1. To Honor the Creator."Render… unto God the things that are God's" (Matthew 22:21).Acquisitiveness is one of the basic drives of mankind. Children grasp their toys and cry, "Mine!" Someone has noted three attitudes in the parable of the good Samaritan. The priest and the Levite had the attitude, "What's mine is mine and I'm going to keep it!" The thieves had the attitude "What's yours is mine, and I'm going to get it!" The Samaritan had the attitude, 'What's mine is yours, and you can have it." There is another attitude that should permeate our thinking, even above the commendable attitude of the Samaritan. That is, "Everything we have belongs to God, and we are stewards of His goods'"
God owns the entire world and its substance. "The earth is the LORD"S, and the fulness thereof" (Psalm 24:1). "Behold, all souls are mine" (Ezekiel 18:4). "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine" (Haggai2:8). It is God who gives people the power to obtain wealth (Psalm 75:6-7; Ecclesiastes 5:19). We are not to glory in what God has given us, but to glory in Him (Jeremiah 9:23-24).
Why should I be grudge God ten percent when everything actually belongs to Him? If it were not for Him, there would be no land, no seed, no strength, no income, and no life. How generous He is to tell us, ""he tithe... is the LORD'S"! (Leviticus 27:30).
2. To Acknowledge My Heritage."And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29).Abraham was the first tithe payer of record(Genesis 14:20). Abraham's grandson, Jacob, paid tithes (Genesis 28:22). Scripture says that Levi, Abraham's descendant and the father of the tribe from which the priesthood came, paid tithes in Abraham (Hebrews 7:9). My heritage of paying a tithe precedes the law of Moses. As a child of Abraham and an heir of the promise of Abraham. I acknowledge my family relationship by paying tithes.
Jesus said to the Jews, "If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham" (John 8:39). It would be strange to claim to be a child of Abraham and yet to neglect one of Abraham's most fundamental and noteworthy acts. I pay my tithes as a spiritual descendant of Abraham, the father of the faithful.
Reason #3: To Fulfill the Covenant
"For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious" II Corinthians 3:11
Reason #4 - To Show My Love
"Many waters cannot quench love" Song of Solomon 8:7
Reason #5 - To Fulfill an Obligation
"Ye pay tithe … these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone" Matthew 23:23
Reason #6 - To Escape Condemnation
"Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me … in tithes and offerings" Malachi 3:8
Reason #7 - To Spread the Gospel
"So hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel" I Corinthians 9:14.
Reason #8 - To Avoid a Curse
"Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me" Malachi 3:9
Reason #9 - To Enjoy God's Blessing
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse … and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it " Malachi 3:10, Luke 6:38
Reason #10 - To Be Consistent"Be thou an example of the believers" I Timothy 4:12
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