God’s love is always free
God loves to give things for free – He proved it by giving up Himself freely on the cross. It’s because true love is always unconditional and free.
Genesis 2:16-17 “And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
To understand God’s heart we must see how He interacted with Adam in the beginning. God gave everything freely to Adam. Every tree including the tree of life was free to eat. This shows the loving heart of Daddy God. But man sinned by refusing the free gift and trying to earn it through his knowledge of good & evil (moral efforts). After man sinned, nothing was free anymore because he had to earn it by his works and self-effort. Today we are deceived by this system because we’re trying to become Christ-like through fasting, prayer, confession and other spiritual exercises.
Paul called the worship of the pagans as the offerings to demons (1st Corinthians 10:20). He also called the old covenant ministry as the doctrine of demons – the message of Satan (2nd Corinthians 11, 1st Timothy 4). It’s because this teaching refuses the free gifts of marriage, food and all of God’s blessings but instead focuses on self-effort and self-sacrifice. It was about attaining pseudo holiness through human effort and works. This is the root of some religions: self-sacrifice, penance, abstaining from food (fasting) and giving up God’s good gifts.
Even in the Christian religion, we have put a price on the love of God because we offer it based on the payment of a sinner’s prayer, faith, Lordship salvation, baptism, Church attendance, prayer, rituals, tithe, repentance, fasting, discipline, etc. All of these are man-made systems that distort God’s free love into something that must be earned through religious formulas. We convince people that God is only accessible through them. But the truth is that God is freely with you even outside the walls of religion and Churches.
Matthew 9:13 “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’”
God never wanted man’s sacrifices through a religion that washes our external behavior and gives us an artificial “holier than thou” attitude. He desired to mercifully love us the way we are from day one. Look at Daddy’s heart here: He blessed us with spiritual perfection before we were born, before the world was created!
Ephesians 1:3-4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ; even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love”
He loved us freely before we believed or behaved correctly. This is unconditional love that is opposite of our ideas.
When Jesus died on the cross, He signaled the end times of the law. The veil of the Temple tore and there was a short period of 40 years before Christ returned to end the law in 70AD through the destruction of Jerusalem. Now there was no more separation between man and God. He removed sin and the law so that God came to live with us on earth. God is walking with man once again like He did with Adam. Daddy is reunited with His sons! There is no more religion or separation – no more temple, priestly mediators and elaborate ritual sacrifices. We are not the royal priesthood or the chosen generation. That was the Church before 70AD but we are the new humanity: simply the Sons of Daddy. Today you are not the disciples or priesthood of servants, but you are Daddy’s darling children with whom He lives! God is not using you like a servant. He’s your Daddy who loves you, His son!
Revelation 21:3-6 “I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people, and he will dwell with them … He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life.”
You are not only His Temple, but you are His “Home Sweet Home” where Daddy is relaxing with you.
2nd Corinthians 6:16,18“Even as God said, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
The Bible began with Adam running away from God due to his sin. The Bible ended in 70AD with God coming down from heaven to be with man forever. We are never alone and His love endures forever. God destroyed religious laws so that He can live with you in the New Covenant. He guides you in His love from your heart. We don’t need our religious laws to corrupt our minds from the simplicity of Daddy’s love. We don’t need spiritual fathers, mediators or intercessors because Daddy God is with you and can hear you well enough.
Isaiah 55:1,9 “Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price …. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Our ways of religion are “do good, avoid evil, be more Christ-like, pray, fast, confess, sacrifice, surrender, have more faith, read the Bible, come to Church, pay your tithe”, but God’s ways are much higher! It’s free – It’s done!
Our religion is like struggling to pay off a loan all your life without knowing that Jesus has already paid it off. He has already made all of humanity righteous by his faith. Our religion is like life insurance – it manipulates people with compulsion, guilt & fear and keeps collecting payments from them till they die. It’s never-ending because they’re still waiting for the 2nd coming and judgment of the world. But Jesus has said, “It is done”. The judgment is over and all of humanity has been made righteous. Now and go enjoy life freely without guilt or fear. Please stop working for something that has already been paid for! Your salvation is not a destination or a journey. It was the work of Christ that was completed almost 2000 years ago.
Adam’s sin was all in the mind. When he “knew” good and evil, his mind experienced spiritual death or separation from God. It was a mindset of earning God’s favor through performance, and this could never please God.
Romans 8:6,8 “For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace…those who are in the flesh cannot please God“
The mind of man was blinded by the law that was also known as the god of the world (2nd Corinthians 3:14, 4:4). This religious system deceived mankind by corrupting the simple image of God from “Daddy” to “Judge”. Religious laws shut down people’s minds because they consider God as a Judge who is hard to please by faith, confession, good works and rituals. They cannot see the loving Father who gives all things freely. This stronghold of the wrong knowledge of God is in our mind and can only be demolished by knowing the love of the Father through Jesus Christ’s finished work.
2nd Corinthians 10:4-6 “throwing down of strongholds, throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ;”
It is Christ’s finished work that makes us realize the truth that we are born righteous and that God is our Daddy who has given us every spiritual blessing freely in Christ apart from our faith, works or the lack thereof.
1st Corinthians 2:12,16 “But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God …. we have Christ’s mind.”
The knowledge of good and evil can kill our minds bringing fear, anxiety, depression and sadness but the knowledge of Daddy’s love brings peace and joy to our minds. This is why eternal life is about “knowing God”. Everyone will be with God after they die, but eternal life also includes the knowledge of His loving nature in this life. We know the truth when we are set free from religious laws. The mind of the flesh is a religious mind that cannot please God but the mind of Christ is the one of sonship where we know that we are Daddy’s kids who are freely loved without any conditions.
Matthew 10:7-10 “As you go, preach, saying, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. Freely you received, so freely give. Don’t take any gold, silver, or brass in your money belts. Take no bag for your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes, nor staff: for the laborer is worthy of his food. “
When Jesus told the disciples to preach the Gospel, He did not tell them to take donations or tithes. He did not ask them to raise funds or beg for money. He commanded them not to take any money because the Gospel message was about God’s free love. How could they charge money for freedom? This is why He told them to sell all their possessions and not love money, but to love God. But the Pharisees loved money and gladly took the tithes. The true preachers of the Gospel were like Paul who worked and supported his own ministry. Paul did not try to extract money from His audience using guilt trips, coercion or persuasion. But of course, very few people follow his model.
Now I’m not against preachers taking money because people are free to donate to any ministry or Church. People are free to make a living through the ministry. But I am against the false message that people are hell-bound sinners who need to be saved. It’s because this forces people to pay money to get a solution that was never needed in the first place. It’s like a doctor telling a healthy person that he is sick and then charging him money for the treatment that he never needed!
The Good News today is to tell the world that Jesus Christ has made you righteous from birth by removing sin and the law. It’s about the free gift that people already possess. It’s about opening their eyes to see the truth within them.
But what about the verses where the Bible says that Christian workers deserve their wages?
Luke 10:7 “Remain in that same house, eating and drinking the things they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Don’t go from house to house.”
Jesus and Paul mentioned that a person preaching the Gospel could earn a living through that effort. But he was only talking about basic needs.
1st Corinthians 9:4-8, 14-18 “Have we no right to eat and to drink? Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work? What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and doesn’t drink from the flock’s milk? Do I speak these things according to the ways of men? Or doesn’t the law also say the same thing? …. Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News. But I have used none of these things, and I don’t write these things that it may be done so in my case; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void. For if I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about; for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me, if I don’t preach the Good News. For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. What then is my reward? That, when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News.”
Paul said that a Gospel worker could earn his basic expenses through the ministry according to the Law of Moses but Paul still did not even use that privilege! Paul never accepted any money for himself, but only collected it for the poor saints in Jerusalem who had sold everything (Romans 15:25-26).
Tithing
I heard a message a few years ago on TV, when the Pastor quoted the scripture below, telling people to send their tithes so that they could be blessed instead of facing curses and problems.
Malachi 3:8-12 NASB “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the Lord of hosts. “All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the Lord of hosts.”
But was this commandment of tithing given to us at all? Under the Old Covenant, God had chosen one tribe of Israel to be a priestly tribe who ministered in the Temple. They could not do any other work. Therefore God commanded the rest of the eleven Jewish tribes to support them. The tithe was not 10% of their income but a tenth of their crops and farm produce. This tithe was then used to feed the priests and also the poor, widows and orphans. It was not meant for anything else. When the Jews tithed, then their own crops and farms would be blessed, but if they did not obey it, then their farms would be cursed. Now we know that this system of blessings and curses was only under the Law. In fact, if anyone did not keep the entire law then they would be cursed.
Galatians 3:10,13-14 “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them … Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,” that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus”
We are not under the Law or the commandment of tithing. It is because Jesus Himself became the curse of the Law by dying on the cross so that the blessing of His obedience freely came to all men. Tithing does not bring blessings, and we are not cursed if we don’t tithe. I have seen atheists and unbelievers blessed with tremendous wealth, in spite of not donating to any Churches. The sad thing is that some Christians who tithe their incomes also struggle with so many problems in life. This is because we are not under the system of tithing. God blesses people solely by grace and not based on how much we give to the Church. Jesus removed the Law in 70AD so that there is no more priesthood or Temple to support.
Today we live in the New Covenant where there is no distinction between the priests and people. All of us are equal because Christ lives in each of us with equal anointing. We don’t need to pay tithes to pastors, but we can love each other and help one another, especially the needy. In the 1st Century Church, all the Jews left their jobs, sold their possessions and helped one another. They were specifically called to do this because Jerusalem and the Old Covenant system were going to be destroyed in 70AD. Therefore Paul collected food and money from the Churches all over the Roman Empire, to be given to the poor saints at Jerusalem who were suffering under great persecution and tribulations.
Romans 15:25-26 “But now, I say, I am going to Jerusalem, serving the saints. For it has been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are at Jerusalem.”
1st Corinthians 16:1-3 “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I commanded the assemblies of Galatia, you do likewise. On the first day of the week, let each one of you save, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I come. When I arrive, I will send whoever you approve with letters to carry your gracious gift to Jerusalem”
Paul never asked them to donate 10% of their income, but accepted cheerful donations of any amount that they felt like giving. There was a blessing in their giving because Jesus became poor on the cross to make them rich. There was no curse if they did not give.
2nd Corinthians 8:9 “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich”
2nd Corinthians 9:6 “He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Let each man give according as he has determined in his heart; not grudgingly, or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver.”
Their giving was only to help the poor saints and not to support mega Churches. Today you don’t have to sow a seed into any ministry to get blessed. It’s because Christ Himself was the seed that was that sown on the cross to give us the harvest of eternal life and righteousness as a free gift. If He gave us eternal life freely, then He will also give us the specific earthly blessing that has been ordained for us, without sowing our seeds. If our salvation was a free gift, then every other blessing that we are destined to receive, must also be free and cannot be purchased.
John 12:23-24 NIV “Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
The tithe was also known as the first fruit of the crops that was given by the Jews in the Old Covenant.
2nd Chronicles 31:5 “As soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel gave in abundance the first fruits of grain, new wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly”
Today, no one can accuse you of robbing God if you do not tithe. It is because the first fruit of Israel was the tithe. It was Jesus Christ Himself who was the first fruit! He was our tithe!
1st Corinthians 15:21-22 “But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive”
Jesus became our tithe and first fruit. It’s not your money or donations. He rose from the dead to make all of us alive. Tithing is not about giving money, but it is all about Jesus who did everything for you, so you don’t have to tithe to anyone. If anyone is making money by using the threat of tithing, then they are robbing the children of God. Paul actually worked with his own hands to support himself and was not a full-time minister. He did not live based on the tithes and donations from anyone.
Now some will say that we must tithe to the Church because Jesus told the Jews to tithe. But if we want to obey everything that Jesus told the Jews, then we must also sell our possessions and die as martyrs. Jesus also told the Pharisees to pay their taxes to Caesar. For those who say that Abraham gave a tithe, we must realize that he did not give a tenth of his income, but he gave a tenth of the spoils of war after he defeated his enemies. He also did it out of free will, without any compulsion or commandment. If people are commanded to tithe because of Abraham, then please realize that he also left behind his home and gave up his only son as a sacrifice. We cannot pick and choose what we want to obey; when the truth is that none of it was even commanded to us.
We are not required to tithe anymore, but we are free to do whatever we feel is right. If you want to help the poor, you are free to do it on your own or through secular and Christian charity agencies without the burden of tithing. We are free to help Churches or ministries that are genuinely preaching the Good News and making a positive difference in the world. Even if some preachers are doing the work only as a career, God is gracious and helps them also to meet their needs. It is because those who preach the Gospel can work full-time and make a living through the same Gospel (1st Corinthians 9:14). There is total freedom in the new covenant from religious rules.
The love of money
Paul said that the love of money is the root of evil (1st Timothy 6:10). But we also know that the Pharisees were called the lovers of money who did not love God (Luke 16:13-14). The Pharisees were the custodians of religion who supposedly represented God to the people. But they were more interested in the people’s money and their approval rather than serving God. Their riches were found in their Temple and religion. The early church sold everything but what about today? We offer God’s blessings by the admission cost of baptism, offerings, tithes and membership. But Jesus said it is FREE and it is within you! Jesus commanded the Jews to love God and not money but the Pharisees loved money & took the tithes. Religious leaders may be sincere but they are incorrectly telling people to pay their tithes and donations to avoid going to an imaginary hell. God never created religion and there is no more hell. The event of 70AD proves that Jesus destroyed the law (religion) and the hell of Jerusalem.
The Churches demand tithing because we have misinterpreted the Bible. There is no blessing in tithing and no curse in not doing it. It’s because the law and its reward system has passed away. The purpose of the tithe was for the tribes of Israel to support the Levite priestly tribe who did not have any other income or possessions. The tithe was typically given in the form of the first-fruit of their crops and farm produce – it was not about their salaries. When Jesus came, He did not tell His disciples to create a new religion or collect tithes but to sell everything and have no possessions. It’s ironic to for us to keep our possessions and still ask for tithes. We don’t have to tithe to anyone but you are also free to support Churches, ministries and secular charities without any pressure. We are free to give wherever we want but there is no compulsion or Biblical mandate any more.
Under the Law, they robbed God if they didn’t tithe because the food (tithe) was stored in the Temple to give to the poor (Malachi 3:8-12). But in the New Covenant, we are robbing ourselves by giving tithes out of compulsion. There are many poor people who are tithing to rich Pastors in order to get a blessing – this is wrong and not Biblical! The tithe is obsolete today.
It’s because God is your Daddy and His love is FREE without any cost!
It is FREE because Jesus died on the cross doing all the work for you to FREELY bless you by GRACE and UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!
He has forgiven all your sins in Jesus Christ and the Judgment Day is Over!
Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died on the cross for our sins and was raised from the dead after 3 days. Everyone who believes in Jesus receives the forgiveness of sins, eternal life and the righteousness of God as a free gift.
Mathew Simon 