Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
God is so serious about both the "tithe" (a word that means "a tenth part") and the offerings that He requires, that He considers His children who fail to render their tithes and offerings to Him to be thieves.
The prophet Malachi was sent with this holy complaint to Israel: "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me, saith the LORD!"
This statement was received with some skepticism by God's people, and they responded, "How have we robbed God?"
"In tithes and offerings" came the terse reply.
If a man would steal from God, he would murder his own mother. If he would steal from God, there is nothing that he would not do to any human being. You cannot trust the people who steal from God.
Tithing is a commandment, not a suggestion. When one young man asked Jesus what he must do in order to obtain eternal life, Jesus told him, "You know the commandments." If God had never commanded His people to bring their tithes to His servants, then it would be acceptable to do something else, but God did issue that commandment, and the saints are required to obey it. Many years ago, when someone asked my father whether or not a child of God who refused to bring tithes and offerings to the Lord would be saved in the end, my father responded, "Since God said that such a person is a thief, he will have as much of a chance to be saved in the end as a thief will have. Whatever chance a thief has, he will have."
One of the Ten Commandments is: "Thou shalt not steal." Should we construe that commandment to mean, "Thou shalt not steal, except from the Lord?" Of course not. We should be more afraid to steal from God than from anyone else. Besides, stealing is stealing, no matter who the victim is. If the money in your possession is not rightfully yours, then it is stolen money. Listen to Jesus. "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." Taxes rightfully belong to earthly governments (Caesar), and the tithe of your increase, with the offerings that God demands, belong to God. We make ourselves thieves if we refuse to bring them to Him.