advice on tithing

Phillipi419 said:

"Tithe" literally means "tenth." That's why you give a tenth.

And Proverbs says honor God FIRST with your increase... whatever that may be, and you will be OVERFLOWING.

Jesus says, give and it will be given UNTO you (pressed down, shaken together and running over will men give unto your bossom.)

The more you GIVE (as the Lord leads and guides you), the more you RECEIVE from God and from others.

And if God commands you to give and it becomes a conviction to you to give the FIRST of your increase... you will see... that because God is your Source... you cannot AFFORD... NOT to give the way He commands you <3 God bless you <3

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You have taken every single quoted verse above out of context.

Let me start with Proverbs.

Proverbs 3:9 (KJV) “Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:”

The verse reads HONOUR the Lord with thy substance (wealth), not give to the Lord your wealth. The verse does not say honour the Lord with a tenth of your wealth, or give to the Lord a tenth of your wealth.

How does one honor the Lord with their wealth? I believe the best way I can honor the Lord with my wealth is to be a good steward of that wealth and use it to glorify the Lord the best I can.

The verse reads AND with the firstfruits of all thine increase. In other words, HONOUR the Lord with the firstfruits of all your produce, or crops (Hebrew word definition). Doesn’t say give to the Lord the firstfruits of your produce, or crops. That comes later in the Word.

For those who say that all thine increase can also mean all your income, read the next verse:

Proverbs 3:10 (KJV) “So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”

Verse 10 makes it clear that increase in verse 9 is referring to the crops and not income.

Leviticus 23:10 (KJV) “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:”

The above verse tells us that the Children of Israel were commanded to take the firstfruits of their harvest to the priests.

Numbers 18:21 (KJV) “And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.”

The above verse tells us that the Children of Israel were commanded to take the tithe to the Levites.

Nehemiah 10:37 (KJV) “And that we should bring the firstfruits of our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage.”

Nehemiah 10:37 confirms that the firstfruits were taken to the Temple for the priests, and the tithe was taken to the Levites who lived in the Levitical cities.

You are treating God as though you can buy blessings from Him.

Pray for guidance, direction, growth, and abundance. Give what you can, how you can, when you can - and make every effort possible to grow as a Christian.

Musician4Jesus said:

I know the Bible says to tithe. However people are telling me it's OT law, and so it's voluntary not required.

I'm confused by this because the Bible says you should give to the poor/needy. The minimum amount is 10% however according to people the amount you can give is however much you can afford. Is this true?

I also owe debts to ppl. I've been told paying ppl off what I owe would be more honoring to God than tithing.

If I pay off portions of the debt I owe ppl, and don't tithe while paying off the debt, is this going to dishonor God in some way?

If I were to tithe, I wouldn't be neglecting to pay off the debts I owe ppl.

It's also not a matter of I can't afford to pay off the debts and tithe. I just don't know what the correct thing to do is.

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