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The Old Versus The New |
| Date Added: May 22, 2010 02:17:09 AM |
| Author: Patrick Waide |
| Category: Christian Internet Sites: Christian Chats and Forums |
| Ignorance is by far one of the greatest enemies of many Christians, not the devil. We are deceived by thinking the devil is our biggest adversary. We should not think so; he has been defeated already! Even in our world today, more people die from what they don’t know than from what they know. The church is no different. We have replaced humility with stupidity. We are dying within and no one is saying anything. We have got questions but yet we live life daily having them unanswered. We are deceived always but it’s fine as long as no one gets hurt. Have you heard the statement that ‘evil prevails because good men refuse to do something’? Why then do we turn a blind eye to our derelict situation? Or isn’t it bad enough for us to say something? For this very reason, we are advised by Jesus to be as wise as serpents (Matthew 10:16). ? The people of God perish for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). It might seem as though what you don’t know will not hurt you, but it could be the very thing that will cause you great harm. Knowledge delivers (Proverbs 11:9). In recent times, I have come to really appreciate a particular scripture that says a lot about the difficulty we human beings experience with regards to embracing change; the Old versus the New. ? And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. No man also having drunk old wine immediately desireth new: for he saith, the old is better (Luke 5:37-39). ? This statement above is credited to Jesus. It was in relations to the question he was asked regarding prayer and fasting. John the Baptist’s disciples had approached him concerning these subjects, and asked why his disciples were not doing like the rest of them and the Pharisees, but rather were eating and drinking. He answered them intelligently like he always did, speaking in parables and using the word mourning interchangeably with fasting (read Matthew 9:14-17). But the highlight of this whole discussion was when he concluded by saying, ‘No man also having drunk old wine immediately desireth new: for he saith, the old is better’. This pointed out the difficulty people have with change. As human beings, change is not welcomed easily; we sometimes fight and reject it probably because we don’t appreciate the freshness it ushers in. This was what the disciples of John and most of the Jewish people in that era battled with; the Old versus the New. ? Sometimes in life, the need to become accustomed to something new is necessary. Although it’s going to take a lot of adjusting to, it’s important. As Christians, we find it very difficult to adapt to change, especially when it has to do with our belief system. Typical of the statement made by Jesus, we would rather prefer to stay with what we have always known regardless of its inaccuracies and flaws. We occasionally think it’s safer to be this way; not disturbing the status quo. One of such areas of serious contention is the subject of Tithe. From asking questions of whether it’s 10% of your gross earnings or net income, to questions of whether it should be paid at all, we have always had numerous controversies surrounding this ancient practice. ? In most church services, the time for the tithes and offerings to be collected is now being labeled as the best part of the liturgy. Why is this so? Well, the various reasons given range from, ‘it’s the time to get blessed’, ‘it’s time for your breakthrough’, ‘connect your blessing’, ‘give your way out of poverty’, ‘secure the promotion now’, and the list goes on. Different ‘incentives’ are presented before the average Christian making him buy into the whole charade. He is told about all the good things that can happen after he has given. He is also told about how life can become better; sometimes promising that the results can be instantaneous! In some cases, some have been threatened with curses and hardship if ‘they don’t obey the Spirit of God and give’. There are also others who even go as far as telling business people to incorporate their businesses into paying the tithe of the revenues received. They say you tithe as an individual, and your business tithes as a separate entity! Why do all of these things happen? Often, the survival of the local assemblies, ministers, and ministries depend on what the people bring in. God will keep his church. Jesus said he will build his church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Men build ministries, but God is building his church; the people. ? We think the word tithe is something mystical or spiritual, when it is just a simple term that means ten percent! It was a temple levy which the Jews were required to pay. Each individual was required to bring ten percent of his harvest, and livestock produce to the temple (Leviticus 27:30, 32; Numbers 18:26; Deuteronomy 14:22). It was the Levites’ portion and inheritance. But have you noticed that it was only instituted as law with the introduction of the temple and the whole sacrificial system? This means no temple no tithes. Why pay a levy when the institution or system for which it was established no longer exists? Or you think the church is the ‘new’ temple? We pride ourselves so much in having a much better covenant and promises from God today, but we hold on to old and outdated practices of times past as though we were the ones who received them first hand. ? For us Christians, we have created so much out of something so simple; at least Jesus himself had the same opinion (Matthew 23:23). In his statement, he called the tithe a less weighty issue of the law. I’m sure this will offend some of our ardent tithe givers and teachers. But these are the very words of the man we claim to follow. How come then we make it the most important part of our service towards God? Or is it the preachers that have made it seem so? God definitely had a reason for incorporating the practice into the system back then. But does it apply to me today? We have all got one form of inheritance or the other. Our inheritance in this case is that we are free to work or do business in order to earn a living. No single individual, I contend, has been instructed to forbid work or business to preach the gospel. Some preachers say, ‘don’t go fulltime until your time is full’, suggesting that there will be a time when you will do nothing else but preach the gospel as a ‘called’ individual. Does this mean that Paul was a part time preacher because he worked while he preached? Or are we more challenged to preach the gospel today than it was for Paul in his days? Personally, I think many preachers just want to take the shortcut. ? Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labor and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample to you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread (2 Thessalonians 3:6-12). ? Paul had a few problems with the church at Thessalonica. One of such was the issue of work. Some of the individuals hated manual labour, and were just loafers sponging on the generosity of others for a living. They didn’t want to work! For some of them, the reason they abstained from work was because they thought that since Jesus was returning soon, there wasn’t any need to be engaged in daily work. But they were wrong as Paul pointed out. He worked to earn a living himself even though he preached the gospel. So what excuse did they have? This was a man who traveled extensively to preach in many parts of the then known world, established numerous churches, had many converts, faced imprisonment, was shipwrecked, stood before rulers, often beaten, but yet still found time to do something basic and natural as working to earn a living. What excuse do we have? ? Back to the subject of tithes, the first record in the bible of anyone ever receiving or giving it was that which ensued between Abram and Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18-20). This goes to show that the practice of giving tithe or ten percent of anything was a system in place long before the law came into being. Now the question we should ask ourselves is where did Abram learn to give ten percent of everything if he lived many years before the law? He must have at least had a precedent. My point being, it must have been a cultural practice or tradition for him to give ten percent of the spoils of war to someone of a higher authority, whether a king or a ruler. And in this case that person was Melchizedek; a king and also a priest of God. It wasn’t anything spiritual; it was tradition. Although it typified certain things thousands of years later, it was still a simple cultural practice to Abram. ? This practice of giving a tenth of everything was included into the law when the temple was built and a new community was established after the exodus from Egypt. It can now be seen how the practice came from a cultural setting and evolved into becoming part of the law. But now that the requirements of the law have been fulfilled in Christ does it still stand (Matthew 5:17; Ephesians 2:15; Colossians 2:14; Hebrews 8:13)? Even the law it was incorporated into was not given to me but to the Israelites to abide by until Christ came. Besides, the law given to them has even been made obsolete through Christ. Bear in mind that we were also considered as gentiles. We were not part of the covenant nation of Israel; meaning the practices didn’t apply to us. ? For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law to themselves (Romans 2:14). ? Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. ? But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster (Galatians 3:24-25). ? Even the children of Israel no longer had any use for the law and its practices after the death and resurrection of Christ. It was done away with once and for all through his death (Hebrews 10:10). This is the reason Paul strongly stood against the Jews who were advocating obedience of the Law of Moses to some Christian converts who were formerly gentiles (Acts 15:1-29). They were encouraging people to practice laws that they could not obey themselves nor could make them righteous before God. ? But some will argue that Jesus spoke about the legitimacy of paying tithes even though he called it a lesser issue of the law. But don’t they know that Jesus was born under the law (Galatians 4:4)? And that the practices of his day were still entrenched in the law. The payment of tithe was still being carried out then. Even when he spoke about the subject as recorded in Matthew chapter 23, the law was still operational. His death and resurrection was what brought an end to this. He never advocated its continuation. Think of this, if it was okay for us to continue with paying tithes, then we might has well bring back the entire sacrificial system, the law of Moses, and rebuild the temple as some still believe will happen. You can’t practice one and leave the other out (Galatians 3:10). Since the priesthood changed, the law also needed to change (Hebrews 7:12). ? So what am I saying in essence? Payment of tithe is an old practice that was necessary for the time it was in use. Although many churches and people benefit from such income today, it’s not for our time. Don’t you even see that it makes people tightfisted? When the average Christian gets money, automatically his brain has been programmed to part with ten percent of the money because it is what he has come to know. Even if he can afford to give thirty percent of that particular income, ten percent will still be what he will give because he believes that it’s the portion that needs to be given. This is reason the law of ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ have many limitations and can not bring us to the point God wants us to be. When a certain percentage is attached to your giving, then it slides from an act of benevolence into that of compulsion. It becomes a law. And this limits you in your acts of generosity. Even Paul was aware of this when he told the believers in Corinth to give as they purposed in their hearts. Why didn’t he just tell them to give ten percent? He knew it was no longer a law of written codes as in the Old Testament, but an unwritten law of the spirit. Just to add to this, don’t think you pay tithe when what you give is more than ten percent. The word tithe simply means a tenth. ? If you read through the New Testament writings, you will see that there were no instructions that people should pay tithe. Remember that when Jesus spoke about the subject in the book of Matthew the law was still in place. And when it was mentioned in the book of Hebrews, the writer was making a reference to the superiority of Christ, and the need for a change of priesthood. Even with the emergence of the church on the day of Pentecost, people who sold their property didn’t bring ten percent of what they sold, but brought as they could afford. Some must have given everything, while others gave some. It was no longer about obeying certain laws, but about what a renewed heart led you to do. There was a need in the church back then. The newly established community of believers needed food and other relief materials. Those who had more than enough contributed wholeheartedly without holding back; even those who had little also gave and no one had two little or too much (Acts 2:44-45, 4:32-37). They shared all things in common. ? Paul in his writings supported and encouraged Christians to be favourably disposed towards acts of liberality. This is the will of God. The decision to give is the individual’s prerogative. Each person should decide on what is needful to give at every point. But the case is the reverse today. Your pastor determines what a ‘good seed’ is. He tells you what level your contribution should commence from. If it’s less than what he has declared to you ‘by the Spirit of God’ to give, he will be quick to tell you that ‘you should obey the Spirit and not fight it’. It’s all a ploy to get money from you and meet the ministry’s target. Sadly, many of us fall prey to these schemes. ? For any human being, generosity is a virtue that is required of us all; it’s not just a Christian thing. We are all expected to be kindhearted towards one another. The problem for us Christians is that we have attached a lot of spiritual connotations to this virtue. We either think God must tell us when or who to be generous towards. At every opportunity to give, we sometimes consult with God regarding our expectations saying, ‘Father I’m expecting a harvest from this’. Can’t we give without expecting anything back in return? Or why should we have a price tag attached to our acts of kindness? ? There is a lot we can learn from the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Unlike the Levite and the priest that passed by, the Samaritan attended to the robbery victim. He did not care who the man was or what religion he practiced. What was uppermost on his mind was getting this stranger back on his feet. It didn’t matter if he was a Jew or Samaritan. What concerned him most was that the man needed help. But that’s not our case today. We are ‘trained’ to give only when it comes to church projects. We are told that giving to beggars on the road side is a waste of resources as that doesn’t guarantee a harvest because such people are not ‘good ground’ to sow into. Even within the church, amongst believers, certain individuals are considered as less productive when it comes to the good ground principle; a pastor is seen as a more ‘fertile ground’ in comparison to the average church member. ? Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said; Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy: But I say to you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them who love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:42-48). ? By Patrick Waide http://www.churchworld.webs.com |
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