By Pr Ben Odongo
For a very long time, Christians have been taught we should be giving 10 per cent of everything we earn to the church. Is the practice of tithing still in effect for us today, or is it time to reconsider this practice?
I want us to come to the knowledge of the truth about tithing that is barely taught in church. In this three-series in-depth expose, we shall learn more about this topic that is widely perceived differently.
Biblical instruction
If we must explain the subject of tithing, we are not going to just take it because we read about it in the Bible. We have to look at the Scripture in the light of Christ. Old Testament is a progression of revelation that takes up a body in the Gospels and climaxes in the Epistles.
The entire Bible has a message of one person – Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament they did not see Christ; they saw shadows and heard promises in prophesies.
These prophesies, promises and shadows took up a body in a person called Christ in the Gospels, but the height and climax of revelation is not the physical person of Christ. Rather, it is the revealed Christ, which climaxes
in the Epistles.
Before then, no man had ever seen God (John 1:18). Key to Bible interpretation is that the Scripture will never mean today what it never meant when it was first written. God does not change His mind; whatever was written at first remains the same irrespective of how times change. Change in time and environment does not affect the intent for which the Scripture was written.
Contextualising the Scripture
Thus, we don’t interpret the Bible to suit us. When you read a Bible verse, you have to take into account the context of the prevailing culture at the time.
When they tell you that Abraham paid tithes, what they are not telling you is that Abraham lived in Mesopotamia. In Mesopotamia, there was a law called the Mesopotamian Tithe. The tax was not assigned to temples only; the tithe was also a royal tax payable to kings.
The two examples of pre-law tithing of Abram and Jacob in Genesis were one-time events, voluntary and involved more than money. Abraham’s example was a one-time tithe of the spoils of war (Hebrews 7:2, Genesis 14:20).
Since Abraham had taken a vow not to personally take spoils of this war (Genesis 14:22-24), Abraham apparently tithed what belonged to others or what would soon belong to others. Scriptures do not record Abraham tithing his personal income or wealth at any time.
The law on tithing was not a Godgiven command or a routine practice, but an adaptation of a custom of the times to the worship of God.
Historical account
It is now interesting to note that the word(s) tithes, tithing, to tithe were not emphasised in the Epistles. It was only mentioned once by the author of Hebrews, and his mentioning was not an instruction but his historical emphasis (Hebrews 7:5-9).
In the above account, the writer of the book of Hebrews was not encouraging you to tithe as much as he was not encouraging you to offer your son just as Abraham did (Hebrews 11:17). Such narratives are evidence there are historical accounts with lessons to learn from.
In reality, some have tried to create a doctrine out of Hebrews singular mention of tithe. They claim Hebrews 7:8 means Jesus receives tithe. This is unscriptural and certainly not true.
The phrase “he receives them” was italicised, implying it was not in the original text, but was added by the translators of King James Version (first English translation of the Bible).
A contextual reading will plainly show the reader he was referring to Melchizedek as a symbol. The words tithe or tithing were not mentioned at all in the book of Acts.
Not one mention in Paul’s Epistles, and none in Peter, John, James, and Jude. Thus, the pattern of its lack of mention in the New Testament writings is very instructive as all the Apostles taught giving, but none taught the tithe or tithing.
Remember, a fundamental rule of Bible interpretation is to be silent where the Bible is silent and to be loud were the Bible is loud.
The Epistles are the explanation of the Old Testament books of the Bible; hence, being emphatic on tithe will not be following through with the Epistles concerning how giving was taught.
The Bible is very clear on what pre and post law tithing was and how it was to be handled.A tithe is a tenth, but a tenth of what and how is it handled? We shall discuss this in part 2 of this article.
