{"id":953,"date":"2010-01-17T14:20:10","date_gmt":"2010-01-17T14:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2010\/01\/new-years-resolve-jesus-and-money-part-six.html"},"modified":"2010-01-17T14:20:10","modified_gmt":"2010-01-17T14:20:10","slug":"new-years-resolve-jesus-and-money-part-six","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/01\/new-years-resolve-jesus-and-money-part-six.html","title":{"rendered":"New Year’s Resolve: Jesus and Money Part Six"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Thumbnail<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

<\/span>http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/isbn=1587432749\/bakerbookhouseA<\/a><\/span><\/font>
http:\/\/www.brazospress.com\/Book.asp?isbn=978-1-58743-274-3<\/a><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There are so many myths about tithing that it is hard to enumerate them all.  One of the more popular ones is this—If you tithe, then
\nGod will necessarily bless you far more than you have given.   <\/span>This is based on sayings like “Ask and it
\nwill be given to you” (Mt. 7.7). <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alas for this reasoning, the context of Mt. 7 gives the illustration of asking for
\na basic necessity–mere bread or a fish to eat! 
\n<\/span>Jesus reassures that when one seeks such things from God,  God is able to
\nprovide good gifts to those who ask. 
\n<\/span>This does indicate that God enjoys blessing those who seek him and his
\naid in such matters.  <\/span>It suggests God has
\nan infinite store of such things, never running out. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There is some truth then
\nto the saying “you have not because you ask not”  <\/span>when it comes to such necessities.  <\/span>But texts like this say nothing about a Quid
\npro Quo, or a reciprocity cycle set up with God such that if we give X to the
\nLord’s work,  <\/span>we will necessarily receive
\nY from God, which is assumed to be greater than X.  <\/span>Often the blessings of God are not material
\nones in any case. And the notion that we could put God in our debt, such that
\nhe was bound by promissory note to give us Y because we gave him X is simply
\nfalse.  <\/span>God’s gifts are free and
\ngracious, not things owed to someone with a bad theology of reciprocity. And one more thing— many of the promises of God are conditional promises–‘if my people called by my name will repent, then I, your God will….’  Conditional promises God has no obligation to fulfill if we do not live into the condition he stipulated in the first place.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Yet another myth about tithing is that If I am tithing Christian, I am free to do as I like with
\nthe 90% I have not tithed.  <\/span>In the first
\nplace, the Christian standard is sacrificial giving which may mean more than a tithe in
\nsome cases.   <\/span>In the second place, the
\n90% still belongs to God, we are only its stewards and must use it in accord
\nwith God’s will.  <\/span>  <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span>In the end,
\nit would be wise for us to take to heart and put into practice what Paul says
\nabout a theology of ‘enough’, of godliness with contentment, which he calls
\n‘great gain’. Phil. 4.11-13 is an excellent guide line for the Christian life in
\nthis sort of matter. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Can we as twenty-first century Christians learn to be
\ncontent, whatever our material circumstances?  Or will we succumb to the siren
\nsong of advertisements that suggest to us all sorts of things we ‘have to have’
\nwhen in fact they are not necessities of life at all?  <\/span>Can we learn the secret of being content
\nwhether in plenty or in want? Paul says he had learned this as a Christian
\nhaving had both plenty and been in want. 
\n<\/span>My prayer we would learn this secret of contentment as well.   <\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/isbn=1587432749\/bakerbookhouseA http:\/\/www.brazospress.com\/Book.asp?isbn=978-1-58743-274-3 There are so many myths about tithing that it is hard to enumerate them all.  One of the more popular ones is this—If you tithe, then God will necessarily bless you far more than you have given.   This is based on sayings like “Ask and it will be given to you” (Mt. 7.7).…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nNew Year's Resolve: Jesus and Money Part Six - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/01\/new-years-resolve-jesus-and-money-part-six.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Year's Resolve: Jesus and Money Part Six - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/isbn=1587432749\/bakerbookhouseA http:\/\/www.brazospress.com\/Book.asp?isbn=978-1-58743-274-3 There are so many myths about tithing that it is hard to enumerate them all.  One of the more popular ones is this—If you tithe, then God will necessarily bless you far more than you have given.   This is based on sayings like “Ask and it will be given to you” (Mt. 7.7).…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/01\/new-years-resolve-jesus-and-money-part-six.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-17T14:20:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/12\/Jesusmoney-thumb-400x400-10353-thumb-400x400-10354-thumb-400x400-10359-thumb-400x400-10360-thumb-400x400-10368-thumb-400x400-10371.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Year's Resolve: Jesus and Money Part Six - 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}