Kleptomaniac

The thought that God promises abundant blessings and rewards for tithing money is hard not to believe. However, when you examine the Scriptures, do tithes and offerings really translate to money? Can we apply tithing crops and cattle as it did in the Hebrew nation eons ago to tithing money today? If you are scared of Malachi’s curse, you won’t be after reading and understanding what follows in this chapter. Dismantling the argument for tithing using Malachi starts with proper interpretation principles. The belief that you must tithe on gross or net income is where the confusion begins. Depending on who is teaching the subject, some will say the tithe is on gross pay and others say tithing is on net pay. Both are actually wrong. The second problem is that for hundreds of years since the sixth century, the early church and subsequent denominations have been unable to convince the majority of Christians throughout the ages that tithing money actually works as taught. The third problem with using Malachi to justify the net tithe argument or the gross tithe argument is that many people don’t receive the abundant blessings they heard about. Some tithers remain poor their entire lives after tithing for years while others seem to experience economic growth. That sounds like God is showing partiality. Let me make this perfectly clear, understanding the tithe in Malachi cannot be done unless your read the entire book for context. Malachi must be read alongside Nehemiah because Nehemiah gives details that help explain Malachi. Both Malachi and Nehemiah lived during the same period and both were dealing with the issues of tithing in Israel. When reading Malachi, you must ask whether God is speaking to the Hebrew people of Israel or you?

I’m sure you have heard many tithing sermons that would blow your mind. Most of the money focused interpretations sound so good, you can’t help but walk away from the offering plate thinking, “Wow! God will turn this tenth I paid into so much money that I won’t be able to contain it!” What many unsuspecting believers don’t realize is that most tithing sermons are compilations of various tithe teachings thrown together. Over time, this hodgepodge of tithe sermons become traditions of men. Today most tithe sermons are elevated to the status of commandments of God and what you end up with is a hyper-spiritualized version of Malachi 3:810. Rodger Sapp in his book, The Children Are Free, gives a perfect rendition of what most people hear in their spiritual ear when listening to tithe sermons. You might hear something like this spiritualized version from the pulpit:

This rendition sounds good and appeals to our material senses because we all need and want more money for many reasons. When you examine the spiritualized version of Malachi with an eye on proper exegesis and hermeneutics, you can see the spiritualized version is totally out of context.