{"id":36714,"date":"2022-09-13T13:07:31","date_gmt":"2022-09-13T18:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/is-it-wrong-to-give-my-tithe-to-the-poor-needy\/"},"modified":"2022-09-13T13:07:31","modified_gmt":"2022-09-13T18:07:31","slug":"is-it-wrong-to-give-my-tithe-to-the-poor-needy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/is-it-wrong-to-give-my-tithe-to-the-poor-needy\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it wrong to give my tithe to the poor needy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>God\u2019s <strong>command<\/strong> to give tithes (ten percent) started with the Israelites in Leviticus 27:30-34, Numbers 18:26-29, Deuteronomy 12:17.\u00a0 Deuteronomy 14:22 seems to say that you are to<strong> tithe <\/strong>of all of the<strong> produce<\/strong>. This was all <strong>part of the law given to the Israelites<\/strong>.\u00a0 The <strong>purpose<\/strong> of tithing was to <strong>give sustenance to the Levites<\/strong> who were responsible for taking care of the Tabernacle. They were not given a share in the land. Therefore, they had no way of growing food or raising animals to provide for their daily needs.\u00a0 Yet, when <strong>Jesus<\/strong> called his disciples in the New Testament (Matthew 10:8-10) he did teach <strong>us to give freely, but not to tithe<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus addressed the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders in Matthew 23:23. These men interpreted the Law as commanding tithing over helping the needy. Jesus said, \u201cWoe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.\u00a0 For <strong>you tithe<\/strong> mint and dill and cumin and have <strong>neglected the weightier provisions of the law<\/strong>:\u00a0 justice and mercy and faithfulness, but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.\u201d\u00a0 He is making a contrast between the importance of giving of our possessions (money or things) and living our lives in ways that <strong>make other people\u2019s lives better<\/strong>.\u00a0 Giving for giving\u2019s sake does little for our spiritual growth.\u00a0<strong> In the New Testament, neither God nor Jesus commanded anyone to tithe money.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>However, Christian <strong>churches started to copy the Jewish priesthood<\/strong>. (This was man\u2019s decision and is <strong>not scriptural<\/strong>.) Christians wanted their leaders to have an honored status and to wear special clothing. The churches also wanted their congregations to financially support their priests\/ministers, to build beautiful church buildings, and to commit to financing church work. If you belong to such a church, you have made it your responsibility to support the church staff and their works.<\/p>\n<p>It is always best to live according to the Bible and not to add to nor subtract from God\u2019s word. Since the New Testament does <strong>not command tithing<\/strong> (giving 10 percent), but <strong>does encourage giving<\/strong>, it would be wise to follow the scriptures. Honor your commitments but also <strong>help the poor<\/strong>.\u00a0 2 Corinthians 9:7 (NIV), \u201cEach of you should <strong>give what you have decided in your heart to give<\/strong>, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for <strong>God loves a cheerful giver<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>God\u2019s command to give tithes (ten percent) started with the Israelites in Leviticus 27:30-34, Numbers 18:26-29, Deuteronomy 12:17.\u00a0 Deuteronomy 14:22 seems to say that you are to tithe of all of the produce. This was all part of the law given to the Israelites.\u00a0 The purpose of tithing was to give sustenance to the Levites &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/is-it-wrong-to-give-my-tithe-to-the-poor-needy\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Is it wrong to give my tithe to the poor needy?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}