No, paying tithe can’t save us — no more than you or I can be saved by any other “good work.” We are simply saved by grace through faith (see Eph. 4:6). However, through tithing, God has provided a living allegory to teach and reassure us of His ability to save His children. Tithing is a beautiful God-given opportunity to experience His grace.
By Malachi’s definition, our tithe already belongs to God. He loans it to us as an opportunity to learn of His faithfulness as we exercise our faith. God promises that if we bring our tithe to His storehouse, He will open the windows of Heaven and pour out blessings beyond our imagination. The question has always been, "Will you and I believe that God can be trusted to do what He says He will do?"
I know of a church that faced a financial dilemma. Small in number, without much money, and in the middle of a building project gone awry, members sold their old church believing they would have sufficient funds to build the new church. They rented the town hall as a temporary meeting place, anticipating they would be worshipping in a beautiful new sanctuary before long. Then, everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
Costs to develop the site began to escalate. A number of other issues began to pop up, turning the project into a financial nightmare. Suddenly, this little group was staring at an additional $250,000 more than anticipated to finish the project.
Month after month, the project stood at a standstill. The little group became restless. Meeting in the town hall was less than desirable, and they became more discouraged.
In an attempt to rescue the project, some began to divert their tithe to the building program. After all, how in the world would it ever get finished otherwise? This continued for months, and then years.
Discouraged with their lack of progress, they came to the conclusion one day that they needed to turn this project over to God. They needed a miracle!
While studying and praying together they were impressed that if they were going to give this project over to God, they were going to have to get serious about following His counsel in Scripture. They began by encouraging each other to return a faithful tithe, according to God's instructions. This was no doubt counterintuitive since, even with the diverted tithe funds, they had been unable to make ends meet. What would happen to their bills now?
To their surprise, and with no one really understanding how it happened, the building project was soon up and running again. Within a short time it was completed and paid for!
Plain and simple, by diverting their tithe to finish the project, members had adopted a financial “righteousness by works” approach. On their own, they tried to do something that only God could do. The result was failure.
We must come to understand that we have no ability to save ourselves through good works, nor do we have the ability to fund all that God has directed His church to accomplish on our own. Both are fully dependent on God.
Without God, the members were unable to handle the church project. The adopted “works” orientation was leading the church to ruin as certain as it will sabotage our journey to the Kingdom. When members decided to return to God’s plan to care for His church, the One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills provided all they needed. In the same way, God invites us to trust His plan to save us.
I am concerned that a growing number are missing out on God's blessing, and His plan to teach us that He can be trusted. Despite God's clear counsel on the subject, a number within the church are either not returning God's tithe, or diverting it to ministries or projects of their own choosing. They reason that they are responding to a greater need, they disagree with church management, or they feel they have a better plan for how the tithe should be used.
Do other ministries need money? Are there areas where we could improve our management? Obviously the answer is “Yes.” But does that justify abandoning God’s perfect plan to take care of His work? Should we choose to rely on our own plans and resources instead of His? The answer is found over and over again in the stories of Scripture.
When God told Abraham and Sarah they were going to have a child and that their family would outnumber the stars in the heavens, and the sands of the seas, they laughed! Had God not noticed their age? With all sincerity, Abraham and Sarah came up with their own plan to fulfill the promise of God. They reasoned that by including Hagar, they could bring about the fulfillment of God's promise. We all know how that story turned out.
In order for God’s plan to be implemented, Ishmael had to be sent away because of the threat he was to Isaac. In the same way, we must abort our own schemes and methods to fund our mission and rely on God’s simple plan of trusting Him, living by faith in what He will provide.
Is it possible that you have fallen into the trap of trying to fulfill a project or ministry outside of God’s plan? Not following God’s plan is the surest way to ruin a project, cripple a ministry, or even miss out on the personal blessings God has in store for you or your family.
By faithfully returning God's tithe, especially when our human wisdom or perspective counters the notion, we give God an opportunity to open the windows of Heaven. As we experience God’s faithfulness in providing for our financial needs, our hearts learn to trust Him at an even deeper level as “the God of our Salvation" (see Ps. 24:6).
Gary Thurber is the Indiana Conference president.
