August 19, 2014
A Tithe or a Tax
It gives me pause to read churches publishing their
financial shortfall in their weekly bulletin quoting the amount of “needed
tithes” to meet their budget. I wonder if their leadership considered the widow
who put two small copper coins into the temple treasury. Jesus said of her, “I
tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the
others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of
her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on” (Mark 12:43-44 NIV). It
seems to me that if the widow had been coerced in her giving, her gift would resemble
a temple tax, more than an offering or tithe.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----I always thought there was a great deal of significance in Christ calling Himself the way, the truth, and the life. In fact, if you take it seriously, it makes a cute little idea about those who have been reconciled with God through Him: they have come to the truth about the way of life. And that is exactly what could be expected of someone being led by another who is truth. If led by truth then seeking and practicing truth has become a way of life.
-----God gets blasted for all His meanness. Why! He commanded his hateful people to slaughter all those poor, innocent Canaanites. And He’s going to throw everyone into Hell, and He makes our lives miserable with diseases and tsunamis and earthquakes and Muslims. Well, maybe not with all Muslims, but with the really, really bad ones that run around killing people like God commanded Joshua to do. But in blasting God it is forgotten that outside God is non-truth. Truth is about a tie to reality as reality is, not as it is thought to be. And reality is what God created it to be. In it is safety and joy. Outside it is terror and struggle. So who’s to blame, the One who sits in reality calling for those outside to come in, or those outside who refuse to come in from the monsoon of strife and grief? Good things don’t happen outside the truth.
-----And nothing is too insignificant for the truth. In fact, the more basic and fundamental something is, like an atom, the more important it is to be true, since its role in the final effect of things is fundamental. Think of how messed up everything would be if atoms were allowed to escape the truths of physics shaping them and their properties. Nothing would hold together; everything would churn into chaos. It’s important to get the simple things straight.
-----”Tithe” is a simple thing. It is not a thing of freedom; it is a thing of law. “Tithe” is very much a tax paid to what was meant for Israel’s governmental organization: the priesthood. It was prescribed by the Law given to those people at Mt. Sinai in exchange for their giving themselves to God as His people.
-----But the people who’ve been reconciled to God through Christ Jesus have been set free of the Law by being born again into true life through calling upon the Lord out of their desire to be right with God. This eliminates and replaces the exaction of actions by an outside authority through a Law with the exaction of actions by authority now internalized into the heart desiring righteousness by the Holy Spirit. It is no wonder the New Testament speaking things of the new life to the people of the new life refers to tithes only in connection with the people of the Law in the times of the Law. “Tithe” is a concept that does not belong in the church. It has been drug over to there by people, not by Scripture.
-----Generosity and contributions are things that come from inside the charitable heart. We see the New Testament prescribing charitable hearts. Yet, we teach the Lord’s people about their freedom from the Law and then teach them to support the church through a Law. We teach them their actions are no longer exacted by external authority, but rather by the internal authority of love from the Holy Spirit in the heart desiring righteousness, then try to exact money from them through the pressures of an external law? No wonder tithes are still needed in the church and charity is scant. God designed contributions and generosity and hospitality for the church, all being things of the heart’s initiative to become what it desires: right with God. Therefore, initiative of true hearts we must teach. The more truly we square each brick, like “contribution” rather than “tithe”, the more sound will be the eventual building. And that isn’t legalism; it’s just true.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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