Chapter 17: Myth—Giving 10% Is A Tithe

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Myth—Giving 10% Is A Tithe

Paul teaches the Law was given to Moses 430 years after God made

the covenant with Abraham. How did Abraham come to such faith? It was a decision of his heart, in the bowels of his soul, that God was real. God had already promised to multiply Abraham’s descendents through an heir of Isaac. Abraham reasoned that if God could produce a son in his old age, He

was in control and could restore Isaac if he was killed. Abraham trusted God and ultimately that is what real faith is all about. His trust allowed him to do what was right in God’s eyes, not his own eyes or the eyes of mankind. Abraham took God’s two great commandments into his heart knowledge,

even though those commandments had not yet been written.

It is not good enough to “claim you are in Christ” without actually being able to demonstrate the outcome of that belief. There is not a person

alive truly in Christ, which can teach a distorted message of what the Word says. Your belief in Jesus Christ has to be translated into obedience to God. An apostate tithe message comes from someone who does not have a sincere and true belief like Abraham. People of God do not misrepresent God.

Faith is a decision of the heart. It leads to trust and then to obedience. Faith, trust and obedience are resident inside the heart of all true believers. When these attributes reside in your heart, it leads to a strong desire on your

soul to always “do what is right.” Doing what is right is being righteous, just like Jesus Christ. What starts as a decision of the heart, is ultimately manifested by the righteous behavior of our actions. Do you remember that this is one of the weightier matters of the Law that Jesus talked about in

Matthew 23:23? The requirement to “do right.”

If you can understand that the outcome of real faith is righteousness, you can understand why Apostle James taught you that faith without works

is dead. James is simply stating that those who really have faith [know God] will demonstrate that faith and knowledge of God by doing the right thing. It also explains why Apostle Paul taught that those who really believed in their hearts would do so “unto righteousness.” Therefore, true faith leads to righteous behavior even if it does not lead to perfection. The contrast is

simple; keeping the Law won’t lead you to righteousness. Righteousness is the outcome of true faith in our hearts for God and His Son.