Not Ours to Obey
by Ronald W Robey
If Pastors Cheatham and Steele tell you that God requires you to tithe your monetary income, those pastors need to step down from the pulpit and go back to studying the Bible for a while longer.
 
There is not one verse in the entire Bible where God commands a tithe of man’s monetary income.
 
The only commands in the Bible concerning tithing are for tithes of agricultural crops and livestock..in the Promised Land.. God gave those statutes and judgments to no other nation but the children of Israel.
 
Read Leviticus 27:30-34. The first four verses in the passage say God’s holy tithe is agriculturl. Look at the last verse. It says the commands are for Israel.
 
Notice in Deuteronomy 12:1,10-11 God said that the children of Israel were not to begin tithing until they crossed over the River Jordan and entered into the Promised Land.
 
Now, turn in your Bible to Psalm 147:19-20. There, you will see that God did not give Gentile nations the commands that He gave to Israel. And this is confirmed in both Acts 15 & Acts 21. The Mosaic Law is not to be imposed upon the Gentile Converts to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Those Laws were specifically for the Jewish nation and them alone.
 
Wake up saints. One of the reasons you may be struggling is because of improper stewardship of what God has given to you.
 
God tells us in 2 Corinthians 8:12-13 that our giving is not to be such that it eases others and we ourselves are left burdened.
 
Don’t let a preacher guilt you into parting with money that could help you in your struggles. Malachi 3 was not a command to the Church, it was a command to Israel.
 
Mal 1:1 to the children of Israel
Mal 2:1 O ye priests (this is speaking of the priests in Israel)
Mal 3:6 ye sons of Jacob.
 
If we are not to tithe, how should our giving be? Good question! Here is what God’s Word tells us…
 
2 Corinthians 9:6-7 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
 
Give as you purpose in your heart to give… not a dictated percentage required of you by lying preachers. You are not to be coerced into giving ten percent.
 
If you choose to give ten percent, wonderful! But don’t frown on others who do not make the same choice.
 
The word “purposeth” in 2 Corinthians 9:7 is translated from the Greek “proaireomai”. It means, “to choose for oneself”
 
Ask yourself, “If I allow Pastors Cheatham and Steele to dictate that I give ten percent, how can I have I chose for myself what I give?”
 
God does want us to give. But He wants us to choose what we give with a willing and cheerful heart.