Is tithing to the local church actually a form of giving, or is it a form of paying? This will be the third Little Lesson we’ve been talking about the subject of tithing, very common subject amongst Christians who are trying to follow the Bible and, particularly, pastors who need money.

I’m questioning the very basis of what so many people believe: first of all, that the tithe belongs to the local church. It’s not a biblical idea at all. Anyone who says so is fooling themselves, and they ought to be challenged on it in a loving way.

Where the Tithe Actually Belongs

If you’re going to extrapolate Malachi 3:8-12, you’d have to say that the tithe, if you’re going to tithe at all, belongs to those whom God has called to serve Him in ministry. This is contained in Scripture. Paul wrote, “Whoever is taught the word, let him share all good things with him who teaches” (see Galatians 6:6).

So little guys like me who are not pastors… I was a pastor at one time. I was a fairly honest pastor, although not entirely, but I can remember saying to my congregations, “I cannot tell you that your tithe belongs to the local church,” so at least I was that honest.

Little guys like me, teachers who are out there and people who benefit by our ministries, people never think about giving a tithe to them or even a part of their tithe. Same thing is true for apostles, what we maybe might refer to today as missionaries, and evangelists, and prophets, if you believe that they’re for today. There isn’t any reason in the world why part of people’s tithes who want to tithe couldn’t go to those other ministry gifts, because they would be the equivalent to the Levites under the Law of Moses.

As I already said to you, I would never ever tell anyone to restrict themselves to 10%. Jesus told us, “Lay up treasure in heaven,” so of course you want to lay up as much as possible because that’s the only place where we can lay up an eternal investment. Everything we lay up on here is destined to perish, and we’ll leave it behind one day. So I’ve covered that.

Paying for Services Rendered

Here’s a foundational question about giving, in itself. Pastors are often honest enough to say, “You know, the Scripture talks about paying tithes.” And I wish they’d take that thought to its logical end because, if they did, then they’d go on to say, “So, really, it’s not giving at all. It’s a payment for services rendered.”

You’re paying your tithe to your local church. All right, fine, I’m glad you’re supporting the services there that primarily benefit you and your family and others who are part of that local church. You are also paying their tithes because, cumulatively together, you should all be pitching in to pay for the expenses that are incurred.

But the early church, for the most part, had no such expenses. Meeting at homes or in public places, they didn’t have to have special buildings. They didn’t have youth pastors. They didn’t have children’s ministers. They didn’t have secretaries. They were focused on making disciples, teaching them to obey all that Christ commanded, and you don’t need a building to do that. I’m sorry to say that, but you don’t.

Again, I’m not anyone’s judge. Everyone has to answer to Jesus themselves one day. I had my own crisis as a pastor recognizing that I was not following a Biblical pattern. In the early church, no tithe, no giving ever supported any mortgage payment or any youth pastor, any children’s pastor, any secretary, any church administrator, all those things that have become so necessary in modern wealthy countries and wealth churches.

Laying up a Little Bit of a Treasure

If you think you’re laying up treasure in paying tithes to your church, I submit to you, really, in reality, that you’re laying up maybe a little bit of treasure, whatever escapes your church through the missions program or through the benevolence program that actually doesn’t benefit you but benefits somebody else. Then you’re getting credit for that in heaven, but paying for the mortgage, and paying for the lights, and paying for the air conditioning, and the heating, all that stuff is just for you and the other people who are there, so that’s not giving. That’s just paying your dues.

What do I suggest you do? Well, I think you can probably figure it out yourself, but look at the Bible and prayerfully consider, what would Jesus have us do? Well, he would have us lay up treasure in heaven.

He defined, specifically, how to do that, didn’t He? If you look up the Scriptures about when Jesus mentioned laying up treasures in heaven, it’s usually in the context of giving to the poor, right? Sure. Jesus said to the rich young ruler, “Sell what you possess. Give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” He didn’t say, “Pay the mortgage payment on your church. No, give to the poor, and you’ll have treasure in heaven,” so that doesn’t benefit you, Mr. Rich Young Ruler. That benefits the poor, and you’re laying up treasure in heaven when you do that.

My Own Transformation in Giving

So that’s what I started doing.

I give a portion of my income, and I give it to ministries that are serving the “least of these,” because I read Matthew 25 when Jesus talked about the future judgment of the sheep and the goats, and I started doing the bulk of my giving to help the “least of these” and also to help spread the gospel to those who haven’t heard it, because I want people to be saved.

If your giving doesn’t involve somehow supporting people like the early church supporter…

They supported the apostle Paul. There are Scriptures about that, and he said to the Philippians, “I’m so happy for your participation in the gospel” (see Philippians 1:5). “You’re involved because you’re supporting me, the guy that brought you the gospel in the first place and now who’s taking it to the uttermost parts of the Earth.

You’re involved because you’re supporting me. I don’t have to work sewing tents. I can devote myself fully to the work of the Lord.” Well, Paul wasn’t a pastor, and early Christians were sending money to an apostle, so when folks say, “Well, the tithe, what you’re giving should all be centered here, and then we make decisions as to where it should go,” sorry. Sorry, Charlie, that’s not Biblical.

Okay, much more to say on this subject. I wrote a very controversial e-teaching one time called Tithe to the Local Church? You might thank me for it. I hope so. Okay, I hope to see you next time. God bless you.

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We’re going to continue talking about the subject of tithing. If you missed the previous Little Lesson, I kind of laid a foundation there. It’d be great if you saw that one first.

Because under the New Covenant, obviously, you can’t find instructions about the necessity of Christians tithing in the epistles written to the Christians by the apostles. There is a little mention about tithing in the epistle to the Hebrews, but it’s not an instruction to tithe. It’s just a historical references to Abraham when he tithed to Melchizedek and that Jesus is now our High Priest.

But if you’ve been a Christian very long and attended a church you probably heard about tithing and very likely your pastor once or twice or many, many times prior to an offering has read a Scripture from Malachi 3 that he applies to what you’re about to do as they’re taking up the offering in reference to tithing.

A Tithing Passage Commonly Used by Pastors

If you’re not familiar with this passage, I include it below. It’s a great Scripture. I love it. This is the last book of the Old Testament by the way, one of the final prophets.

“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the Lord of hosts. “All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the Lord of hosts. – vv.
8-12

And so, again, I pointed out to you on the previous Little Lesson that tithing was instituted under the law of Moses primarily to support the levites and their work in the tabernacle, later the temple.

They were the ministers of the day and they weren’t being supported by the nation of Israel. And God says “I don’t like that. So, I’m going to let the devourer in there and he’s going to make some things miserable for you. And you think that by not tithing you’ve got more in your pocket, but in reality you got less in your pocket,

Because not tithing is resulting in the curse that I put upon you, the devourer stealing the fruits of your ground, the fruits of your labor. And so, you actually have less money. So, if you’ll obey the Lord,” He’s saying, “and tithe, make sure the levites are taken care of and the service there at the temple, then I’ll see to it that you’re blessed and your crops, you’ll have a good harvest,” and so forth.

Same God – Different Covenant

And so, pastors often quote from that verse. And it has application because, you know, God doesn’t change, right? He’s still the same, but the Covenant has changed.

We don’t have Levitical priests any longer. We don’t have any priests any longer to speak of, but we do have ministers: people that God has called to serve him vocationally and that would be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

And so, if you want to kind of extrapolate something from Malachi chapter three, then you ought to be thinking in terms of, “I want to support those who are doing the work of God, who are called to it.”

When Pastors Say Tithes Belong to the Local Church

Now, heres a little problem. Pastors are apt to say silly things like the tithe belongs to the local church. Now, it can’t be supported anywhere in the New Testament whatsoever. You won’t find Jesus teaching that. You won’t find Paul, Peter, James, John, or Jude teaching that. So, any pastor who teaches that is teaching what none of the apostles who wrote the New Testament ever taught, as far as we know, because it’s not taught there.

But, pastors say “Well, you know, the local church is equivalent under the New Covenant to the store house of the Old Covenant. Because this is where we all come to church and we all get fed.”

And they really start stretching it. And usually they can’t look you in the eye too directly when they start making such statements because their conscience begins to bother them.

The Local Church in the New Testament

In the New Testament there were no church buildings. And so, no pastor ever got up for about the first 300 years of Christianity and said “You know, we need to tithe to the local church, because we got a building here, we got a mortgage, we got utilities to pay,” and so forth.

And this is another thing that just kind of gets my goat a little bit. This is my Little Lesson, so, I guess I have the right to say what I want to say. And I’m hoping I say what you understand would be the truth.

Giving in general is not supposed to be something that exclusively benefits yourself. That is, when I take money out of my wallet and I go buy something for me, that’s normally not considered giving. Right?

Okay, so if you give to the local church and that money goes to pay the mortgage, the utilities, the salaries of the people that are ministering to you and to your family, and somebody like a pastor has the nerve to call that giving… you’re just paying your dues. You’re just paying your rightful share of what should be paid for by everybody who benefits from it. Right? Like the dues at a country club or some association that you’re a part of.

If you’re benefiting from the services provided, you should be paying. Now, churches don’t set a set rate and say “Well, you know everyone has to pay this amount.” But they generally say you should give a tithe.

And it gets worse. Let’s say your church tithes and maybe they give 10% to missions, for example. Well, that means 1/10th of your 1/10th is escaping the church’s four walls. And that percentage could be considered giving, because it’s actually something that doesn’t directly benefit yourself.

Okay? These are some things to think about. And I think I’ll talk about it a little bit more on the next Little Lesson, because I know it’s controversial. But I love you and I’m telling you the truth, and I want you to lay up treasure in heaven, not on this earth. Okay? Alright. Hope to see you again next time. God bless you.

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