Christians paying tithes isn’t important to God. God didn’t establish a 10% monetary tithe. The biblical tithe is 10 percent of crops and livestock. This tithe was required under the Old Testament, and the tithe command only applied to ancient Israel. Under the New Testament, God never commanded Christians to tithe. Therefore, paying 10 percent of your income to a church isn’t important to God.
One of our viewers wants to know how important is tithing to God?
First, tithing, as it’s practiced today, is not important to God (i.e., paying 10 percent of your income to the church) because it’s not something God ever requested or commanded Christians to do.
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Ancient Israel’s Tithe Was Important
However, biblical tithing, which consisted of ancient Israel offering a tenth of its agricultural produce and livestock, was important to God. Here’s why.
Keeping the Law
The tithe command was one of the 613 Commandments of the Old Covenant that ancient Israel had to follow for God to bless them. Although tithing was important, it was important within the context of the whole Law. In other words, God wanted the ancient Israelites to keep the whole Mosaic Law – not just tithing.
Showing Gratitude
Tithing was important because it reminded ancient Israel to keep God first. It was the way the Lord instructed the ancient Israelites to show gratitude for being freed from slavery, blessed with their land, and blessed with an abundance of food. Essentially it was giving a portion back to the Lord who had prospered them.
Deuteronomy 26: 10 – 15
10 And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God:
11 And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you.
12 When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled;
13 Then thou shalt say before the LORD thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them.
14 I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead: but I have hearkened to the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me.
15 Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
RECAP
How important is tithing to God?
First, Biblical tithing was ONLY important to God concerning his Covenant with ancient Israel. Giving a tenth of the agricultural produce and livestock is how God instructed them to show their gratitude, acknowledge Him as the Lord of all the land, and remind the ancient Israelites that God was the source of all their blessings.
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Discover the hidden truth about tithes the church doesn’t want you to know. Click here. All verses listed are from the King James Version of the Bible unless stated otherwise.
