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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Part 9 The
Acts 15 Solution If what I’ve said so far concerning tithing not
being New Testament thinking isn’t convincing enough, I’ve got
another point you might want to consider.
One day a couple of Jews tell you that in order to be
a real Christian you need to become a Jew and obey the Law of Moses.
As a Gentile living a good distance from Paul had you water baptized when you gave your life
to Jesus but these men tell
you to get circumcised. Thoughts of such surgery is disconcerting to you
and makes you want to forget about Christianity altogether.
You soon discover that you’re not the only one
trapped between two ways of thinking. It has become a major problem
among all the new Gentile Christians.
As a result, the Christian leaders of the day, which includes
Paul, Peter, and James get
together to solve this problem. They
conclude that both Jews and Gentiles alike come to God through trusting
in Jesus alone, apart from the Law of Moses.
Jews themselves could never obey the Law so why should they
expect that you Gentiles could. (Acts
15:11) Paul told you that Jesus broke down the wall that
separated Jews from Gentiles. (Eph. 2:14)
For the purpose of salvation there’s no longer any difference
between the two groups of people. Besides,
Jesus said, “I will build ‘my’ ekklesia”. (Mat. 16:18)
Speaking Greek you understood Jesus to mean that He’d put
together His own “called out and separated people”, because that’s
what the word “ekklesia” means.
Just as God called out So the men in Acts 15, along with the Holy Spirit
conclude that they’d only give you Gentiles four things that you’d
“do well to avoid” which were found in the Law.
They are; abstain from foods offered to idols, abstain from
blood, abstain from the meat of strangled animals, and also abstain from
sexual immorality. (Acts
15:29) One thing you notice
is that tithing is not one of these
requirements to obey, something these Jewish men wanted you to do
as well. The last part of their decision found in Acts 15:29
says, “you will do well to avoid these things”.
That doesn’t sound like a strong heavy handed mandate to me.
Paul himself didn’t even follow the first requirement.
He saw no problem eating meat offered to idols as long as he
didn’t eat it in the context of a pagan ritual, or as long as his
eating didn’t destroy a brother’s faith. (1 Cor. 10:14 32)
To be clear, Paul did view sexual immorality as sin, something
Jesus called sin as well. As a new Gentile Christian you’d have been greatly
relieved. You
have no obligation to the Law of Moses.
You were never under the Law in the first place, and you’re not
under it now, and that includes the tithing laws.
Your obedience and allegiance is to the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Unless these early leaders and the Holy Spirit got it
all wrong, which I don’t believe they did, the Old Testament Law
according to Acts 15, which includes tithing stays in the Old Testament.
When Christians today revert back to living under such
Mosaic Laws as tithing and keeping the Sabbath they are in direct
opposition to what the Holy Spirit spoke in Acts 15. This
whole discussion ended in Acts 15. I
don’t know why we still have to deal with it today.
If we want to revert back and live under the Law, we’re like
the Judaizers in Intelligent
Giving 1 John 3:16 and 17 says, “this is how we know what
love is; Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.
And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need
but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with
actions and in truth.” John says that we should love, which obviously includes
giving money because Jesus loves us.
This means that Jesus motivates us to give, not
a law. John also points out that we have a responsibility to give
to our poor brothers. I
believe giving to our poor brothers is the first place where we should
give according to New Testament teaching.
Giving to poor brothers should be at the top of any
church’s list of expenditures. Giving material possessions which includes money
should be done in “action based on truth” according to John. This
means that we give intelligently according to the truth which is found
in Scripture. We don’t
throw our money at anything and everything that comes our way.
We think seriously about why, how and where to give.
From my vantage point much of the money we give to the modern
church is not spent intelligently according to the truth of Scripture.
Giving to our poor brothers isn’t usually at the top of our
expenditure list, but depending on our poor brother’s circumstances it
should be. Think of it this way.
A parent doesn’t indiscriminately give to his child everything
his child asks for. He uses
good common sense based on sound wisdom in responding to his child’s
request. The parent thus
gives intelligently. Our
giving should be intelligent as well , based on the truth of Scripture.
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