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Grace-based biblical teaching and sermons with Pastor Jason White. Messages that focus on Life in Christ and practical application as New Covenant believers.
Today as we continue our summer message series, we are going to look at a passage of Scripture that has caused a lot of confusion for a lot of people for a long time.
It’s found in Malachi 3:8-10 which says…
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
Okay, so there are many people today who will take these verses and use them to say that we are all required to tithe…to give a tenth of our income to the church.
And not only are we required to give 10% of our income to the church, but if we don’t, then things won’t go well with us…especially in the area of our own finances.
Cars will break down, something with our house is going to break, the IRS will come and say that you owe more taxes than you paid…
If you don’t tithe, then you are going to find yourself in difficult financial situations. Why? Because you are robbing God! You are robbing Him of what is rightfully His and therefore, He will curse you.
BUT if you do tithe…if you give God what is rightfully His, THEN not only will He not curse you, but He will actually BLESS YOU!
If you give 10%, God will give you back that 10% and more. He’ll open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be enough room to store it!
This is what many will teach that this passage means.
ILLUSTRATION: As a matter of fact, I was scrolling through social media the other day, and I came across a video of a pastor who called one of his members up to the stage in the middle of his sermon.
He pulled out an envelope of ten $1 bills, handed it to her, and said this is an illustration of tithing… “If you’ll just give me one of those $1 bills, then you can keep the rest.”
So, she pulled out one and gave it to the Pastor. But then, he pulled out another envelope and said, “Actually, since you’ve been faithful to tithe, then here is another envelope but this one has ten $5 bills. If you’ll just give me one (which is a tenth of $50) then you can keep all the rest.”
So, she pulled out one and gave it to the Pastor. But then, he pulled out another envelope and said, “And now that you’ve been faithful to tithe, then here is another envelope but this one has ten $10 bills. If you’ll just give me one then you can keep all the rest.”
So, she pulled out one and gave it to the Pastor. But then, he pulled out another envelope and said, “And now that you’ve been faithful with a little, then here is another envelope but this one has ten $100 bills. If you’ll just give me one then you can keep all the rest.”
So, his entire congregation left that day thinking that if they give a tenth of their income to the church, then God will open up the floodgates of heaven and bless them financially with so much more in the long run.
Now, some of you will say, “Well, what kind of church was that? That was probably some prosperity guy just trying to get rich off of his congregation. That doesn’t happen in true gospel preaching churches.”
Well, I just got this book in the mail. I didn’t order it, but sometimes people just send me books.
I thought, “Wow, I’m teaching on giving this Sunday, and this is written by a conservative theological pastor who went to a well-known and respected seminary.” So I started reading the first few pages.”
And lo and behold, what did I find? I mean I couldn’t even make it out of the first chapter before reading this…
Every year we have trusted God to help us take our giving to a new level. With few exceptions, by His grace, we have met those objectives, often with astounding results. Time after time we have experienced the reality of God’s promise in Malachi 3:10 (where God says to test Him in this area of giving and He’ll bless you). I am convinced many believers are missing out on one of the most exciting adventures in life because they have never put God to the test in the matter of generous giving.
So again, this is often what these verses are said to mean…
We are required to give 10% of our income, and if we don’t then things won’t go well for us…but if we do, then God will give us back our 10% and bless us with even more.
BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT THAT VERSE MEANS
And here’s why. I can show you in 3 words found in this passage why that’s not what this verse means for us today.
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me.
This was written to Israel.
Malachi is of course found in the Old Testament of our Bibles, and we talked about this several weeks ago when we looked at another O.T. passage. The Israelite nation was under a covenant with God, called the Mosaic Covenant.
God gave them the Law, and they of course were expected to keep it…to do what God said to do… to live the way he was commanding them to live.
And if they did obey, then there would be blessings for them…but if they did not obey, then there would be curses brought down on them.
And we see a lot of those detailed out in Deut. 28…
If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God…
And then just a few verses later He says this…
15 However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:
So this was the Old Covenant between God and the nation of Israel. It was a covenant where the Lord would bless them if they obeyed and they would be cursed if they didn’t.
And there were 613 Levitical laws they were expected to obey, and one of those was tithing.
But really it wasn’t just one tithe. It was actually three tithes.
3 TITHES WERE COMMANDED:
1. TO SUPPORT THE PRIESTS
21 “I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting. 23 … They will receive no inheritance among the Israelites. 24 Instead, I give to the Levites as their inheritance the tithes that the Israelites present as an offering to the Lord. That is why I said concerning them: ‘They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.’ ” (Numbers 18:21,23-24)
The Levites, unlike the rest of the Israelite nation couldn’t own land and produce crops and income. They were a tribe of priests who would offer the sacrifices for the nation of Israel.
So in order to provide for them, the Lord commanded the people to tithe and give a portion of their produce and livestock.
And that is why in Malachi, God even says to bring the whole tithe to the STOREHOUSE. A storehouse was a place to store grain in the temple.
So this was the first tithe, but there was also a second tithe that the Israelites were commanded to give. And that tithe was given…
2. TO SUPPORT THE FESTIVALS/FEASTS
22 Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. 23 Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always. (Deut. 14:22-23)
The Israelites were commanded to participate in certain festivals and feasts to remind them of the Lord being their God and how He rescued them from Egypt and made them into a great nation…
And so He commanded them to set aside 10% of their produce and livestock for these feasts and festivals they were to participate in.
So, that is the second tithe we see commanded of the Israelite nation, but there was a 3rd:
3. TO SUPPORT WIDOWS, ORPHANS, AND THE POOR
28 At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, 29 so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. (Deut. 14:28-29)
So every three years, the Israelites were commanded to bring another 10% of their produce to support the widows, orphans, and the poor.
So when you look at tithing in the Old Testament, the Israelites were really expected to give 23.3% of their produce and livestock.
They had two separate yearly tithes and then one every 3 years (which averages out to 3.3% for one year).
So, we are talking about how we are commanded to give 10% of our income today based on the Old Testament command of tithing, but in actuality it was even more than 10%! So if we are applying that today, then we are already off.
But again, in context, this is what we see under the Old Covenant, and when we look at Malachi 3:8-10 (Slide), God is talking to the nation of Israel about these laws of tithing…
Not only is He referring to these laws of tithing but also to the blessings and curses that they were told at the beginning of the covenant would be enforced based on their obedience.
SO GOD IS SIMPLY SAYING TO THEM…
YOU HAVE NOT BEEN OBEDIENT TO MY COMMANDS TO TITHE. THEREFORE, YOU WILL BE CURSED. HOWEVER, IF YOU START TO OBEY, THEN YOU WILL BE BLESSED.
This was simply the way things worked under the Old Covenant with the nation of Israel.
But guys, you and I are not the nation of Israel, and we are not under the Old Covenant!
Remember what Paul tells us in Galatians 3…
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us…14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
There were promises made in the Old Testament about how God would initiate a new covenant one day and send His Spirit to come dwell in us (Ezekiel 36), and Paul is saying that this has taken place.
We even see the author of Hebrews reference the promise of a new covenant found in Jer. 31, and says this…
13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete.
So that is the first thing we have to realize if we are going to try and determine if this command applies to us.
We must see that it was originally written to the nation of Israel under a different covenant than we live under today.
And we are not Israel, and we don’t live under the Old Covenant. Therefore, the blessing and curses that are referenced in Malachi in conjunction with obeying the command to tithe, doesn’t apply to us today.
But the next question is, “Does the command to tithe come back up as a requirement under the New Covenant?”
And the answer is NO!
You can look through all of the gospel accounts of everything that Jesus taught, and you will not find him teaching the tithe for new covenant believers today.
Now, you will find Him talking about the tithe with the religious leaders of the day…who were first and foremost still living under the Old Covenant because Jesus hadn’t gone to the cross yet…
But also, what he was teaching them when talking about the tithe was about a heart issue to help them see their need for a Savior.
So, Jesus didn’t command the tithe for New Covenant believers, but neither did any of the other New Testament writers.
So…again Malachi 3 doesn’t apply to us today. Tithing doesn’t apply to us today! We don’t live under the Old Covenant and are not commanded to tithe under the New Covenant…
BUT…in the New Covenant, we are taught about grace giving.
GRACE-GIVING
7 But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you—see that you also excel in this grace of giving. (2 Corinthians 8:7)
Giving is a work of God’s grace operating in us that motivates us to give.
The moment we put our faith and trust in Jesus, the Spirit comes to dwell in us, unites us to Jesus, and we are given a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26).
Our new heart in Christ wants to give. Jesus is a sacrificial giver, and in union with Him, you have been reborn into a giver.
GIVING IS NOT A DUTY - IT’S A PRIVILEGE
4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. (2 Cor 8:4)
Paul was talking about the church in Macedonia and how they understood giving to be a privilege.
It wasn’t a duty like it was in the Old Testament, where they were commanded to do it or they would be cursed…No, Jesus had changed them, and their new hearts now saw giving as a privilege.
And the same is true of you and anyone who has been given a new heart in Christ.
GIVE ACCORDING TO YOUR MEANS
As Paul continued to disciple the Corinthian church about giving, he didn’t mention tithing but rather giving out of what one has.
11 Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. 12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have… (2 Cor. 8:11-12)
In other words, it’s not the portion we give, but the proportion we give.
For ex, if someone makes $50,000 per year and gives $5,000 (10%), theyG have $45,000 to live on.
However, if someone makes $500,000 per year and gives the same proportion (10%), that is $50,000 but still leaves them $450,000 to live on.
In the latter situation, one has the means to give way above and beyond 10%.
So again as a reflection of our new hearts whereby God does a work of grace to motivate us to give and to see it as a privilege, He will also lead us to give according to how much we have (He’s blessed us with)
DECIDE WHAT TO GIVE FROM YOUR HEART
7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Cor. 9:7)
Giving is not done out of guilt, shame, or condemnation. As we seek the Lord and ask Him to direct us in the area of giving, He will lay an amount or percentage on our hearts.
God will show us what to give, and He will cause us to get excited about the opportunity to be a part of His Kingdom work.
So again…Giving is a work of God’s grace operating in us that motivates us to give. It is never a duty.
The Spirit will lead us to see it as a privilege to participate with Jesus in His Kingdom work in this world.
And rather than give a tithe, we are taught that New Covenant believers are to give out of our means.
So listen, that may still be 10% but for others it may be less or it could be way more if the Lord has blessed us with way more.
So don’t fall for the lies, guilt, condemnation, and shame-based teaching when it comes to tithing.
That is religion, NOT grace!
Malachi 3 is written to the nation of Israel living under the Old Covenant. You live under the New Covenant if you have put your faith in Jesus for salvation, and He has graced you with a new heart that desires to give…
And He’ll lead you in the amount to give and He’ll cause you to experience in your heart the blessing it is to give rather than to receive.