Tithing as a New Covenant Discipline- Priesthood, Poor, and Pilgrimage

photo: Stellar Propeller Studio

In our Sunday gathering where we are working through the book of Acts. We are taking our time with the devotions and the ground-breaking generosity in Acts 2 so we can better understand giving from the bible and how to engage it as worship.

I am trying to discover the format to share these teachings with you. This one has the full audio recording but is briefer in writing, somewhere between the transcript format of Representative Rulership and the super-distilled short post format of 7 Results of Giving in the Bible. I would really love to hear which you find most useful if you have a moment to tell me via email, twitter, or Facebook.

Today we are going to look at the pattern we see in the bible with the tithe, which means the tenth or 10%, and how that might inform us as we set ourselves about a disciplined regular generosity.

But first we have to have clarity about a bigger concept that will apply to a lot more than finances, and this is it:

Discipline is not Striving

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Eph 2:8

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. – Phil 3:7-11

Both of these scriptures make it very clear that when we talk about behaviors, disciplines, and walking in the way of the kingdom, we are never talking about doing something to gain righteousness by our own works. We are talking about how we live out the gift of God which is righteousness that is through faith, from God.

Striving in the flesh doesn’t have a view of the good news; it makes the action a way to achieve righteousness. Discipline is a worshipful response to all that Jesus has done for us.

Now let’s talk about how to engage a discipline of generosity that will be life-giving to us.

Discipline is Spiritual

We need to reclaim Christian action.

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. – James 2:17 NIV

“For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” – 1 Cor 15:9-10

Godly discipline labors according to grace. There is a holy striving according to the Spirit.

There is a fellowship with God that we enjoy when we choose to engage discipline by the power of God.

Discipline responds to and lives out the gospel and the way of Jesus, because it is Jesus in us, outworking the fruits of the Spirit. One of them is self-control.

We have to get over the idea that engaging a discipline–making a choice to do something that we may not always want to do–is religiosity or dead works.

We have to realize that God’s actually going to work self-control and self-discipline in us when He’s present with us.

For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. – 2 Timothy 1:7

Seeking the Kingdom and Doing the Will

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” What is the Kingdom of God? The Lord’s prayer may shed light on this. “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The Kingdom of God comes when we do God’s will.

The Lord’s prayer draws a vital connection between faith and action. “Your kingdom come” is our faith, “your will be done” is our action.

Jesus confirmed that those who do the will of God are his family:

“Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! “For whoever does ...