted when convenient to compel a Christian to do something they ought to do, and dismissed when convenient to compel a Christian that they're free to do something they really want to do. The phasing
out of the law is easy to understand if you put it into a simple timeline:
Before the resurrection:
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
Matthew 5:18
After the resurrection:
Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
Romans 10:4
So any supposed requirement that tithing under the law extended beyond Christ's resurrection doesn't seem to be supported by the New Testament. What about instruction to the gentiles about tithing? The gentiles wouldn't be familiar with the concept of tithing,
and being that many churches Paul wrote to were predominantly gentile, you'd think he would have mentioned it if the practice continued in a formal capacity. Instead, any such requirement
was conspicuously left out of the epistles and even the Apostle's letter to the gentiles (Acts 15:24-29):
It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.
Acts 15:28-29
The Abrahamic Covenant
Tithing under the law has been obsolete for quite some time, actually. The tithe under the law demanded 23 1/3%, not 10%. This included two 10% tithes and one 10% offering taken up every three years, breaking down to 3 1/3% annually, as required under the law (Lev 27:30, Num 18:21, Deut 14:22, Deut 14:28). The single tithe (which means "tenth") as we know it today doesn't have its roots in the law, but originally comes from the tithe given to Melchizedek by Abraham when God made His covenant with Abraham.
Genesis 14
18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem [d] brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram, saying,
"Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator [e] of heaven and earth.
20 And blessed be [f] God Most High,
who delivered your enemies into your hand."
Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
So tithing as we know it came before the law, and under a covenant - the same
covenant through which God promised the blessings of Malachi 3:12.
Galatians 3 ties this together in explaining that Christ was the promise given
to Abraham, and all believers are now children of Abraham (both Jews and
Gentiles). Abraham's tithe was based on covenant, and his justification came
by faith - the same as the Christian experience. If we tithe, then we tithe
under the Abrahamic covenant and not the law, and are doing so based on a
promise - and that promise has come in the form of Jesus Christ - not a nice
house in the hamptons. Our promise is Christ alone.
Whether the tithe under Abrahamic covenant carried through into New Testament
churches is not clear. Gal. 3 makes mention of Jesus as the seed (not "seeds")
which was promised Abraham, and therefore it's reasonable that orthodox tithing
may have been completed in Christ. While formal tithing may or may not have become phased out, a regular offering
was taken up and people were to give according to their income (1 Cor 16:1-4).
This was related to gifts taken up for the traveling apostles to fund their
ministries. Some form of regular giving did continue, and joyful giving was
stressed (2 Cor 9:7), it's likely that putting the yoke of tithing onto the
backs of gentiles would have raised more tension
between Jewish and gentile believers, who were being pushed by
Jewish ascetecists to obey their laws and customs.
A Different Kind of Giving
Whether you "tithe" or you "give", you do so to your high priest - your Melchizedek. No, that's not your pastor, he's not the "High Priest of God Most High"; this is Christ himself (Heb 3:1).
And if you do this, then certainly you ought to do what Christ has commanded you to do with it - fill the storehouse by loving your neighbor as yourself,
meeting the needs of others (including the needs of those who minister to you - your temple), and providing charity. This is a very different type of giving than most are used to, isn't it? Where's the church as an organization in all of this?
It's nonexistant, except as an assist to help get the money to those who
need it.
Orthodox tithing was not illustrated in the early Christian church,
but instead a much less formal approach to regular giving -
but giving did continue. It was done joyfully and voluntarily and
extended far beyond monetary giving. Other documents bear witness to the
importance of personal giving over corporate giving.
The Didache, a letter written to remote gentile churches, expresses sowing the
firstfruits of everything - fresh fruit, oil, etcetera - into prophets and
other ministers - literally going to their door to deliver it when you open the jar. This again plays
into the notion that God is more interested in blessing the Christian than the
organization. Another example can be found in an an apocryphal letter attributed
to Barnabas, and copied elsewhere, encouraging believers to share all of their belongings,
"For if you are fellow partakers in that which is imperishable, how much
more shall you be in the things which are perishable." There was clearly a
sense among certain communities that brotherhood and generosity were of
great importance."
The mechanics behind tithing were possibly a moot point anyway, as there was a
great outpouring of giving in the early church (Acts 2:45) to the point where
individuals even sold their posessions to keep others out of need - giving
greatly exceeding any tithe amount previously required under the law. And it's
counter-intuitive and paradoxical to believe that the outpouring of all of
these people's finances was motivated by the desire for more finances.
The apostles funneled some finances simply out of convenience -
namely, to direct money to missionaries and to carry over to other churches
that were in need, but this was largely the exception rather than the norm.
Jesus repeatedly encouraged and illustrated selfless, personal giving to those
in need, and repeatedly took issue with corporately sponsored temple scams and
central authority.
The Apostles did have rights to funds for the purpose of advancing their
ministry, although Paul boasted that he never exercised this right. There are
plenty of ministers today who claim their rights of the church funds, but use
it for anything but the ministry. In addtion to this, I'm a firm believer that
if you're going to claim an Apostle's rights, you'd better have the marks
of an Apostle to authenticate this right (2 Cor 12:12). Another litmus test for
so-called apostolic rites is whether the finances are being used for the two
documented purposes in scripture: advancing the gospel, and charity for those in
need.
Personal charity, on the other hand, clearly continued as a personal act that
was not filtered through the church, but the responsibility of every Christian. This is illustrated in the New Testament (Luke 10:30-37, 1 John 3:17).
In addition to this, Jesus gave the nod to providing charity to the lost with
His story of the good samaritan. The samaritan never once questioned the
beaten man's faith or doctrine before caring for him - even after a priest and a
levite (who were associated with the temple as an organization) passed him
by. This casts doubt on the idea that we're only called to bless other
Christians. The Old Testament temple was an outpouring
of charity on the community at large - it was a hub for providing charity.
As the New Testament temple has morphed into the Christian as an individual,
this responsibility is also attached.
Transformation of Reaping
The old law dictated "a curse". In the New Testament, a different principle is
at work - that of sowing and reaping:
2 Corinthians 9
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:
"He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever."[a] 10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
Is this a promise from God? Not really. It's a basic law of how a principle
works. Is it based on money? Sure, or time, or mercy, or anything else - the
more God can trust you to do His will (instead of your own), the more He'll
put in your pocket, or the more time He'll give you to work with, or
whatever else you need to do His will. With God, this is based on matters of
the heart that develop from years of being faithful and generous, and the
desire to give more - not to spend more.
Some people make good stewards of God's money, and God's going to give them
lots of it to distribute to others. Some can't handle money at all. The New
Testament replaced the curse for a blessing. More exciting, our giving is no
longer a compulsory action, but a catalyst for God to open doors, and an excuse (not an obligation) to trust us with more (Phlp 4:17) and prove ourselves
faithful.
The Dangers of Compulsory Tithing
If the curse is done away with, this begs the question of why real-world
experience shows that individuals trying to please God through tithing
sometimes feel as though they're cursed when they fail. As related to the
teachings of Malachi 3:8-12, this could arguably be a result of being placed
under the one curse that the New Testament says a Christian really can be
under:
Galatians 3:10
All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."
By being manipulated into believing that obeying the law somehow justifies you
in God's eyes, a yoke can be put on your back. This yoke is the real curse - the
idea that Jesus didn't completely fulfill the requirements of the law, and that
people somehow have to perform to a certain level to receive blessings or
approval from the father. By rejecting Christ's complete absolution for our
sins and His perfect and complete fulfillment of the law on our behalf, seeking
justification by works will put an individual under the curses of the law.
Living under the law is, in fact, the only way a Christian can be put under a
curse. It's critical for a Christian to understand that not only are they
forgiven for their sins, but have been set free from all of the curses of the
law (Rom 10:4, Gal 3:13) and provided reconciliation through covenant
(Gal 3:7). If there were any conditions or restrictions, it wouldn't be by
grace.
Conclusion
Romans 8:1
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
If we are to be judged by the law and placed under a curse, then Christ's crucifixion was incomplete. The fact is that His crucifixion was complete, and that
a better way has been made for us. By continuing to teach that individuals are
under a curse should they not give, or even that giving protects people from
natural loss is not only in gross misunderstanding of the book of Malachi,
but also puts a yoke around people's neck that can burden them for a lifetime.
Tithing was a beautiful practice, and came about before the law existed. Giving in the New Testament is clearly voluntary - and not a requirement. God didn't bless people based on how much money they gave. Since the gentiles wouldn't have understood the concept of tithing, however, giving obviously became less formal than it was among the Jews, and Christ put the responsibility to love (and care for) our brother as a fulfilment of the law - the storehouse is our fellow man. It is clear that the giving in the New
Testament was over and above any amount required under Old Testament law, and
came from the heart without fear of a curse or under compulsion.
Christians
should follow the patterns set forth in the New Testament and embrace
sacrificial giving out of a thankful and joyful heart, not just monetary giving for the purpose of advancing the Gospel, but giving our lives to others. This, however, is not under
the threat of a curse or affliction of any kind. Those who preach blessings
and curses measured on financial giving have missed what's important - namely,
that we've already had our breakthrough - in our salvation. That what's
really important in this world is the Gospel and not the dollar. In light of
apostles who walked in rags and were homeless and starving (1 Cor 4), how dare any
of us suggest that God owes us better.
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