Welcome back to my epistle on tithing, in case you missed the first epistle titled "why Jesus pay tax and didn't pay Tithe" you can click this link, https://www.nairaland.com/7792998/why-did-jesus-pay-tax
where I talked about tithing as a scriptural instruction, just like every other instruction from the old testament that has been followed and practiced by the new testament generation and even to this age. I also explained why Jesus didn't give tithes and what prompted him to pay tax, at the same time, I disagreed with the popular opinion that tithing was an old testament doctrine because such claim lack both scriptural references and logical explanation to ascertain why tithe shouldn't be practice in the new testament while several others instructions from the same old testament are still in practices till today, in order to wrap up this epistle on the practices of tithe, we shall be looking at some critical areas both in the old and new testament to proves the validity of giving tithe, what tithes is all about and what is the benefit of giving tithe.
GOD'S WORD IS MYSTERY
The world of God is full of mysteries and these mysteries look foolish to ordinary people, especially those who are constantly giving the word of God different interpretation from their canal mind, I have seen many of these people who doesn't go to church or seat where God's word is been preach, trying to teach people who are always at the feet of Jesus on how the word of God should be practice, I don't want to sound too religious on this piece because those whom I am writing this epistle to are not religious people that are already grown in the faith but to those people who are trying to mix canality with purity, thus I will be using both logical and disruptive hypothesis as a tool to analyse scriptural fact to back the practices of giving tithe and the benefits therein.
WHAT IS TITHE?
Recall that before tithe was mentioned in the book of Malachi (3:10), it was also mentioned in different books in the old testament, Leviticus 27:30 explained tithe plainly thus, “All tithes from the land, whether the seed from the ground or the fruit from the tree, are the Lord's, they are holy to the Lord” (NRSV), now the question is this, what then is Tithe? The definition of tithe comes from Hebrew text, which simply means "a tenth." Nothing more and Nothing less, just a tenth (as in 10). Here is the logical hypothesis, why does God didn't ask for twentieth or thirtieth, why just tenth? In order to disrupt this hypothesis, let's see tithes this way, let's say, I'm giving you hundred thousand naira as a capital to start a business and I told you, in every profit you are making, you are to give me just ten percent while you keep ninty percent to yourself, Is anything wrong with that? It is God's decision to take ten percent of all what He gave to us, the ten percent is left to God on how He choose to use it, whether God give it to the levites, pastors, Bishops or as a withholding tithe to feed the poor, it doesn't matter as far as you've given the ten percent stipulated agreement, in a logical sense, it is no longer your concern how God spend or use it.
IS TITHES GIVING IN NEW TESTAMENT?
We have gotten to the critical stage, where the understanding of tithing is been misinterpreted because of misunderstanding and ignorance of many, as a matter of fact, I have been challenged to explain the new testament view on tithing but before I proceed on this explanation, first, I will like to maintain that the word of God (scripture) is not a word of man (book), meaning that the scripture are not meant to be reading like a book but to be studied like a course, it is when you study the scripture, that is when you will understand and arrive at the true meaning of what God's word is pointing to. Secondly, I will also like to reiterate that Jesus didn't come to contradict the word of God but to fulfil it and Lastly, I am using logical and disruptive hypothesis to explain and to bring out the fact on the new testament view on tithing.
TITHE IS TOO SMALL
Now, for further insight on tithing, the new testament Church gave much more than tithe, remember that a tithe in the Old testament simply means a tenth, this also means that, there was a cap limit on the giving to God in the old testament, what everybody does is to concentrate on making sure that they didn't give less or give higher than the stipulated agreement of ten percent, so as not to attract God's anger or so. But in the new testament the cap limit was removed and gives people the opportunity to give more than ten percent, they replaced tithe giving (ten percent) to generous giving, generous in this context connote extraordinary giving, a kind of giving that has no limit, people are selling their properties to give to God, is that not more than tithe? In the old testament, King built church but in the new testament ordinary people come together and built church, in our age today only one person is building church and handed it over to a ministry, is that no more than tithe. The new testament teaching helps us to see giving as love for God (Luke 7:5-6) while the old testament makes giving look like a law that must be strictly obey. Every ten percent (10%) giving or generous giving are the same concept in nature, same idea of giving to God, it doesn't matter whether is ten, twenty or hundred percent, if anyone can see giving in this way then one will understand that both tithe and generous giving are the same thing because spiritually God receives it and it is holy to the Lord. If any pastors are misusing the tithes, condemned the pastors not the tithe, stop making tithe to look abomination or a sinful practice.
Thanks for taking your time to read this epistle, time isn't permissible to cover the benefit of giving tithes, next Sunday I will conclude on this series of tithing, the benefits of tithing and Why we need to engage in tithing regardless of our religious affiliation.