Tithing

Today I would like to talk about a topic that I believe is very important, Tithing. However it is not for the typical reasons that people think. Let me just make this clear, God does not need your money. This is a common misconsumption. God does not need our money to accomplish good, it is after all his money that he has given to us. These verses in Malachi support my point, "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' "In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. That was Malachi 3:8-9. So if God does not need the money, then what does he want it for? Well I shall tell you. In the bible it mentions many times that wealth, and money is evil. Is money actually wrong? Of course not but the love of money is the root of all evil the bible says. 1st Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. And Matthew 19:23-24, Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. These are just several of the examples that shed light upon this topic, why is it so important? Well because as these verses says Money is the root of evil, simply put money seperates us from God. The bible lists it as the number one physical thing that keeps people away from God. Matthew 6:24 says, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. So my point is Tithing is something by God used to keep the love of money in check. By giving money away every week at church a large percentage of our income it is hard to fall in love with it. As long as we are willing to give it up we are safe. But at any point if it gets to difficult to give it away we know that we struggle with the love of money. So to wrap up, the purpose of tithing in my opinion is to prevent the love of money from separating us from God.