Abraham lived hundreds of years before Moses, and therefore, the law. It was Abraham who was reckoned righteous without circumcision. Counted righteous without the ordinances of Moses, and the Ten Commandments. It is his faith that is set up for us as a model for our own. Simply trust God, through Christ, because of what Christ did, and you will be saved.

One other thing Abraham experienced before Moses is the practice of giving ten per-cent. We are not told, beyond the incident in Genesis 14, where that idea came from, any more than we are told where the recipient of that tithe– Melchizedek – came from, but there they are, very suddenly, very early in the salvation story, the “king of righteousness” and a respectful Abraham giving him a tenth of all the spoils he had just received, in the battle against the kings who had kidnapped his nephew.

It’s a mysterious beginning for such an important part of Jewish history. It continues with Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, in Genesis 28. This is the story of his flight from Canaan to spend some time with uncle Laban. Twenty years, to be exact. On the way, the famous vision of the ladder to Heaven, which Jesus later explained to be Himself. The morning following this dream, Jacob, who will later be Israel, promises to the God of the vision and of that place, the God of the House of God, Bethel, that from this point on, one-tenth of all his revenue will be the Lord’s.

The principle had been, and then was, passed on.

In both of these instances, the word “give” and not “pay” is used. The persons offering the tithe truly believed they were giving a gift to the Lord, and would have it no other way. Only slowly and much later did this giving become a burdensome payment, and then, by many, dropped altogether.

We see the “tenth” used often during the law, where the practice becomes a part of the Jewish life and worship. And not just money is taken into account, but as was the culture of the day, livestock and grain was the currency, and was therefore tithed. In Deuteronomy we see tithes connected to offerings, helping us to understand even 1400 years before the church age, that a particular per-cent was not the ultimate object here.

And of course there is Malachi 3, that famous passage about robbing God by not giving tithes and offerings. Hearts had surely changed in the 1,600 years since Abraham met Melchizedek.

It would get worse. A holiness movement that arose “between the Testaments”, about 200 B.C., intending to reform the unrighteous, secular-minded Jews of the day, went to the opposite extreme of fleshly living by becoming very exact and demanding in the Mosaic observances. They, for one thing, were very adept at tithing the smallest amounts of their smallest herbs, but with all of this, they did not have a heart for God. Jesus rebuked them, even though the tithe was in place. God looks for more than an accountant when He is scanning His people.

The only other time we read of the tithe in the Bible is in Hebrews 7:5-9, a recounting of the story we mentioned above about Abraham and Melchizedek. And there, it is assumed already that the Jewish people to whom the book is written, believe in the tithe and are practicing it.

It would seem, then, that neither Jesus nor the apostles gave a clear command to first‑century Christians, at least the Gentiles, about the ten per‑cent payment principle. Yet today, Christian leaders teach tithing to their people as though the New Testament abounded with this concept.

The argument goes something like this: Tithing was in effect long before the law of Moses (valid). Tithing therefore is an "eternal" principle (possibly). So, we too must pay our tithes into the storehouse (using Malachi's terminology). Now, the storehouse, they suggest, is the local church to which you belong. (Hard to prove, but makes sense.)

Monies thus collected then go to pay for an assorted variety of expenses, most of which have to do with local concerns of that fellowship, and most of those concerns center around the building in which the group meets. Justification for this is found in the great amount of material wealth spent on the temple etc.

Oh, could it be that we've drifted a long way from the path trod for us by the original church?

It seems to me that cash collected in the early church was given to:

• the man of God who was unable to gain regular employment because of his itinerant ways (although Paul often refused it anyway!)

• elders worthy of "double honor" because of their extra labors in the church

• the needy in their fellowship and other fellowships.

The collections were given to apostles to carry to other places. Churches did not deem that that money was their own, and individuals were taught to have this attitude also.

No mention of a percentage is given in the New Testament because people in love with Jesus give everything. The concept of legalistic tithing, as a payment, is an inferior one to the person whose entire fortune has been given to God's use. The early Christians sold what they absolutely did not need, gave the entire proceeds to the church, and allowed the church to distribute to the needy.

No one was, or indeed should be, forced into this way of life. Forced sharing became known in history as communism. But voluntary sharing, Christianity at its best, there was. And the storehouse? Simply the People of God, whatever their location, whenever a need existed. And in those days the "needs" had nothing to do with those money‑draining edifices called "church buildings", since they were not introduced until the days of Constantine.

So why is a legalistic tithing practically the universal way among us? Could it be that slowly the church drifted back to a Judaism mindset, encouraged later by a priesthood which also resembled the Jewish way? The first love left, and rules remained? What better rule, thought the church, than God's rule to His Old Covenant people? Oh, it's logical enough. But it is a tradition, nonetheless, with very little support by apostolic writings, at least the ones I could find.

This is not, in any way, to condemn tithing or tither. Some need to grow enough to give even that much. My point is that Jesus wants it all, from His true love slaves, and that, even though the tithe is of Jewish origin, whenever ritual, rite, or habit, replace the moving of the Holy Ghost, there is vain religion. Whenever a man feels good because he performed a religious act "for God," he misses out on the greater "feeling" of the acts of grace that his God wishes to put in him. Whenever one ignores the New Testament picture of joyful giving and substitutes joyless paying, he has entered Enemy ground, has become merely outwardly religious, and is in grave danger.

For those who will cling to the tithe, and add to it the offering, or from the heart give the tithe as an offering, as did Abraham and Jacob, the blessing of God for sure. For those who, like the Pharisees, will be bound by a slavish commitment to this and other laws of Moses, out of a false sense of duty to God, we must offer a warning. God may not be in it, and disappointment, or something much more harsh, may be in your future.

We would especially warn preachers, on TV or off, who beat their people over the head about tithing so as to keep the church finances in order, rather than telling their people to give as their heart dictates. And of course, pastor, if their heart does not dictate anything, or very little, the job is to work on the hearts, not start a “giving” campaign.