Further clarification on tithing

I am blogging in response to a comment posted by a brother-in-Christ on my previous post 'Tithing'.  Firstly, I agree with him that whatever we do (e.g. giving), we should do it with love in our hearts and with a spirit of willingness. We do it because we love the Lord and honor Him.

However, I would like to address some of the points with excerpts of a sermon (Benefits of Tithing) preached by Pastor Joseph Prince. Firstly, let’s look at the audience which God is addressing in Malachi 3:10 where He talks about tithing. In Malachi 3:1-5, God talks about the coming messenger (Jesus) but He is referring to the second coming of Christ, not the first coming. Hence, in the context of tithing, God is clearly addressing our generation, not people of the Old Testament.
  
Secondly, in Malachi 3:9, God says that ‘You are cursed with a curse’ but it is not God who is cursing us for we know that since Adam fell, the earth or the ground is cursed (Genesis 3:17). As believers, we are not under the curse because Christ has redeemed us from the curse. However, the things we receive from the ground (e.g. our wages) are tainted with a curse. But God is good. He wants to bless the entire income that we receive. Romans 11:16 says that ‘If the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy.’ So when we bring our firstfruits of our income, God blesses the entire income.

In New Creation Church, I know that my brothers and sisters do tithe. We are not paying our tithes but we are bringing our tithes to the Lord. We are taught that the firstfruits belong to the Lord, yet He will not force us to tithe. For us, it is not a commandment because tithing is not under law. In fact, long before the law was given, Abraham already tithed to Melchizedek (a type of Christ) in Genesis 14:18-20.  God wants us to willingly bring the firstfruits to Him for afterall, it is the Lord who gives us the power to obtain wealth (Deut 8:18)

Lastly, Hebrews 7:8 says ‘Here mortal men receive tithes, but there He (Christ) receives them, of whom it is witnessed that He lives.’ When we tithe, Jesus receives our tithes through our church and Jesus shows Himself alive in our lives. The tithes witness the blessings of God which is so evident to people around us.  The result is like Malachi 3:12 ‘And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land.’ Indeed, people call us blessed.

In the final analysis, whether we tithe or not is really between us and the Lord. But I write this to the benefit of my brothers and sisters in Christ in the hope that they will too be richly blessed in understanding the principle of tithing.