- Should Christians tithe?
- Should we borrow money(credit) to buy goods?
- Is it wrong to be wealthy?
- You say God provided for everyone and we should trust him but what about Christians in Ethiopia and place where they are starving?
- So how should we respond to poverty?
- Do we respond to every need we see?
Tithing means giving 10%, it is an Old Testament norm, and many argue that it is not binding on the New Testament believers. I think that is right but I have also been interested to read Luke 11:37f where Jesus speaks woes against the Pharisees. Jesus point is that it is their legalism that is wrong not their tithing, (42) Jesus specifically says they should tithe but they should also respond to the needs for justice and God's love. In other words tithing is not enough! Surely the call is for greater generosity than tithing. We aren't meant to sit down with the calculator and our wage slip and work out 10% we are meant to look at God's gift and love at the cross and allow that to change our hearts so we give. Though I think the idea of tithing may be a helpful discussion point when we begin thinking about how much we give so we can then go beyond it. Though we must also bear in mind the directives about providing for our family, so in some cases 10% may be too much in others way to little.
As for Christians using credit or Hire Purchase to buy goods. The big question here is do you want it because of need or greed. Most of things bought on Credit are electrical appliances, furniture etc... Do we need them or have we given in to advertising creating a desire for them. Often applying that test removes the need to buy the object in the first place. But what about where there is a need, say someones car breaks and they don't have the £1000 to fix it. Old Testament practice was to lend money within the covenant community without charging interest, this may be something we should look at in our churches.
It is not wrong to be wealthy, Old Testament patriarchs were wealthy, and in the New Testament there are wealthy people in the church. What is striking about these people is that they are generous, they give away their wealth for God's glory, they do not view it as theirs but as God given for their stewardship for his glory. To amend spiderman with great God given wealth comes great responsibility.
What about those Christians in parts of the world who do not have enough? At root behind this question is the bigger question can I trust God? The answer is yes. Did you know that it is predicted that obese children will soon outnumber malnourished children in the world. That bald statistic alone shows that God has provided for them. It is just that he has given what they need into our stewardship and we aren't very good stewards.
So how should we respond to poverty? We must pray, we must also recognise that discipleship calls for us to radically alter our view of need and how we use the money God has given us. Churches need to start using the wealth God has given them to alleviate poverty. It is certainly something that we see the early church doing. Just think how many people could be fed or housed or helped if for every £1 we spent renovating a church building a £1 went to alleviating a need. Of course we need to do more than just that, we need to actually love people, build relationships with them, invite them into the church community
Should we respond to every need we see? I think actually a bigger problem is that we don't see needs, we live in isolated worlds where very often we are not aware of the needs of those we sit next to in church let alone those we live amongst. We should be looking to respond to needs we see but we need to think through how we respond. Friendship may actually be a greater need than money, help accessing benefits may be more loving than and gift card for the supermarket. A budgeting course may be more beneficial and more loving than a cheque.
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