[Secret of Blessing] Do You Give the Whole Tithe?

God cannot be tempted by evil and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But Malachi 3:10 said, "'Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,' says the LORD of hosts, 'if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.'" What is the reason?

Tithe is a tenth of our earnings and profits given to God. This is God's commandment that was given to the Israelites after the Exodus. It doesn't mean that we must keep all commandments in the Old Testament times the way the people of the time did, but still the meaning embedded in the commandments doesn't disappear even in the New Testament times (Matthew 5:17). We need to understand God's will in tithing and keep it more completely.

Malachi 3:8-9 says, "Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, 'How have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you!" In other words, God says that not giving tithes and offerings is the sin of robbing Him.

Matthew 23:23 reads, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others." It means that we should give tithe with justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Namely, we should give with love and devotion to God and according to the purpose of the commandment.

Giving tithes and keeping the Sabbath are proofs that show you fulfill your duty as God's children and they are the expressions of faith in and love for God. Giving tithes demonstrates your faith and acknowledgement in God the Creator as the One who holds your material sovereignty and it also shows your thanks and love to God who gives you the income.


* Do you give a tenth of your total income?

Let's say your monthly income is a thousand dollars but you receive eight hundred dollars due to the deductions for tax, pensions, and insurance premiums. Then, how much should you give as tithe? Because you should pay considering your total income, you must give a tenth of your total income that is the amount before the deductions.

If you have non-standard income or profit like a meal somebody treats you to or gifts you receive, you also have to give tithes on them. At times you may not know the exact value of the gift but consider that it's better to give sufficient tithe. We can say we give whole tithe after giving tithes of all things that you receive from others.


* Do you give tithes separately from other offerings?

You need to check if you use your tithe in helping the poor or the mission works. Some people give a portion of their tithe as other offerings. Others ask the church to use their tithe for charitable works.

But the tithe should be set aside as God's. Thus, you should give tithe separately from other offerings. If you give the money that you are supposed to give as your tithe in other forms of offerings, you rob God by arbitrarily designating the use of what is His. So it's not right. We should bear in mind that we rob God in both cases of not giving the whole tithe, and of giving tithes in wrong ways.


* Do you give tithes to the church where you are provided with spiritual food?

If the church you attend and the church where you are provided with spiritual food are different, where do you have to give tithes? If a person with an incurable disease was healed or had quality of life restored in a hospital, he/she has to pay the hospital for it. The same applies to tithes. The church that plants faith in you and gives you life by providing you with spiritual messages is the church that your soul belongs to, so you should give tithe to that church.


* Do you give tithes under your name?

You should check if you give tithes under the names of your family or together as a couple. God repays us according to what we've done as individuals, so we should give tithes under our own name.

Of course, if a wife gives tithes under her unbelieving husband's name so that he can receive blessing, God might give a chance of salvation to him seeing her faith and love. But she has to help him accept the Lord and have faith first. Additionally, we must teach our children to give tithes for themselves.

But there are exceptional cases. If parents give an inheritance of property to their child and spouse as co-owners or a married couple runs a business together, it's not wrong for them to give tithes under their names together. Or they can divide their income into half or a certain ratio and give tithes under each one's name.


* Do you give tithes more than once a month?

You can give whole tithes when you give it every time you receive earnings or profit in gifts, or by calculating the amount on a monthly basis. In a farming industry, people have an annual income or irregular income because they earn money from harvesting and selling crops. But they also give tithes whenever they have income in the form of other profit or gifts.

If a husband gives a living expense to his wife after setting aside tithes from his income, she doesn't have to give a tithe again. Children also should give tithes when they receive allowance and gifts, but when they receive some money for specific purposes like tuition fee or school supplies, they don't have to give tithes on these kinds of amounts. This is because the money is not their earning. Parents should give tithes of birthday presents that their children receive even if they are new-born babies or little children.

If your child receives expensive gifts like a computer or a piano, his/her parents should give a tithe for their child under his/her name. But if it's too expensive for even the parents to give its tithe or if the parents are non-believers, God doesn't say that the child did not give the tithe.

When children receive a certain scholarship, their parents give tithes under their children's names or under their own names because the parents are supposed to pay the tuition. Because students in poverty have to use all scholarship money for tuition fee, it is not a necessity for them to give tithes at that time, but whenever they have earnings or after they get a job and have a regular earning then they can pay.


* Do you set aside tithes first before all other expenses?

When you set aside tithes from your earnings first and before any and all other expenses, you can avoid the situation where you can't give tithes due to lack of money. If you have taken a loan from a bank for business funds investment or for your home, you should consider it your income. So those with faith borrow enough money to pay the expense and also give the tithe from the loan amount. If you can't borrow enough money to give tithes, you must rethink "Is it right time to put my plan into action?" It is right to do it when you can give tithes.

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