To Ask Why Jesus Christ And His Disciples Didn’t Pay Or Collect Tithes Is To Misinterpret The Scriptures

December 4, 2017 – Tithing Controversy, A Deliberate Attack On The Church By Forces Of Darkness

To Ask Why Jesus Christ And His Disciples Didn’t Pay Or Collect Tithes Is To Misinterpret The Scriptures

By Pastor Sam Isaac

It’s unfortunate that the issue of tithes has truly put the church in bad light and this shouldn’t for any reason have arisen if things were properly handled.
The Truth is that the issue of tithes has only exposed our need to be students of the Bible more than anything else.
Once in a while we need situations that will unsettle us from our comfort zones and naivity, and make us sit up as believers and as a church and truly reposition us to our rightful place.
My pain is not that somebody has become unduly vocal, everyone is free to air his/her view and understanding, my pain is the way and manner the proponent for tithes have gone about handling the issue.
(whatever is happening is a deliberate attack on the church not necessarily by whoever said it, but forces of darkness)
If we have to address the issue of tithing (since we have chosen to unguardedly give the issue attention to the point of openly criticising ourselves), it will take more than sentiments and personality attacking to drive home a biblical truth.

It will require a systematic biblical approach to end this mess.
Tithe is not an advent of the 19th or 21st century Pastor or church, the issue of tithes dates back right from before the inception of the church in the books of Acts.
Traditionally tithing has become an integral part of the church.
To ask why Jesus or the disciples didn’t collect tithes is to misunderstand and misinterprete scriptures.
Jesus couldn’t have collected tithes because Jesus came to meet an existing tradition and structure, and like He affirmed I didn’t come to destroy the law but to fulfill.

And the disciples couldn’t have done any less because even though they were Jesus’ disciples, they still observed the law and it’s structures ( the church was not yet born). so rather than collect tithes, they paid tithes in the temple.

And furthermore, you will observe when Jesus rebuked the Pharisees on tithes, it was because they prioritise tithes at the expense of justice, mercies & faith, and Christ had to tell them that inasmuch as tithes should be collected, Justice, mercy and faith shouldn’t be neglected. Matt 23:23

And even after the church was born, the necessary structures run the church didn’t come into place overnight. Therefore even after the birth of the church, while practising there new found faith, still observed aspects of the law that was not contradictory to their faith (because there are aspect of the law that were essential to our faith). It just like after our independence from the British, Nigeria didn’t overnight become an independent state, until now there are aspect of what the British handed down we still practice because it is good. So it is with our faith.
So in essence the new testament church in scriptures didn’t have a problem with tithes, because traditionally it was already part of what they had believed, embraced & practiced right from under the law.

If you carefully read the new testament, you will observe that their new found faith came with other sets of challenges and not tithes.
so the writers of the new testament in their writings as inspired by God, were addressing the peculiar issues the church were having. In essence something new has happened (the birth of a new church) and we are supposed to begin to do things differently, as believers and body of Christ, how should we go about it… And if you read the scriptures carefully the letters of the writers of the new testament addressed those arising issues not in the life of a believer, but in the body of Christ in different places.

The current church of Christ didn’t initiate tithes rather, the current 21st century church of Christ only grew to meet what has been in existence and practiced dating back ages. The only problem I see just as Jesus observed is our overemphasis on Tithes at the expense of other biblical truths…

If there was a balance in our biblical preaching and application, some of the issues arising wouldn’t have arising.

And may I say, if people stop paying tithes today it wouldn’t stop the growth of the church, neither would it stop an individual from going to heaven.

The battle for the soul of the church didn’t start today and it wouldn’t end today until Christ comes.

Pastor Sam Isaac