SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/28/2023 8:39 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Inversion"
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt. 23:23-24
Message of the verses: “23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For
you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions
of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you
should have done without neglecting the others. 24 “You blind guides, who
strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!”
Well
the weather has changed in North Ridgeville, Ohio as it is getting colder and
for the next three days or so we will have a lot of rain, and so with that said
it was good to get, what is probably the last game of golf for this year in
yesterday.
I
want to pick up where we left off in yesterday’s SD by continue to talk about the
weightier provisions of the law, but first I want to quote what MacArthur wrote
before writing about that. “The scribes
and Pharisees were inequitable, unfair, unjust, unmerciful, brutal,
unforgiving, unkind, greedy, and abusive of others.” The scribes and the Pharisees everything in
contrary to the weightier provisions of the law, and worst of all, they walked
by sight rather than faith, as they trusted in their works rather than God’s
grace. Now as I continue to think about
the true way of salvation which was provided by the Lord Jesus Christ as He
died on the cross for sinners, I think that when a person like the scribes and
Pharisees would try to do things that were pleasing to God in order to be saved
what they were doing was in effect saying to God, “what You did for me is not enough,
I have to do it on my own.” In this
section we see that Jesus did not denounce the tithing of herbs, which would
have been perfectly acceptable if done in sincerity and in faith. At that time tithing was still a valid requirement
under the Old Covenant, Jesus certainly did not reprove tithing in
general. Jesus said “these are the
things you should have done without neglecting the others.” MacArthur writes “In light of the fact that
such garden plants had not generally been considered covered under the Mosaic
laws of tithing until rabbinical times, it seems likely that by these…things Jesus
was referring to tithing in general. In
other words, while being faithful to tithe according to scriptural instruction,
they should not have neglected the Lord’s much weighter demands.”
Now
thinking about the tithe it was strictly a requirement of the Old Covenant, in
fact it is only mentioned six times in the New Testament, three times in the
gospels and in the book of Hebrews. Now
when I think about the gospel writing of the New Testament I think that during
this time that people were actually still living under the Old Covenant and so
in the gospels tithing is always used, as it is here, in regard to its abuse by
the scribes and Pharisees, you can see this also in Luke 11:42 and in Luke
18:12. Now in the book of Hebrews the
Mosaic tithe is mentioned only in regard to its use in ancient Israel as seen
in Heb. 7:8-9; vv. 5-6. Now tithing is
not mentioned in the New Testament as being binding on the church or even
recommended as the standard for Christian giving. MacArthur adds “This is easy to understand if
one recognizes that tithes were a form of taxation to support the national life
of Israel…The closest New Testament parallel is the requirement to pay taxes
indicated in Romans 13:6-7.” If you want
more information on this MacArthur’s commentary on 1 Corinthians written in
1984 on pages454-455 would be helpful to look at.
I
have to say that when it came to giving to the church that my father would
always say that tithing was the proper way of giving to the church. He was not the most educated man but he would
always give 10% to the church, and that seemed to rub off on me. Once I first became a believer I did not go
to church for four years, but did study the Bible and was helped by a new
friend of mine who owned a Christian Book store, which is the first place that
I went after I got saved while visiting a friend in Florida. One day after getting to know this man and
helping out in a ministry that he had started I bought a book from him and put
a tithe in the check that I paid him with.
This however was not the first place that I tithed as I tithed to a
ministry that was headed up in New Orleans.
However through some circumstances that I will not go into the Lord
showed me not to tithe to that organization and so it went to what was called “Christian
Wittiness Ministry until I joined a Baptist church some four years later. I realize that tithing is not stressed in the
New Testament, but I believe that tithing is a good place to begin your giving
to the Lord’s work, and to my way of understanding tithing to the church where
you are being feed the Word is where that portion of your giving should
go. My wife and I have had some
difficult financial times in our life, much of it was my fault, but we never
stopped giving our tithe to the Lord’s work and God has blessed us for being faithful
in giving to the Lord.
There
is a little bit more to talk about in these verses, which Lord willing I will
do it in my next SD.
10/28/2023 9:17 AM
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