Several weeks ago, we started talking about religious burdens which add all kinds of human regulations to God’s word. The number of people who are considered “unchurched” has been growing rapidly. Yet many Christians accuse the unchurched of rebellion, trying to remove the speck from their brother’s eye and ignoring the log in their own. (Matthew 7:3-5) Rather than pointing an accusing finger, they need to repent for the ways they have used people instead of serving them. They need to repent for piling heavy burdens on people and honoring tradition and the status-quo paradigm over God’s Word. Jesus was moved with compassion for the people because they were like sheep without a shepherd. It wasn’t because they didn’t have religious leaders. It wasn’t because they were “rebellious sheep.” It was because the religious leaders were not shepherding God’s flock.

I was going to expound on these religious burdens in-depth, but I felt that the Lord was leading me instead to answer three questions that people often ask when judging by outward appearances. In Part One, we discussed the question, “What Church Do You Go To?” and my answer “I belong to the church in Goiânia, Brazil.” In Part Two, we discussed the question, “Who is your pastor?” and my answer, “Jesus is my pastor.” Today, in Part Three we consider the question, “Are you a regular tither?” and my answer, “No, I’m not a tither.”

The Bible teaches that it’s important to be in Christian fellowship, be teachable and accountable, respect and listen to elders in the faith, and give generously. However, religiosity conflates these commands into much more than the Bible teaches. Consequently, many who are considered “unchurched” are actually obeying these teachings of scripture even more so than those who wrongly judge them! Not all who are called “unchurched” actually are “unchurched!”

We’ve dealt so thoroughly with the issue of tithing before, in previous blog posts and in the book The Trojan Horse of Tithing, available for free in most places. So to finish up this series today, I’ll share my sincere response briefly.

You’re in Sin if You’re Trying to Evaluate People’s Character with this Question!

Jesus taught, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” (Matthew 18:15) Paul wrote, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.”(Galatians 6:1)

A person who uses a question about tithing to evaluate others’ character is in sin for multiple reasons. They may love the Lord and not be deliberately in sin.

Ps. 19:12-13 (NIV) But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression.

We may not realize how we have sinned against, wronged, or hurt other people. But for the sake of the church’s unity and many other reasons, scripture commands us to show our brother if he has sinned against us.

If you ask about me tithing in order to evaluate my character, you are sinning because Jesus taught me to give in secret for heavenly reward, not for favor with men. Yet you want me to disobey Jesus by telling you about what I give in order to gain favor with you. You are in sin because you have become a “judge with evil thoughts” in determining people’s standing in the church by financial criteria. (Of course it’s possible for a rich person or a poor person to tithe, but doing so is easy for a rich person yet often means neglecting one’s family and failing to pay what is owed for a poor person.)

You are in sin especially because you break God’s commands for the sake of your traditions. Do you think tithing as taught today is anything more than a command of men? If you’re here with me, let’s sit down, ask questions, read our Bibles, and go to the relevant passages. If not, read my plea to the church, The Trojan Horse of Tithing. When we face the facts, it’s clear that this isn’t a disputable matter. And in The Trojan Horse of Tithing, I shared nine specific commands of God that churches regularly break for their tithing tradition.

Titus chapter 1 calls teachers who use human commands to bring in the money, “rebellious.” You have a choice. Either submit to the correction of God’s word, listen when your brother shows you your sin, humble yourself – or live in rebellion against Jesus and the gospel, as did the Judaizers who the Bible rebukes in Titus 1, Acts 15, and the letter to the Galatians.

My Questions to the Religious Who Continue to Accuse

Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)  To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’” “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Many harden their hearts, refusing to listen when a brother shows them their sin. They refuse to be accountable or submit to scripture. All they have is accusations for those who don’t submit to their religious standards. They say, “You are just stingy. You just don’t want to give. Why don’t you do your part?” Here are some questions I’d ask them, at least in my own city.

You say, “You’re just stingy” to someone who is not a tither and prefers to obey Jesus and give in secret. If that’s so, why are a handful of people who don’t believe in tithing doing far more than any church I know in this city to help recovery houses every month? Many of these churches here have multi-million budgets. Can you show me one of the churches in my city that is teaching tithing and doing more for recovery houses than that small group of non-tithers? Do you want those non-tithers to stop doing the work of caring for the elderly and homeless so that they can tithe into your system that isn’t taking care of those elderly and homeless people?

I understand that you believe people should “do their part” because the overhead is expensive. But why are you complaining if I don’t really want your overhead anyway? Are you a better Christian because you meet in a building that costs 5 million? How many people in your own apartment building have been healed or delivered from demons? When was the last time you saw revival in a beauty salon or pizza shop? Maybe I just have different priorities than you.

Why are you more concerned with people serving your system than if your system is serving people? Have you considered how many people want Christian fellowship but the big budget that religiosity considers “essential” is cost-prohibitive for them? They have unpaid bills and rents, and barely have food at home. Roger Sapp shared about a situation that I have also seen personally. He went with a Canadian pastor who was visiting six widows who had stopped going to church. He soon realized that all six had stopped attending because they didn’t have money to tithe. If this is an issue in first-world countries like Canada, how much more so in poverty-stricken areas. I remember my elderly mother-in-law saying, “I can’t go to church tonight because I don’t have money.” What if your big budget excludes the poor rather than helping them? What if they feel ashamed to come because it’s all so expensive and they can’t afford it?

If a non-tither is serving people who may sometimes only have one or two meals a day, who can’t afford your expensive religious infrastructure, then why don’t you just leave them alone? What if I’m not in your church service but I’m in the homes of people who your church services aren’t reaching, sharing the gospel and watching Jesus heal them? Does that make me a “backslidden” Christian? Why does it seem that your churches spend 95% of their time and energy trying to reach people who have money, rather than trying to reach the people who need help the most?

Why does it seem like the only things you care about when evaluating someone’s faith are if you can control them and if they tithe? Why do you ask if I’m a faithful tither, but you don’t ask or care if I’m regularly and boldly testifying of Jesus? Why don’t you ask if I’m obeying Jesus’ commands?
Why do your actions show that it matters little to you if a pastor cheats on his wife, yet your religious system would never give a chance to someone who isn’t a faithful tither?
Why are you so adamant about me paying to hold together your system when it’s failing to produce disciples who obey Jesus?

I have different priorities than you. I don’t believe your value system and priorities are better. Your tithe doctrine enforces the division, carnality, and infighting that is so often the basis for the first question “What church do you go to?” and the second question, “Who is your pastor?” This doctrine hinders us from having a Biblical plurality of elders and enforces the one-man show in which “pastoring” is about control, not function. Your one-man show is in disobedience to the Bible’s instructions in 1st Corinthians 12-14 about the order of our services. How will we ever operate as the priesthood of all believers when the model is based on the Old Testament priesthood? Do you disagree? Show me how your people are disciples of Jesus, not mere spectators…

Your people are tithing and offering to be blessed and get their breakthrough every week. All I see that producing in your congregations is Christians who are always struggling, focused on themselves, powerless, and unsure of everything. If I’m wrong, show me your people boldly approaching God’s throne of grace, walking in God’s glory as heavenly people, full of joy and good fruit. I don’t see your system producing that.

I am not criticizing those who own or rent a building for ministry purposes if the Lord leads them. I am not criticizing those who receive an income doing ministry work or receive free-will offerings. I am responding to those who judge others by mere human commands and standards and want to control how they give. I’m responding to those who insist that others need to have the same expensive infrastructures and style of religious programming as they do in order to be disciples of Jesus.

I am for free-will giving, in secret if possible, to receive a heavenly reward rather than to seek favor with people. Jesus gave his life for us, so let’s lay down our lives for Jesus and for those He loves. Giving to be seen by people, tithing, and human commands stop or hinder many Christians from giving to the poor and giving as led by the Holy Spirit. Many religious Christians believe that someone giving to care for orphans should stop if it means they can’t first pay their tithe to a “local church. Yet scripture is clear that giving to the poor is one of the most important issues to God’s heart. It’s a major part of walking in God’s glory. We feel God’s heavenly atmosphere of love and glory as we give both earthly wealth and heavenly riches to meet people’s needs.

Matthew 6:1 (NIV) Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

Matthew 23:5-7, 27-28 (NIV) Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others….Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.