I will agree that personal standards are a must in one’s life. I think that you are setting yourself up for some sort of danger if you don’t define certain guidelines. God even created Adam & the garden at the beginning with boundaries. I don’t care if people say that giving 10% helps me to keep my finances disciplined, as well as those that say, i will only listen to hymns, wear dresses, and not watch TV. If that helps them with their discipline, and if that’s what their conscience is telling them, that’s fine. Although, we must not let our own boundaries define universal spirituality. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not a spiritually evil or good tree. Because of pictures, we probably think in our head that these trees were glowing with gold fruit and sat on top of a hill somewhere just emanating with a spiritual aura. It was just a tree that God used to set a standard for Adam, and there was nothing right or wrong about the fruit or tree. What was initially wrong, was Adam’s heart and choice. For our own personal life God has planted trees of knowledge of good and evil, but they have no spiritual value to the rest of us, because God has not revealed them to our conscience. If you think about it this way, Adam could not have sinned some other way, such as getting angry, or being stubborn, because God did not reveal those choices to him.
All physical standards are “things” that do not have a potion inside that creates evil once you bite into it. So, unless God has personally revealed to you the purpose of the fruit on your spiritual trees, then you are at liberty to eat or not eat of its fruit. Just keep in mind that your personal standards do not reflect what God has revealed to others.
In light of this, i don’t believe that God has revealed the tithe to everyone. Yes, they’ve heard of giving 10% before, but not as a commandment. The tithe was not revealed to the New Testament Church as a command. God has not planted a tree that defines what we give and where. Instead, he has given us his Spirit to determine that for us. It’s just a matter of remembering and obeying that command while the serpent tries to trick us into thinking differently.
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Jared Brian is the author of www.tithing.com. There are over 300 articles written on research and reviews about tithing information.
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