We as Christians SHOULD tithe. It is an investment in God’s Kingdom. If you do not tithe you are directly stealing from God! Read Ephesians 4: 28
28 He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.
The magi tithed to Jesus with the gifts brought to Him expressed in the Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. Incidentally, these gifts brought to Jesus in the house He was living are suggested by a lot of biblical scholars as symbolic to Jesus’ life. The Gold was the metal of royalty. Priestly ceremonial worship used the Frankincense. The myrrh was utilized by the ancients to anoint the dead at burial. All symbolic of the life and death of Jesus. A gift for a King, a Priest and the last for the death.
Tithing is not about expecting a high reward, as we have more rewards already from the Grace of God. Tithing is an investment in the Kingdom as all we have is given to us by God, to begin with! Tithe for the mere enjoyment of it.
Are we required biblically to tithe? Not in the New Testament, however, we should give to the church to assist in the spreading of the gospel. The church is not immune to expenses or any of the peripheral expenses that we incur on a day to day basis. Read 1 Corinthians 9: 1-14 (NASB)
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? 2 If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
3 My defense to those who examine me is this: 4 Do we not have a right to eat and drink? 5 Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? 6 Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working? 7 Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat the fruit of it? Or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the flock?
8 I am not speaking these things according to human judgment, am I? Or does not the Law also say these things? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.” God is not concerned about oxen, is He? 10 Or is He speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops. 11 If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? 12 If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. 13 Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share from the altar? 14 So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.
Yes it seems outward to tithe 10% (and this should be pre-tax as we pay God before government) read Leviticus 27: 30-33 (NASB)
‘Thus all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord. 31 If, therefore, a man wishes to redeem part of his tithe, he shall add to it one-fifth of it. 32 For every tenth part of herd or flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. 33 He is not to be concerned whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; or if he does exchange it, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. It shall not be redeemed.’”
God Bless
Brian Mason