Page 18 - Ending Your Financial Worries

God’s” – the “increase” to be tithed on today is that amount that remains after taxes and other involuntary deductions (Medicare, Social Security, etc.). In most cases, the amount to be tithed on today would be the “net” amount one sees in his or her paycheck. However, if one is a vegetable or fruit farmer, the value of products from the garden or field must be included as part of one’s total income and must be tithed on according to the wholesale price – the price one would receive if one sold it (Deut. 14:22; 2 Chron. 31:5). By contrast, unearned income such as Social Security, pensions, old-age assistance, unemployment compensation, disability and the like, need not be tithed on. However, one is certainly free to tithe or give an offering from any of these forms of income, as long as it does not jeopardize one’s finances. This is in keeping with Christ's admonition regarding the weightier matters in Matthew 23:23.
To continue, when we consider all the various taxes and involuntary deductions taken from one’s paycheck (State, Federal and also, in some cases, City), there is no doubt that Americans are increasingly being taxed into poverty. Just as in the day when king Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, declared that his father’s taxation would pale when compared to what he would be taxing the people (see 1 Kings 12:10-14), so it would be if we did not take into account the harsh economic times in which we live and insisted on using one’s gross income (before taxes and other involuntary deductions) as the amount on which to tithe. We are not to tempt or test God by foolish misuse of our funds (Deut. 6:16; Matt. 4:7).
As stated before, God is the Owner of all the earth. He does not need an income or any material thing we might offer Him (see Psalm 50:9-15). What God has decreed is that whatever we give is equitable according to the principle of tithing. This is evident from what the apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 8:12-13. The principle or spirit of tithing is that we give to the Work of God (administered by God's faithful ministers) a tenth of our disposable income (that which remains after taxes and involuntary deductions). This is the just and equitable application of the tithing principle for this present economy. Interestingly, even the federal and state governments recognize that certain expenses and other items are exempt from being taxed.
But what about Malachi 3:8-9? Does that passage stipulate that we are to pay tithes on our gross income? No, not at all. Let's look at this passage carefully. "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation." Verse 10 then issues a challenge from God to "bring in all the tithes into the storehouse," and He will pour out a huge blessing. Notice that there is no explanation in this