WHO IS QUALIFIED TO PAY TITHE?

Bro. Abduyusuf Rufa'i

 

There is no iota of doubt on the need and requirement of a ‘true’ Christian to pay his or her tithe. Tithe belongs to God and in the Bible He has directed on how it is to be paid and utilized or appropriated. If you eat your own and in addition eat God’s own, you are wicked and a robber to God. God has said that the rebellious and robbers will not enter Heaven.

However the Tithe injunction is one message that has been bedeviled with half truths. Many Men and Women of God and churches teach, preach or pass out incomplete or distorted information on tithe because giving the true picture as directed by God is costly, I mean very costly.

This is what it will cost them:

·         It will reduce or scare away their congregation.

·         And this will cause the volume or regularity of tithe paid in to dwindle or stop completely.

·         Consequently they won’t feed fat on it again and live like oil sheikhs.

So to satisfy and please themselves they disregard the word of God and disobey God’s commandment. You have been taught or told everything about tithe but you haven’t been taught accurately on:

1.       WHO IS QUALIFIED TO PAY TITHE?

2.       WHERE SHOULD I PAY MY TITHE?

3.       HOW DID GOD INSTRUCT TITHE TO BE UTILIZED?

Here, I am concentrating on who is qualified to pay tithe? While I will just touch on 2 and 3 briefly with scripture answers. Study them and if you have the Spirit of God He will teach and expand them for you.

WHO IS QUALIFIED TO PAY TITHE?

First of all, it is not everybody that is qualified to pay tithe. God is not a hungry God and God is not a God in need of cheap or defiled honour. Only the spiritually clean can pay tithe to God (Deut. 23: 18, Num. 18: 29, Deut. 17: 1, Lev. 3: 1). Many are eating pollution in the name of receiving tithe and many are living in delusion thinking that God recognized and received their tithe. Grand deception in churches and fellowships as the Ministers decline to teach the truth. In Malachi 3: 1 – 7 you will find the requirement or qualification for paying tithe. Pastors won’t read this to you but they will be quick to read verses 8 to 12 to you.

1. “Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the Lord Almighty.

2. “But who will be able to endure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears? For he will be like a blazing fire that refines metal or like a strong soap that whitens clothes.

3. He will sit and judge like a refiner of silver, watching closely as the dross is burned away.               He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold or silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord.

 4. Then once more the Lord will accept the offerings brought to him by the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as he did in former times.

5. At that time I will put you on trial. I will be a ready witness against all sorcerers and adulterers and liars. I will speak against those who cheat employees of their wages, who oppress widows and orphans, or who deprive the foreigners living among you of justice, for these people do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.

6. “I am the Lord, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already completely destroyed.

7. Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my laws and failed to obey them. 

Now return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.

From the scriptures above who is to pay and not to pay tithe to God:

·         Someone in a covenant relationship with God.

·         Someone that has been purged and refined.

·         Someone that God is purifying on a daily basis.

·         And not all those who do not fear God, do wickedness and evil and fall in the category of those mentioned in verse 5

God says He is the same and hasn’t changed. God is demanding that the people repent and return to Him. The Priests and Levites – the Ministers in the Church, God is calling you to be purified and offer right sacrifices. You are to purify the Judah and Jerusalem, that is, the congregation so that they too can offer right offerings to God. Stop disobeying God and He will return to us, remove the curse, and the windows of Heaven will really be opened and devourers rebuked for our sake and the nations will call us blessed.

WHERE SHOULD I PAY MY TITHE?

Apart from paying it in your church or fellowship, it can be paid wherever or to whomever God directs you to. God can tell you to go and give that tithe to that woman with triplets begging by the roadside that you always pass on your way to work. God can even request you to surrender the 100% because you and your money belong to God. The key is being sensitive and obedient to God. The attitude should be this, whenever you hold your tithe, pray: “Lord, thank you for giving me this money, where should I take it to?” Read Deuteronomy 12: 5 – 8, 10 – 14, 26 for the answer. 

HOW DID GOD INSTRUCT TITHE TO BE UTILIZED?

“Bring all the full tithe to the STOREHOUSE, that there may be FOOD IN MY HOUSE” for distribution (Mal. 3: 10, 1 Chr. 26: 20, 2 Chr. 31: 10 – 12, Neh. 10: 38 – 39; 13: 11 – 13, Prov. 3: 9 – 10). God’s Storehouse is the Temple and in the New Covenant sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ, the Temple is now the human body. The Storehouse is God’s building – God’s Temple, which is the human being and not the church (1 Cor. 3: 9). So tithe is to be spent on human beings – children of God. But how is it to be done? The answer is found in Deuteronomy 26: 12 – 13, Nehemiah 13: 12 – 13, Malachi 3: 10b. It is for:

a.       The Priests (overseer/minister in charge) who actually receives the ‘tithe of the tithe’ i.e. tithe from the Levites (workers/ministers) – Num. 18: 26, 28 – 29.

b.      The Levites (workers/ministers) who receive the tithe from the congregation – Num. 18: 21, 24.

c.       Widows

d.      Orphans

e.      Sojourners

f.        Poor and indigent

g.       Physically challenged persons needing help

Even you, yes I mean you can receive tithe. If you are faithful to the one who made you a Christian and you understand that He has made you a Priest (1 Peter 2: 5, 9, Revelation 1: 6; 5: 10,                    Romans 15: 14, 16), God can direct someone to pay his or her tithe or first fruit to you. In the Bible only priests receive tithe (of the tithe) and first fruit.

Tithe is a devoted (holy) thing and should be handled with caution but unfortunately because of greed and worship to mammon it has become a snare to many – churches, ministers and congregation. 

99% of tithe paid in many churches is cornered by those in number (a) above. From the foregoing how many are really utilizing tithe as commanded by God. Many are calling themselves and starting churches because tithe has now become an avenue for enrichment. It is really sad and God is waiting for all the disobedient and rebellious ones on the other side.                

If you chop God tithe na sandpaper you chop. You must to vomit am!