I hate it when people say that tithing is never mentioned in the New Testament, when Jesus clearly says that you should do it.
I love it because it is the truth.
Luke 11:41 But as to what is within, give alms, and instantly all is clean in you.
Luk 11:42 "But alas for you Pharisees! for you pay tithes on your mint and rue and every kind of garden vegetable, and are indifferent to justice and the love of God. These are the things you ought to have attended to, while not neglecting the others.
Nice try but totally out of context. Note verse 41 “give alms” and you will note that Jesus is telling them to give to the poor and needy not to the synagogue and he doesn't
say “give 10%”
In verse 42 he is telling them they are all hung up about the minutest detail but what they should be worried about is justice and love s
o in fact he is deriding the giving of tithes.
The Old Testament is full of physical symbols of things that become spiritual under the new covenant. Tithing is one of those. In the OT, when they tithed to the storehouse, it was to store up food. Today, we tithe to the storehouse, which is the place we go for spiritual food.
This argument is pure supposition and has no basis in truth. I don't tithe, I give as God blesses me which is what it says we should do in Corinthians.
And I don't give to religious organizations that are not ordained by God, I give according to scripture which is to the household of God (people).
I will give you an example of where giving a tenth is contrary to God's word. A particular missionary organization sent out word that the Christians in the Orissa Province in India had their homes destroyed by Hindus and they were living under canvas on the streets.
They made an appeal for funds to finance the building of new homes for them. A one room house would cost $1,100.
As soon as I read this I knew I had to finance a new home for one of the believers, so I sent them a donation for that amount plus $50 to cover admin expenses.
Now if I had adhered to the unscriptural teaching of a tithe, I would have sent $25 because my income is $250 a week. I had $1,150 in my account (just) so I sent them what they asked for under God's direction.
The only thing that mattered to me was the joy of being used by God to provide a home for a homeless christian family who were suffering persecution.
When I see money being given to the church and $20 million is spent on new buildings and I see what is happening to the suffering church, it makes me want to puke because one of the reasons this is happening is the teaching that we tithe 10% to the church (religious organisation) and if you have a bit to spare, you can give it to those who need it most.
What we need in the church is more justice and love, not expensive buildings to boost the egos of church leadership.
I trust God. But people aren't God; they're not perfect, including myself. We need guidelines. If we didn't need any guidelines and everything was just following the leading of the Holy Spirit, we wouldn't need the Bible. Why do you have such a problem with having a 10% guideline and being open to giving more if the Spirit leads? In my experience, most people who don't believe in tithing, and they believe only in giving according to how they're led usually don't give nearly as much as people who believe in tithing, and give it out of a cheerful and grateful heart.
Again, total supposition and without scriptural foundation. You obviously do not know the relationship the word has with the Holy Spirit.
First of all, when one becomes a believer, one is not automatically skilled at hearing the voice of the Spirit. That comes though time and experience. That means a direct word from scripture is very needed.
As one becomes skilled in hearing the Spirit's voice, if there is any doubt, one can refer back to scripture as the Spirit will not tell you to do something contrary to scripture.
As the scripture DOES NOT teach tithing 10% in the New Testament, it teaches to give as God has blessed you, then one is free to give according to the dictates of the Spirit. We don't need a 10% guideline as 1% right if that is what the Spirit says or 100% is right if that is what the Spirit says.
As far as using your experience on which to base a teaching, my experience is that people that give a 10% tithe to the church do not usually give any more.
What this means is that neither experience is valid to base a teaching on. We go by the revealed word of God. Once we know what that is we make our experience line up with scripture, not make the bible support our experience.
I think 10% should be a given starting point, and we should listen to the Spirit of God to speak to us about giving more. There is a point to faithfulness, and discipline, too
That is one of the problems in the modern church. They think then that becomes the doctrine. I have always taught that you can't make a decision about anything until you know what the scripture teaches and then you build your belief system from that.
If you build it on the basis of what you think, invariably the doctrine has to fit the experience and for that reason, what I think is irrelevant if I want to know the truth that sets me free.