Saturday, January 28, 2017

January 29, 2017

"Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you ask, 'How have we robbed you?' In tithes and offerings." Malachi 3:8

When a Christ-follower forgets, or refuses or neglects bringing His tithe to the Lord he is robbing God.

It is that simple and straight forward. The tithe belongs to the Lord so if you keep it rather that giving it to Him that is robbery in God's eyes.

When you faithfully and obediently tithe you come under God's extravagant blessed! But when you withhold the tithe and neglect giving you are under a curse.

And yet, some believers insist on arguing against tithing.

One argument you might hear and hopefully will never offer is, "I am under God's blessing so I can't be placed under a curse."

So does that mean that because Jesus bore our sins on the cross we can live any way we want to live without consequences?

Of course not.

Or, let me put it another way. Did Jesus bear our sin on the cross? Yes, the Bible says He did.

But, let me ask you, have you ever sinned?

Sure you have!

And the Bible says that Jesus died to take our diseases. But have you ever been sick?

So, Jesus died to take our sins and He died to bear our sickness, but we still sin occasionally and we still get ill once in awhile.

So just because you are under a blessing doesn't mean you can be disobedient or rebellious and do whatever you want to do and not come under the curse.

Disobedience has consequences and those consequences can remove you from God's blessing and place you under a curse.

So, don't rob God if you don't want to be cursed!

Another argument is this, "Well tithing was under the old law and I am under grace so I don't have to tithe."

Okay, let's take that thought and frame it like this, "I can tell terrible harmful lies about you because lying is under the law and I am under grace."

Does that make sense? 

Of course not!

Oh, how about this? I can rob you and take whatever you have that I want because stealing is under the law and I am under grace! So stealing is fine!

Of course that is wrong!

If something was wrong under the commandments it is still wrong under grace!

If something was right under the law it is still right today!

There isn't an Old Testament God and a New Testament God there is just God! So there isn't one morality under law and a different morality under grace.

One of the clear messages of the Sermon on the Mount was that Jesus didn't come to destroy the law but to fulfill it!

So, tithing may have been instituted during the Old Testament system but nothing stated in the New Testament changes that system!

It's this simple. If you want to please God and enjoy His favor and blessing then tithe. But if you are not bothered by living under disobedience and the removal of God's blessings, then He will not stop you.

But, if you can live under God's blessing for your life and be delivered from the power of the curse why wouldn't you? If that is what you desire tithing is one of the practices you must adopt.