TITHING

For what matter is TITHE? The word means "a tenth part." In the Old Testament, God commanded the spiritual Israelites to give one tenth of their spiritual produce or income for one of these three reasons:
1) To support the spiritual Levites, who were responsible for the spiritual tabernacle and worship.
2) To support various spiritual feasts and sacrifices, some of which lasted more than one or two days and were times of joyous celebration and thanksgiving.
3) To establish a pool of spiritual resources to help the poor of spirit, orphans and widows, and the spiritual strangers in the land.
In the New Testament, neither Christ nor the apostles gave any explicit instructions about tithing. Jesus clearly endorsed it, as He did all the Spiritual Law. He denounced the hypocritical way that the Pharisees ignored the "spiritual weightier matters" of the Law - Justice, Mercy, and Faith. But those "spiritual heavy duty" issues by no way negated such "lightweight matters" as tithing.
So what is the place of tithing in out time? Well, as Christians, our spiritual allegiance is to Christ. He is our Spiritual Law. Our giving needs spring from "a sincere LOVE of Christ," not a slavish obedience to a percentage standard given by human perspective to God.
When Abraham gave the first tithe to God and it is recorded in the Bible, he did it as a sincere expression of gratitude for the spiritual deliverance that God did of him in the spiritual battles that he encounter. Throughout the Scripture our sincere Love for Christ is the manifestation of our spiritual tithing that our hearts do to Him in our daily worshipping. All that comes from Him is written and kept in our hearts as a manifestation of His Spirit in us, not just what we give away with an empty heart.
Jesus Christ has total claim on 100 percent of our spiritual income, not just 10 percent.
No matter how much we give in material things or to whom, Matthew, the apostle, indicates that our first priority should be to ensure that JUSTICE IS CARRIED OUT AROUND US, THAT WE SHOW MERCY TO OUR "NEIGHBORS," AND THAT WE PRACTICE OUR FAITH AND NOT JUST TALK ABOUT IT." In the end, it is through our obedience that Jesus increases our faith.