Weekly Reflections

This tradition has spread in recent years from its evangelical base to many other parts of the church. It has also been watered down as a kind of “ideal” to aim at, as though affluent western Christians (who are the ones who promote the tradition) could not afford even a tithe.

When we come to the New Testament the tithe is remarkable for its non-appearance. Well it is referred to a few times in the context of the Judaism of the time. Jesus criticised the Pharisees for tithing small herbs and neglecting mercy, justice and faithfulness (Matt 23.23; see also Lk 18.9-13; Heb 7.2-10). But it does not feature in the life of the New Testament churches. Why is this? Perhaps it is assumed?

But the churches of the NT quickly filled with Gentiles. The question for them was not whether they should tithe, but whether they should keep all the Old Testament laws now they were Christians. The answer to this was not a set of Lite Rules. There was no attempt to develop a set of second level Gentile rules. The Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) decided that Gentiles did not need to keep the Jewish laws at all. Including tithing and the other laws about offerings and first fruits.

So what did they do? Was there any guidance about giving, any rules, or advice? Any obligation?

The interesting thing is that the Christians in the NT followed the heart of the OT in working out what to do with their wealth.

Dale                 to be continued. ...