Question:
Is the tithing system one of the ceremonial laws? Are Christians under obligation to pay tithe? If so, have we the right to dispose of it as we choose?
Answer:
God tests His people in two specific ways to save them from covetousness: first, as regards time; second, as regards means. He asks, as regards time, that man shall render to Him one-seventh part, and He has designated the specific day and declares that that day is His. Man cannot truly keep the Sabbath without recognizing God’s sovereignty, His right to all time, God’s goodness in giving man six-sevenths of it, and His wisdom in reserving one-seventh for His service and worship. That does not mean that man can use six-sevenths in selfish ways acceptably to God, for he cannot use the one-seventh as he ought unless he uses the six-sevenths as he ought.
God tests man in means by asking a definite portion as He prospers him, and that definite portion is the tithe. The tithe “is the Lord’s” (Leviticus 27:30), and no man can truly render to the Lord His tithe without recognizing God’s ownership and that he is but a steward. God asks man to yield to Him a tithe not as a gift but as that which belongs to the Creator, the Giver of all blessing. It is for man to pay and not for man to bestow. Recognition of these principles will help the honest-hearted Christian better than all laws. In the doing of that, he will find blessing. Of course, it was one of the laws of Israel; but it was just as much in vogue in the days of Abraham and Jacob. Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek (Genesis 14:20); Jacob, as soon as he became the governor of his own time, away from his father’s house, agreed that he would pay tithe to God (Genesis 28:20-22).
Our Lord shows it to be of obligation, even regarding the little things (Luke 11:42); and in the prophecy of Malachi regarding not simply the Jewish dispensation but the Christian dispensation as well—for it refers to Christ and His work and the nearness of the day of God—the Lord especially declares that it is robbery to withhold from Him the tithe, and promises a great blessing in its payment (Malachi 3:7-10).
How should it be used? Anciently tithe was used for the Levites and the priests. Logically it should be used in the Christian dispensation for the ministers, those who are preaching God’s gospel. The apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9:13, 14, referring to the priests and the Levites and their living, says: “Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so [that is, in like manner] hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.” We do not see how faithful members of God’s church could use it in any other way than for the heralding of His gospel. Gifts and offerings should support all other works of charity and necessity. Above all else, we could not use the tithe for our own purposes.
