____________________________________________________ THE GOSPEL OBSERVER "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20). ____________________________________________________ April 7, 1991 ____________________________________________________ Is Tithing For Today? by Tom Edwards Many denominations today teach and bind the need for God's people to tithe. I once heard one such preacher give the impression that without tithing one cannot be saved. Let us briefly consider in this bulletin two questions: 1) What is tithing? and 2) Is it really for today? or, in other words, Must I tithe in order to please God and to be saved? First of all, the term ``tithe'' simply means a ``tenth''; and, therefore, the idea of tithing is used among many modern day religious groups to mean giving a tenth of one's income to the Lord. This is often spoken of in many denominations as a necessary offering which is separate from one's ``love offering.'' The ``love offering'' being an additional contribution which would be any amount given that exceeds the ``tithe.'' Though the ``need'' for tithing is often heard across our great nation and around the world from pulpits far and near, nowhere does the Bible teach man's need to tithe during this gospel dispensation. On the contrary, to teach and practice the need to do so as a law of God for our times is actually going beyond the things that are written (2 John 9). Christians are commanded to lay by in store as they have been prospered on the first day of the week (1 Cor. 16:1-3), and that they are to do so not ``grudgingly or of necessity,'' but rather as they so purposed in their hearts, for ''...God loves a cheerful giver'' (2 Cor. 9:7); but nowhere does the New Testament show what percent of one's income the Christian is to give today. That remains between the giver and God Himself. Some today, who have meant well, have misapplied the Lord's statement in Matthew 23:23 in order to try to justify their false doctrine of tithing for today. The passage reads: ``Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier {matters} of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.'' In this verse, Jesus is pointing out the inconsistencies of the scribes and Pharisees. They were very ``unbalanced'' in their relationship with God. When it came to giving a tenth of their garden herbs --the mint, anise, and cumin -- they were so meticulous in this area. Unfortunately, their inclination towards being ostentatious had caused them to overlook the more important matters: justice, mercy and faith. For this the Lord rebuked them. Christ stressed their need to incorporate these ``weightier matters of the law,'' but He also said they were not to leave the others undone, which has reference to their tithing. What we must realize, however, is that it was still during the Mosaical Age at this time and, therefore, the Jews had to obey the Law of Moses which included this command to pay tithes. What happens, however, when one binds tithing today and teaches it as a decree of God that must be obeyed in order to be pleasing unto the Lord and to be saved? We can make an analogy of this with Paul's warning to the Galatian brethren about circumcision. Many of the early Christians had drifted back into the Law of Moses, thinking that they needed to keep its commands along with the gospel of Christ in order to obtain salvation (Acts 15:1,5). Circumcision was just one aspect of this Law that God had given through Moses. Note what Paul states in Galatians 5:3: ``And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.'' Paul is not speaking about someone who is merely circumcised per se, but one who has this surgery, thinking he must in order to be in a covenant relationship with God that will lead to salvation. Paul begins by showing that if a man wants to keep just part of the Old Law, he needs to keep it all. We cannot go back to the Old Testament just to pick out a few things we want to observe and forget the rest. However, Paul also shows the futility of one who would try to be saved by this Old Law in the following verse: ``YOU HAVE BEEN SEVERED FROM CHRIST, you who are seeking to be justified by law; YOU HAVE FALLEN FROM GRACE'' (Gal. 5:4, emphasis mine). The reason why one falls from grace by going back into the Old Law is because the Law was not of faith -- it was a system of works. The Bible also shows that man is justified by his faith in Jesus Christ and not by the works of the Law (Gal. 2:16). This is not to say that there is not anything one must do to be saved, for there is: the New Testament teaches that man must believe, repent, be baptized, and continue faithful throughout life; but this is all part of the righteousness of God that we can have by our faith and obedience to the gospel. It is a righteousness that we obtain by meeting the Lord's gracious conditions, not by earning it in some meritorious sense. If one could have been saved by the Law of Moses, then Christ died needlessly (Gal. 2:21). Why would God have sent His Son into this world if salvation could have been obtained through some other means? To look to the Law of Moses for salvation is to look away from the cross of Christ. We cannot put the old wine of the Law of Moses into the new wineskin of the gospel dispensation; it won't work, and it would ruin God's plan of redemption in Jesus. Since the Lord nailed the Old Law to the cross by His death at Calvary, man is no longer subject to it (Col. 2:14; Eph. 2:14,15). Rather, it is the new law of the gospel that we must each give heed to. Paul acknowledged that he was not without law -- he was under the ``law of Christ'' (1 Cor. 9:21). Though we have many similar laws under the ``law of Christ'' that the Jews of old had during the Mosaical Age, this is simply because God's nature doesn't change and some things will always be sinful, regardless of what dispensation man is living in. To bind circumcision in order to be saved was to cut oneself off from Christ and to fall from grace. Since tithing came from this same system of Laws -- the Law of Moses -- it would also result in the same condemnation if anyone tried to bind it as part of what one needed to do in order to be pleasing to God during this Gospel Dispensation in which we live. May we each be content with God's word when it comes to spiritual matters and esteem His precepts above the false and misleading doctrines of men. ________________________________________ Tri-State CHURCH OF CHRIST 713 13th Street, Ashland, Kentucky 41101 Sunday: 10:00 A.M. Bible class 10:50 A.M. Worship 6:30 P.M. Worship Wednesday: 7:30 P.M. Bible study evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (606) 325-9742 e-mail: tedwards@zoomnet.net Gospel Observer web site: http://www.zoomnet.net/~tedwards/go ________________________________________