- Thu, Jan 07, 2010
- Money and Giving
Does the Old Testament model of tithing still apply to Christians today, since it was part of the old covenant?
Being under grace does not mean living by lower standards than the law.
Being under grace does not mean living by lower standards than the law.
When it comes to financial stewardship, God hasn’t handed each of us a standardized checklist with little boxes to mark off one by one. Rather, He has provided us His Word with principles for effective financial stewardship—principles we have to wrestle with. In the process of this struggle, God expects us to seek His face and to pursue the counsel of godly believers who have traveled further than we along Stewardship Road.
The apostle Paul gave us our top priority: “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3).
To me, giving less than a tithe is simply not an option. Someday I’m going to stand before God and give an account of my life (Romans 14:12). On that day I do not want to have to explain why, being indwelt with the Holy Spirit and having lived in the most affluent nation in human history, I failed to give at the very minimal level of those who did not have the indwelling Spirit and owned far less than I.
(A Finance Column written for New Man magazine, published June 1997)
If you have enough food, decent clothes, live in a home that shields you from the weather and own some kind of reliable transportation, you are in the top 15 percent of the world’s wealthy. Add some savings, a hobby like hunting or fishing that requires equipment, two cars (in any condition), a variety of clothing and your own house, and you have reached the top five percent.
You may not feel wealthy. But that’s because you’re comparing yourself to someone who owns even more.
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