Robbing God

Have you ever sat in a church service and been accused of robbing God? Unfortunately, many of us have. The preacher uses a scripture from Malachi 3:8-12 to prove his point if you're not giving your whole tithe to his local church, you're robbing God.

I've got good news for you, you're not a God robber if you don't tithe! A careful study of scripture reveals the Old Testament tithe is not applicable to New Testament believers. The coming of Christ and the Law of the Spirit (Romans 8:2) has superseeded the Law of Moses. It's wrong to enforce tithing on Christians, it's legalism in its purest form.

The scripture used in Malachi has a parallel passage in Deuteronomy 26:12-15 which confirms that Malachi refers to the "whole tithe". Now the "whole tithe" is the only tithe that was given away and that was only on the third year. The Levites took the third year tithe to the temple in Jerusalem and gave it to the temple priests (Numbers 18:26-28).

The Hebrew word "'outsar" translated "storehouse" in Malachi 3:10 is the same word in Nehemiah 10:38. The "storehouse" refers to a temple warehouse, described in Nehemiah 13:5, as a place for keeping tithed grain, frankincense, temple vessels, wine and oil. The tithe in question was probably the tithe payable by the Levites, not the tithes payable by the people. Malachi was not rebuking the common people ("And now this admonition is for you, O priests." 2:1); he was rebuking the Levites!

It's a dangerous and extreme stretch to say the "storehouse" in Malachi 3 is the local church in the New Testament. Our walk with God through Jesus Christ is not about rigid legalistic regulations imposed by a pastor who is taking scripture grossly out of context. That results in spiritual abuse, control and unfair manipulation of God's people.

It is fair to say this passage in Malachi doesn't apply to us as Christians in the age of grace. Even if it did though, it would apply to pastors not giving a tithe from the tithe of the people. Now isn't that ironic?

If you want to give 10%, 15%, 20% or whatever you so desire of your income, that's fine, you're free to do that. Christians are to be generous, to give joyfully, cherrfully and without compulsion. Amen!

Control and Manipulation

One of the main differences between ministers who are Kingdom minded and those who aren't is control and manipulation. Kingdom minded ministers are not building their own empire or kingdom. They understand from their hearts their calling and gifting fits into a larger Kingdom, the Kingdom of God.

Ministers who are not Kingdom minded have a tendency to control and manipulate people who are under their influence. These ministers use people for their own gain, power, prestige, honor and popularity. For the most part, they are building their own kingdom, not God's.

Here is an example of a ministry attempting to control and manipulate members.

A member was an integral part of the media team of a certain ministry. For some reason, this man decided it was time for he and his family to leave this ministry. The minister comes to his home and pleads for him not to leave (he needs him). He then informs this member that he would like to pray for him but he no longer can since the family is no longer under his covering and authority.

Where in the world is it found in the scriptures that you only have authority to pray for those who are under your covering (translate: control)? It doesn't. It was a vain attempt to manipulate the family back under this minister's control by implying they would be open prey to the enemy because the minister wasn't able to pray for them any longer.

Things Done In Secret

I received a letter today from a local ministry I used to be affiliated with. After explaining how many good things they were doing in a certain foreign country, the ministry leader explained they needed $10,000 per month to keep this good work going. Enclosed with the letter was a self addressed offering envelope from the ministry that I could send my donation in.

I pondered the letter for awhile. I thought of one of the teachings of Jesus, who said, "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing so that your giving may be in secret.Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. Matthew 6:3-4 NIV

Somewhere along the way, we've gotten away from the principals of the Kingdom of God. Our way is to tell the world how good a job were doing blessing the less fortunate and, by the way, send us an offering so we can keep it up.

In the Kingdom of God, the way is to do things in secret, don't let a soul know what you're up to. God will see it though and He will reward you. You won't have to send appeal letters or beg over the TV screen.