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Where your treasure
is...
By JOHN HATCHER
Religion Columnist
These next four columns, for
the most part, won’t go down easy! Yet, I sincerely believe a prophetic
word must be spoken to affluent Fayette County folks - particularly Christians
- concerning the place of money in their devotion to the one and true
living God. Most ministers these days hesitate almost to a halt in regard
to speaking the Word of God about money for fear that their church will
lose members and guests won’t return.
In fact, most churches have
bought the devil’s line that if a church talks about money it’s
a sure way to run people off. So, we don’t talk about money and still
the people stay away in droves. Jesus did not hedge in talking about money.
Jesus knew without equivocation that the relationship that a man had with
his money enormously impacted his final destination. In fact, Jesus said
every person decided who would be boss of his or her life: money or the
Lord.
When talking about giving money to the God through his church, a lot of
folks defend their pitiful giving by asserting that tithing is an Old
Testament thing and not binding for those of us who live under the New
Testament covenant of grace. Jesus blew that argument asunder when some
good old legalistic temple leaders engaged him in some tricky-dickey conversation.
Yes, Jesus acknowledged that the temple leaders had indeed tithed from
what they produced, but had neglected weightier provisions of the spiritual
life like justice, mercy and faithfulness. Then Jesus added, “These
are the things you should have done without neglecting the others”(Matthew
23:23). What others? Tithing from the income of their products.
The temple leaders thought they could give their money - legalistically
- and ignore relating to people out of compassion and mercy. Jesus insisted
then, and it’s true today, it is not one or the other, it’s
both and! Actually Jesus talked more about money than he talked about
heaven or hell. He made people laugh when he told the it was easier for
a camel to wiggle his way through the eye of a needle - yes, a sowing
needle - than for a rich man to get into heaven. The plain of truth is
that when a man or woman have a lot of money they don’t see much
need for a Savior. When you can afford room service every day of your
life, it’s hard for you to believe one day you will need to call
on Jesus.
Jesus didn’t talk a lot about the practice of tithing because he
assumed the practice was well imbedded in Jewish thought and indeed it
was. The first murder came about because one brother brought his best
to God and the other brought became jealous and depressed. The Old Testament
is full of God’s people giving of their tithes and offerings, which
often get confused.
The Prophet Malachi made the matter as clearly as humanly possible: “bring
the whole tithe into the storehouse”(Malachi 3:10) and most scholars
agree that the temple served as the storehouse in the Old Testament and
gathered church as the storehouse in the New Testament. Prophet Malachi
even asserted that certain curses were troubling the people of God because
they were ignoring their responsibility in this area of giving.
People ask me, “How much should I give to my church?” I answer
that question not on the basis of what makes sense or what sounds fair
or even what would be socially correct. I answer it based on God’s
Word: it says to bring the “whole tithe” into the storehouse
and that means 10 percent of one’s income. No ifs, ands, or buts.
If you want to argue with someone about this issue, argue with God and
his Word and I have a good feeling his word shall stand the test of your
lifetime and longer.
To tithe is to confess that everything you have ultimately and fundamentally
belongs to God. It means that everything you have is on loan from God.
Nothing you have is owned out right.
Now, a brief word about offerings. You give offerings after you have tithed.
Until you have paid your tithe, you aren’t in a position to give
offerings. Mary and Joseph, upon the birth of baby Jesus, made their way
to the temple in Bethlehem to present offerings. Because they were poor,
the appropriate offering was two young pigeons. But that was above and
beyond their tithe.
Our church houses should be abounding in financial resources because God’s
people ought to be tithing (just think what that would mean in one of
the richest counties in Georgia) and God’s people ought to be bringing
all sorts of offerings to demonstrate their thanksgiving for healthy births,
their children making excellent grades, and many other good things that
happen week end and week out.
Fayette County: open your purse and get off your wallet and praise this
good and wonderful God. There is none like him!
Hallelujah.
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