Kleptomaniac

Many Bible verses on giving are removed from their context and given new meaning. People who read the Bible should be familiar with first century believers. Not knowing or understanding their culture, habits, lifestyles, and giving practices can affect your wallet.

Many people argue money tithing from the doctrine of first things in the Scripture. The logic is that if something is first mentioned in the Scripture, it is a prescription for a mandated eternal moral principle. It is this concept that drives the tithing doctrine. Because Abram is first mentioned tithing to Melchizedek in Genesis, this serves as justification for churches and pastors to demand tithes as baseline income. However, this belief is out of context because this book has established that Abram’s tithe was a single event for spoils of war. The perspective of first things from the Old Testament establishes how to take care of buildings and it was not with tithes but with freewill offerings. The needs of the modern church, i.e., mortgages, lights, heat, salaries for senior pastors and leaders, outweighs the needs of God’s people, which is quite the opposite of how first century believers operated in the New Testament.

The first mention of freewill giving is in Exodus 35:5, 21, 29 and 36:5-6 dealing with the upkeep of the temple. These verses address temple needs and this is where the New Covenant leadership should look when trying to find examples on how to support building funds for church upkeep and not some obscure single tithe occurrence Abram gave when he was eighty years old. Exodus establishes grace giving and freewill giving, and that concept is transferred to the New Testament from the following verses:

Then in Exodus 36:4-7, something amazing happens. People gave so much free-will offerings, they were asked to stop giving. The text says:

Anyone with an ounce of biblical intelligence can see the doctrine of first mention in the Exodus text is the principle for New Testament giving. What are the observations from this text? The first point of Exodus is that God built the temple on freewill offerings before the mandatory tithe was established under the law in Numbers 18. The context of the conversation is that God wanted the Hebrew people to give from a willing heart rather than to meet a percentage. Furthermore, if they were not willing, they could choose not to bring a freewill offering. The Scriptures point out that if they felt moved by the spirit, giving took place from their heart and not out of an obligation, force or threat. The context proves that when the heart is moved to give, the people brought enough to build and care for the temple. They accomplished all of this without Yahweh asking for a tithe of money. It is clear that freewill offerings sufficed for the needs of the temple. In Exodus 30:14, children were never asked to give. It was those over the age of 20 who brought freewill offerings to God. Here is how we know freewill offerings are God’s way to give. The word willing in Exodus 35:5 is Strong’s #5081 and it is the Hebrew word “nadiyb” or “nadiv.” Based on the context of the verse, it means giving voluntarily, generously, and promptly. In verse 21, the word willing in Hebrew is “nadab” (Strong’s #5068). It means to volunteer, to present spontaneously. When you look at verse 29, willing is Strong’s #5071- it is the Hebrew word, “ndabah.” It means spontaneous gift. There is no way to interpret the Hebrew text as giving based on percentage. The only method we see implemented in Exodus 35 is freewill giving or grace giving. The whole message of New Covenant grace giving is that it is spirit controlled and not man mandated. There is no law that says giving must start at 10 percent of gross or net income. Grace giving can be anything from zero to one hundred percent. Law giving starts and stops at 10 percent and nothing else is required. However, giving from the heart is limitless and boundless and it’s totally motivated by the spirit of Yahweh upon the human heart. If you give any other way, your giving does not follow New Testament principles. If you think tithing is money and is connected to the New Testament, the first place to check is Matthew 23:23, which I call the Gospel syndrome.