The Two Not-So-Great Commandments - Part 2

Note: this set of blogs is about a subject that has been on my mind for probably ten years. The empty shells of blogs (titles, but no content) have been around for at least a year. Finally I'm getting around to writing them.

In this document, ESV refers to the English Standard Version of the Bible (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025)). Hebrew and Greek  text also contain references to Strong's numbers, enclosed in <>

In this blog I continue my thoughts from my previous blog about the Two Not-so-Great Commandments.
1. You must pay your tithe to the church
2. You must go to church on Sundays

Commandment #2: You must go to church on Sundays.

I will break this into two parts:

you shall go to church
and
on Sunday.

I wonder what kind of look you would get if, in the first century, one Christian asked another, "did you go to church last week?"

The word church comes from the Greek ἐκκλησία (ekklēsía <G1577>), meaning a congregation or assembly. It never referred to a place or building. (For a complete listing of the use of ekklēsía in the Bible click here.) It was something you were a part of not a place you went to. Yet in our contemprary English we have switched its meaning to refer to a building—a type of building that did not even exist in the time of the writers of the New Testament. In that time you could go to a church meeting, but you couldn't go to church. (One of the nice things I liked about the Thai language was that they had a term they could use for the church building apart from the term for the church itself.)

Consequently, there is no reference in the Bible about "going to church" at all. Not once. If someone tells you the Bible says to go to church on Sunday or any other day, ask for a reference.

That does not mean that meeting together with other believers is not important. It is very important. We read in Hebrews 10:24, 25 (ESV):

²⁴ And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

For some more about meeting together with other believers, see my sermon notes on "Growing Healthy Families".

The idea of going to church on Sunday seems to be a tradition that combines a very loose adaptation Old Testament laws about the sabbath to the life of the Christian Church. In fact many Christians call Sunday the Sabbath Day, even though they don't celebrate it on the same day of the week and they don't celebrate it the way it was commanded in the Old Testament. So following are some insights from the Bible about the Sabbath Day.

1. What is Sabbath?

Sabbath  essentially means rest (Strong’s Hebrew <H7676>= שַׁבָּת shabbath).

The commandment about the Sabbath Day appears in Exodus 20:

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11, ESV)

It was held on the seventh day of the week (i.e. Saturday). (Exodus 16:26; 20:10; 23:12; 31:15; 34:21; Leviticus 23:3; Deuteronomy 5:14) The term sabbath is also used in the Bible to refer to the Sabbath Year (every seventh year), which was supposed to be a year for the land to rest. The command to do this was never observed, which serves as the basis for the number of years Judah spent in exile. (see below)

God took this pretty seriously as those who did not keep it were to be put to death. And it was supposed to be observed by the people of Israel forever.

¹² And the LORD said to Moses, ¹³ “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you. ¹⁴ You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. ¹⁵ Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. ¹⁶ Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. ¹⁷ It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ” (Exodus 31:12–17, ESV)

How did one keep the Sabbath?

According to the commandment about keeping the Sabbath Day, one kept the Sabbath Day holy by not working! There is no reference in the commandment about going to the tabernacle or the temple on the Sabbath Day. Following are some of the commands related to the Jewish Sabbath Day.

They weren’t supposed to cook or gather food on the Sabbath:

Exodus 16:22-26 (ESV)
²² On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, ²³ he said to them, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’” ²⁴ So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. ²⁵ Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field. ²⁶ Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.”

Stay home:

Exodus 16:29 (ESV)
²⁹ See! The LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”

No working:

Exodus 20:8-11 (ESV)
⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,
¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Exodus 23:12 (ESV)
¹² “Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.

Exodus 31:12-17 (ESV)
¹² And the LORD said to Moses, ¹³ “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you. ¹⁴ You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. ¹⁵ Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. ¹⁶ Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. ¹⁷ It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”

There is a social justice element to this as even the slaves were not supposed to work.

Not even fires were to be lit (i.e., no cooking):

Exodus 35:2-3 (ESV)
² Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. ³ You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day.”

Note that in post-exilic period they refused to buy from non-Jews on the Sabbath as well:

Nehemiah 10:31, ESV
³¹ And if the peoples of the land bring in goods or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. And we will forgo the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of every debt.

2. Going to church on Sunday

When the commandment about the Sabbath Day was given. There was no temple. There was no church building. In fact, even the tabernacle had not yet been constructed.

Adult Jewish men had to appear before God (i.e., go to the temple or tabernacle) three times a year for Passover, Pentecost and the Festival of Booths. They did not have to go every Sabbath Day. The table below shows which days the adult men had to appear before God.

1. Passover (Pesach/Passover) (feast of unleavened bread (<H4682> מַצָּהmatstsah))	Exodus 23:15; Leviticus 23:4-8; Deuteronomy16:1-8, 16; 2 Chronicles 8:13
2. Feast of Harvest   (<H7105> קָצִירqatsiyr) / firstfruits Exodus 23:16 (Feast of Weeks (Shavout/Pentecost) (<H7620> שָׁבוַּע שָׁבוַּע שֶׁבוּעָהshabuwa`)	Exodus 23:16; Leviticus 23:15-21; Deuteronomy16:9-12, 16; 2 Chronicles 8:13
3. Feast of Ingathering (<H614> אָסִיף אָסִף 'aciyph);    Feast of Tabernacles / Booths (Sukkoth) (<H5521> סוּכָּהcukkah)	Exodus 23:16; Leviticus 23:33-44; Deuteronomy16:13-16; 2 Chronicles 8:13

Nowhere in the New Testament is there mention of the Apostles teaching the Gentiles (non-Jews) to observe the Sabbath.

3. Sabbath Year

The Jews were to observe a Sabbath Year—a year in which they did not plant a crop. This gave the land a chance to rest. But the Jews did not do this. God gave a prophetic message that Israel would be sent into exile for the same number of years as Sabbath Years that weren't observed.

• Leviticus 26:34
• Leviticus 26:43
• 2 Chronicles 36:21

Jeremiah later prophesied to confirm this timeframe

• Ezra 1:1
• Jeremiah 25:11, 12
• Jeremiah 29:10

Other references to the 70 years:

• Daniel 9:2
• Daniel 9:24
• Zechariah 1:12
• Zechariah 7:5

After exile, returnees promised to keep the Sabbath Year (Nehemiah 10:31)

4. Sunday

In the New Testament, Sunday is called the “first day of the week” from the Greek <G3391> μία (mia) = first + <G4521> σάββατον (sabbaton) = week, sabbath. (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19; Acts 20:7)

Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday. (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19)

Disciples were meeting on Pentecost Sunday when the Holy Spirit Given (Pentecost is a Sunday, as it is the 50th day 7x7 Sabbaths (49) + 1

Disciples in Troas met to break bread on a Sunday (Acts 20:7)

So, we see that the disciples would meet on Sunday, but it is nowhere commanded. Nor does the Bible say they exclusively met on Sundays. 

5. Sabbath Fulfilled in Christ

Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath

Matthew 12:7-8 (ESV)
⁷ And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.⁸ For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

Mark 2:27-28 (ESV)
²⁷ And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. ²⁸ So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

Luke 6:5 (ESV)
⁵ And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

Sabbath and other special days are a shadow of Christ

Colossians 2:16-19 (ESV)
¹⁶ Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. ⁷ These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. ¹⁸ Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, ¹⁹ and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

This passage in Colossians suggests that if people wanted to keep the sabbath as a special day, it was okay, but not required. But in this case it probably referred to Jews wanting to keep the Jewish law about the Sabbath. But what does it mean by "shadow of the things to come"? Perhaps we can gain some understanding of that from Hebrews 4

⁹ So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, ¹⁰ for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

¹¹ Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:9–11, ESV)

Since Jesus has come we can rest from works—we don't have to do anything to win favor from God to go to heaven.

Summary

I knew a person who proudly boasted about his Sunday church attendance. This same person had no problem cooking a meal or cleaning up afterwards on Sunday. What I find ironic is that he was legalistic about a "law" that didn't exist (going to church on Sunday), while at the same time not actually keeping laws that did exist about the Sabbath in scripture (by cooking and cleaning up).

But even is Sabbath is not a law for the non-Jew and even if we experience Sabbath rest through faith in Jesus, there is something to be said for resting. God's concern appears to be that we take time to rest. By resting—and not working—we have to trust God to provide. This was especially true in the laws about the Sabbath Year. Would we trust God to provide for us if we took a year off from work? That would be difficult. No wonder the Jews never observed that law.

So many people in this world are enslaved to their lusts: for power, for money, for things, and for pleasure. If we're not careful we will devote our time to pursue those things or to make money to achieve them. Many go in debt for things that are not essential and end up enslaved to their debt and then spend so much time working to service that debt that they don't have time to serve God and others. Are we so busy pursuing the things of this world that we don't have the time or energy to keep the two Great Commandments:

³⁷...“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37b–40)

Do we trust God to provide for us? Will we take time to seek after God and not just try to satisfy our desire for the things in this world?

Jesus calls us to trust Him to provide as we seek after the Kingdom of God:

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ²⁸ And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
³⁴ “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:25–34, ESV)

The Two Not-So-Great Commandments - Part 1

Note: this set of blogs is about a subject that has been on my mind for probably ten years. The empty shells of blogs (titles, but no content) have been around for at least a year. Finally I'm getting around to writing them.

In this document, ESV refers to the English Standard Version of the Bible (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025)). Hebrew and Greek text also contain references to Strong's numbers, enclosed in <>

There was a time when Jesus summarized the law with two commandments which are often called "The Great Commandments." We'll get to those later. For now, I'm thinking about what comes across as the primary commandments in many churches:

1. You must pay your tithe to the church
2. You must go to church on Sundays

I find it interesting sometimes that when I read the Bible and compare scripture the practices of the church, I find the church teaching things that aren't necessarily wrong, but seem to differ from what I've read. Sometimes, I wonder of I'm heretical, but then I find others who have also noticed the same things. So it is with these two "commandments" of many churches. I will address them in separate blogs so as to keep the blogs a bit shorter.

Commandment #1: You must pay your tithe to the church.

I remember going to a church back in the 1980's and the pastor said that according to 1 Cornithians 16:2, we should bring our tithe to the church on Sunday.The verse reads: Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. Note that to the audience, the first day of the week would be Sunday.

This sent up red flags for me almost instantly. Paul is not talking about tithing here. He is not even talking about giving for the local church. In fact he is not talking about bringing money to church at all. Paul is talking about something we might call budgeting: putting aside money each week for those Christians in need in Judea. Paul would then collect these funds at some unspecified time in the future. This reminds me of the Love Loaves that World Vision used to pass out. They were bread-loaf shaped banks with a coin slot on top where people could put change. After a number of weeks they would be collected to use in world relief  projects.

Tithing has been taught in the churches for a long time. Back after I finished university I got a job and joined a church. Each week when I got paid, I wrote out a check to the church for ten percent of the amount of my paycheck. Ever since then, I've tried to faithfully give to the Lord's work. So, where does this idea tithing thing come from?

The word tithe comes from the Hebrew מַעֲשֵׂר (maʿaśēr), which simply means tenth.

Tithing before Old Testament Law

The first mention of giving a tenth in the Bible comes from the story of Abraham. In Genesis 14, we read how a group of kings got together and attacked the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, Bela. They were successful in their battle and ended up taking a bunch of people captive along with lots of spoil. Included was Abraham's nephew, Lot and family. Abraham heard about this and with a mere 318 people, he was able to rescue the captives. God was obviously with him.

After it was all over, Abraham encounters someone introduced as the King of Salem, Melchizedek. Melchizedek blesses Abraham. Abraham recognizes this person as having been sent by God, and he gives him "a tenth of everything," seeming to imply a tenth of the spoil. (Genesis 14:20) There is no command for Abraham to do such a thing, so it seems like this must have been a customary gift to give to a royal.

We next encounter the giving of a tenth in the story of Jacob. Jacob is fleeing his brother and is going to his father's relatives in Haran to find a wife. Along the way, he has dream in which God blesses him. The next morning he makes a vow: “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, ²¹ so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, ²² and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.” (Genesis 28:20–22, ESV).

(Interesting, but I don't see any record of Jacob actually fulfilling this vow. Genesis 35-7-14 records Jacob making an offering at that location, but it does not state that he offered 10 percent.)

Tithing in the Old Testament Law

But neither of the two instances above have to do with the command to tithe in the Old Testament. The first mention of a command to tithe is found in Leviticus 27:30-33:

³⁰ “Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the LORD’s; it is holy to the LORD. ³¹ If a man wishes to redeem some of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it. ³² And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman’s staff, shall be holy to the LORD. ³³ One shall not differentiate between good or bad, neither shall he make a substitute for it; and if he does substitute for it, then both it and the substitute shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.” (Leviticus 27:30-33, ESV)

These verses specify that the tithe is holy to the Lord and that it belongs to the Lord, but they do not say what to do with said tithe.

Later, in Numbers 18:21-26, we read that this tithe is for the Levite, who has no inheritance (i.e., no right to own land) and that it is to be presented to the Lord. And the Levite was to present a tithe of the tithe they received to the priest.

²¹ “To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting, ²² so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. ²³ But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the people of Israel they shall have no inheritance ²⁴ For the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as a contribution to the LORD, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel.”

²⁵ And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶ “Moreover, you shall speak and say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present a contribution from it to the LORD, a tithe of the tithe. ²⁷ And your contribution shall be counted to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress. ²⁸ So you shall also present a contribution to the LORD from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you shall give the LORD’s contribution to Aaron the priest. (Numbers 18:21-28, ESV)

So far it all seems straightforward, but there is more explanation yet to come. Because Deuteronomy 12, 14 and 26 add that this tithe was to be eaten by the one offering it while sharing it with the Levites, except for every third year, called the year of the tithe. in which years it was to be brought to the storehouses for the Levites, sojourners, fatherless, and widows.

¹⁷ You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, ¹⁸ but you shall eat them before the LORD your God in the place that the LORD your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you undertake. ¹⁹ Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land. (Deuteronomy 12:17-19, ESV)

²² “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. ²³ And before the LORD your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.
²⁴ And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the LORD your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the LORD your God chooses, to set his name there, ²⁵ then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the LORD your God chooses ²⁶ and spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household.

²⁷ And you shall not neglect the Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you. ²⁸ “At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. ²⁹ And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do. (Deuteronomy 14:22-29, ESV)

¹² “When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, ¹³ then you shall say before the LORD your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. ¹⁴ I have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the LORD my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. ¹⁵ Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ (Deuteronomy 26:12-15, ESV)

So the sense I get, reading these verses, is that in the non-tithing years you are to bring your tithe to the place that God tells you to (i.e., wherever the temple or tabernacle happen to be), and to eat their tithe in that place. I'm assuming it was presented to the priests first, who would drain the blood and burn the fat and entrails—those portions usually given to God. Then what is left, you were to eat, sharing with the Levites, foreigners, fatherless and widows. Like a big picnic potluck where no one walks away hungry. (You have to remember, too, that tithing was just one of the many types of offerings the Jews had to make. There were also sin offerings, freewill offerings, offerings associated with vows, and offerings associated with festivals.)(For a full list of scripture about offerings tithes/tenths look here.)

But while this seemed to be what the scripture was saying, I wondered why no one actually taught it that way—it was always "bring your tithe to the church". But looking at the above scriptures, it seemed like the tithe, the portion which wasn't eaten by the one offering, was for the Levite (who had charge of looking after the tabernacle/temple and were the music leaders) as well as the needy people.

Back when we lived in Haiti there was this group called the Haiti Health and Agriculture Fellowship. They would put on a yearly conference for people doing agriculture and medical ministries. As part of the conference, they would get keynote speakers to come. One of the speakers was the late Tony Campolo, who was a professoer at Eastern University (an American Baptist affiliated school) at the time. When he talked about the tithe, he saw it in a similar way that I did, but perhaps a bit more radical. He looked at this gathering of people sharing their tithe together and put it this way: the tithe is your party money—the other 90% you have to be really careful with. That's not an exact quote, but it's been a few years since I heard him speak. (I believe it is also in one of his books, perhaps The Kingdom of God is a Party, but I no longer have that book.)

Tithing in the times of the kings and post-exilic period

One reference to tithing is found in the book of Amos, though it not a good one. Amos writes about illicit tithing—tithing that was made at Bethel in the Northern Kingdom, not Jerusalem, to the false God's they worshipped there. Amos writes sarcastically:

Come to Bethel, and transgress;
    to Gilgal, and multiply transgression;
bring your sacrifices every morning,
 your tithes every three days; (Amos 4:4, ESV)

The remaining references to the tithe in the Old Testament refer to situations where Israel has not tithed in a long time. As a result, the Levites have not received there portion and have had to work for a living outside of their Levitical work at the tabernacle/temple. Because of this, the emphasis is on bringing the tithe to the storehouse for the Levite as in the Year of the Tithe, not the potluck celebration. The first of these is during the reign of Hezekiah.

⁴ And he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites, that they might give themselves to the Law of the LORD. ⁵ As soon as the command was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance the firstfruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field. And they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. ⁶ And the people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and the tithe of the dedicated things that had been dedicated to the LORD their God, and laid them in heaps. (2 Chronicles 31:4-6, ESV)

The last time we see tithing mentioned in the Old Testament is after the return of the exiles. Nehemiah is trying to help get the temple worship and activities re-established. The tithe was important because the Levites were having to work, and if the people tithed, it would free them up to do their ministry. We read in Nehemiah 10 and 12:

³⁵ We obligate ourselves to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the LORD; ³⁶ also to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God, the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, as it is written in the Law, and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks; ³⁷ and to bring the first of our dough, and our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the wine and the oil, to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and to bring to the Levites the tithes from our ground, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our towns where we labor. ³⁸ And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive the tithes. And the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouse. ³⁹ For the people of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of grain, wine, and oil to the chambers, where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not neglect the house of our God.” (Nehemiah 10:35-39, ESV)

⁴⁴ On that day men were appointed over the storerooms, the contributions, the firstfruits, and the tithes, to gather into them the portions required by the Law for the priests and for the Levites according to the fields of the towns, for Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who ministered. (Nehemiah 12:44, ESV)

Nehemiah had to leave Jerusalem for a while, and when he came back, he found that the Israelites had quite tithing again.

¹⁰ I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field. ¹¹ So I confronted the officials and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them together and set them in their stations. ¹² Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses. ¹³ And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and as their assistant Hanan the son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah, for they were considered reliable, and their duty was to distribute to their brothers. (Nehemiah 13:10-13, ESV)

It is in this context that one of the most quoted verses about tithing occurs—not from the actual regulations about tithing. It's a passage directed not at the Christian church but instead it is written to a bunch of disobedient Jews.

⁸ Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. ⁹ You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. ¹⁰ Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. ¹¹ I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts. ¹² Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts. (Malachi 3:8-12, ESV)

The storeshouses were empty. The food that was to feed the Levites, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow was not there. Instead the rich were oppressing the poor, a practice that continues to this day.

I know churches that say they practice storehouse tithing based on this passage. But does it really apply to us today? Is tithing a law of the church? What does the New Testament have to say.

Tithing in the New Testament

The New Testament contains very few references to tithing. One instance is in a message Jesus gave to "the crowds and the disciples," but he was narrowing his focus on the religious leaders: scribes and Pharisees. In a series of "woe to you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites" statements, Jesus brings up the subject of tithing. The passage below is from Matthew, but there is also a parallal passage in Luke 11:42.

²³ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. ²⁴ You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! (Matthew 23:23–24, ESV)

The religious leaders prided themselves on how well they kept the law—at least the parts of the law that they felt were important. Jesus' comments about that here seem a bit facetious. He notes their meticulousness about tithing even things like cumin, which is not something terribly significant, and you get the sense that in tithing they were giving as little as they had to. (Legalism is often used as an excuse to see how much we can get away with.) But while they were careful to obey the law in insignificant matters, they ignored the law regarding more important matters. Part of the rules about tithing were helping the poor and needy, yet, apparently the religious leaders were oppressing people and not showing mercy at the same time they were tithing.

Does this verse teach that the Christian is to tithe? Jesus is addressing Jews, not Christians. Jews were people who tried to make themselves righteous by following the law. And these weren't just any Jews. These were the religious leaders who boasted about how they kept the law better than others. But in keeping the law, they missed the point.

I am not Jewish. (I may be 25% Jewish, but I was not raised in the Jewish culture or religion). I am not operating in a system where I am trying to earn my righteousness. This directive to the Jewish leaders of Jesus' day doesn't necessarily apply to me—unless there would be some other scripture that would imply otherwise.

The only other reference we find to Jesus mentioning tithing is in a parable we find in Luke 18:

⁹ He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ¹⁰ “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ ¹³ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14 (ESV)

In this parable we find a Pharisee, boasting about how he is more righteous than others. One way in which he sees himself as more righteous is that he gives tithes of all he gets. But he is not the one who is justified in this story—rather it is the sinner who repents who is justified.

That is all there is for Jesus' references to tithing. The only other reference to tithing in the New Testament is in Hebrews 7:1-10, where the writer is talking about the encounter between Abraham and Melchizedek referenced earlier. But the whole point of the larger passage of Hebrews 7 is to show how Jesus can be a priest of God even if He isn't of the line of Aaron, and that the sarifice of Jesus is greater than the sacrifice of the Aaronic priests.

But there is no teaching anywhere in the New Testament where the Gentile (non-Jewish) Christian is taught to tithe. If it was so important, you think it would have come up in the book of Acts, or perhaps Paul, Peter, James or John would have mentioned it.

Does that mean we're not supposed to give? On the contrary--generosity is taught everywhere.

So what does the New Testament say about giving? A lot! Here's just a sampling.

New Testament Teaching About Giving

Do not give as a way of boasting

Matthew 6:1-4 (ESV)
¹ “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. ² “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ³ But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

In this passage Jesus is talking about giving to the needy, not giving to the church.

Not 10% but 100%

Mark 12:41–44
⁴¹ And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. ⁴² And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. ⁴³ And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. ⁴⁴ For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Here Jesus' commends not the one who gives ten percent, but the one who gives 100%!

Giving as evidence of faith and love - See to it that no one is lacking

Acts 2:44–46
⁴⁴ And all who believed were together and had all things in common. ⁴⁵ And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. ⁴⁶ And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,

1 John 3:16–18
¹⁶ By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. ¹⁷ But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? ¹⁸ Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

James 2:14–17
¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? ¹⁷ So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

If we give we will receive

Luke 6:38 (ESV)
³⁸ give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

More blessed to give than to receive

Acts 20:35 (ESV)
³⁵ In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Special Offerings for the needy

Perhaps some of the more often quoted verses about giving are from Paul's letters to the church at Cornith. But in these passages Paul is not writing about giving to your local church. He is writing about a special offering he is taking to help the Christians who are in need in Judea.

1 Corinthians 16:1-4 (ESV)
¹ Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. ² On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. ³ And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. ⁴ If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.

2 Corinthians 8:1-7 (ESV)
¹ We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, ² for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. ³ For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, ⁴ begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— ⁵ and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. ⁶ Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. ⁷ But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.

2 Corinthians 9:6-15 (ESV)
⁶ The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. ⁷ Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. ⁹ As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” ¹⁰ He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹ You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. ¹² For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. ¹³ By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, ¹⁴ while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. ¹⁵ Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

Giving to support elders in the church

1 Timothy 5:17-18 (ESV)
¹⁷ Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. ¹⁸ For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”

In Summary

The New Testament teaches we should be generous. It suggests sacrificial giving—the kind of giving where you have to give up something in order to help those with less. Most of the giving advice in the New Testament has to do with helping those in need, not giving to "the church." Though scripture does remind us to see that our church leaders are looked after.

The churches of that day did not have buildings to pay for. (Prior to AD 70, some Jewish giving would have been to care for the temple building.) But often more of our church budgets are directed to care for property than to care for people and we can end up like the Jewish leaders who keep to the letter of the law while missing the point of it.

Jesus summarized the "law and the prophets" (this would include the rules about tithing) with two great commandments.  The two great commandments remind us to love God and to love our neighbor as ourself. (Matthew 22:37-40) And in the parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus reminds us that how we treat the "least of these" is how we treat Him. (Matthew 25:31-46) We can't keep the two Great Commandments without sharing our resources with those in need.

We read in Psalm 50:

For every beast of the forest is mine,
    the cattle on a thousand hills.
(Psalm 50:10–11, ESV.)

If you were to stumble across a cow while wandering through the hills, and you asked around, you would probably find someone who would claim, "that's my cow." This supposed owner might even point out some brand or ear tags as evidence of ownership. But God says that's His cow. Who's right?

Whose cattle?

Everthing on earth belongs to God, the scripture says:

The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof,
    the world and those who dwell therein,
(Psalm 24:1, ESV)

We humans are granted temporary stewardship of the things on this earth. Adam's job in the Garden of Eden was not to take ownership of the garden, but to take care of it. (Genesis 2:15)

We are accountable to God for how well we care for all the things on earth that belong to Him. Our posessions are not ours, they belong to God. Our money is not ours, it belongs to God. Maybe Tony Campolo wasn't so far off. Maybe the ten percent is our party money and the other ninety percent we use to invest in loving God and loving our neighbor.

Why Are You Here Today

Notes for a sermon preached at Butler Church in the Faith Community congregation (6/22/2025) and in the Common Ground congregation (8/3/2025).

Good morning, everyone. When I looked at the preaching schedule for this week and saw who was lined to speak at our services this morning, I was thinking this would be a good day to worship with Faith Community. But since you all are here, perhaps it is good that I showed up too. I was asked if I could preach here this morning, but I’m not really a preachery kind of person. I’m more used to teaching where there is discussion. Where there are questions and answers. So, if at any point you have a question or a comment, you can raise your hand.

To start this off, Who is willing to share their answer to the question: Why are you here today? Why are you gathered in this place on this Sunday morning instead of going on a picnic or hanging out at the beach? There is no right or wrong answer. I’ve got a microphone we can use so everyone, including those listening online, can hear. Why are you here today?

(Time for answers)

The reason I ask that question is that it is the first thing that came to mind when I read the passage that I was asked to talk about this morning: Acts 2:42-47.

⁴² And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. ⁴³ And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. ⁴⁴ And all who believed were together and had all things in common. ⁴⁵ And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. ⁴⁶ And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Before I begin talking about the content of this passage, I wish to point out that this passage is descriptive, not prescriptive. In other words, it does not make any commands about normative church practice, but it does gives us examples about how things were done in order that we might learn from them.

Another thing is that my thoughts on these few verses are not meant to be an exhaustive exposition of the passage, but just a few gleanings that I chose to speak about. I put the message together—I get to choose.

These few verses are transitional. They serve to summarize the earlier verses in chapter 2, and they set the stage for the events that are going to happen in the rest of the book of Acts.

Earlier in Chapter 2 we read about the Holy Spirit coming down upon the believers on Pentecost Sunday, which we celebrated back in June. Who remembers what Pentecost Sunday was about? Who remembers what the word Pentecost means? Now Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks, was one of three occasions during the calendar year when all adult Jewish males had to come before God at the place that He chose. The three occasions were Passover; the Feast of the Harvest also known as the feast of weeks or Pentecost; and the Feast of the Ingathering also known as the Feast of Booths. You can read about these in Exodus 23 and 34 and other places. So, there were only three regularly scheduled times of the year when all the Jewish men had to “go to Church,” so to speak. (Scripture does not mention women and children as having to go, but I imagine that many times these were family pilgrimages.) There also might have been other occasions when people had to travel to the tabernacle or temple to fulfill vows or make some other kind of offering during the year

It just so happened that God chose one of these occasions to pour out His Spirit on the believers—a time where Jewish men from all over the known world would have gathered in Jerusalem. As a result of the sermon that Peter preached that day and the work of the Holy Spirit, some 3,000 people came to faith. So now the question is, What’s next? What does this new group of believers do? What is the Church going to look like on a day-to-day basis? Though I should point out that the term church is not used here, that word first appears in Acts a couple of chapters later. Acts 2:42-47 begins to answer that question. I stress the word begins, because the church is a new thing, and the whole of the rest the book of Acts is devoted to this topic.

The first thing that grabbed my attention when I re-read this passage was that these new believers started meeting together. They met in a big group in the temple. They met in people’s homes. Why? Who told them to do this? We don’t see anywhere that God commanded or directed these people to meet together.

I find it interesting that one of the great commandments that is taught in churches is, “Thou shalt go to Church on Sunday.” Yet nowhere in scripture are we told to go to church. In fact, that phrase wouldn’t have made any sense to the believers of the early church, because the church was never a place, it was a people. The Biblical word for church, ekklēsía, refers to people who are called out to assemble together. And why do we need to be told to “go to church”? Here we see the newborn church meeting together without any command to do so.

When I was young, I was very self-centered and did not socialize well with people. I never scored well on “plays well with others.” I took up smoking when I was 14 and started partying not long after that. But when I was 17, I got hoodwinked into attending a Christian youth group. I figured it was only once, so I could put up with it. But then I met a group of people who had been touched by the love of God and that love flowed out of their lives. Even though they had every reason not to welcome someone like me into their midst, they welcomed me. I kept going back, and after a few months, I decided to become a follower of Jesus.

At that point, all I wanted to do was be around these Jesus people. I wanted to be in that culture where God’s love was so evident, and I wanted to grow in my newfound faith. No one had to tell me that as a believer I had to fellowship regularly with God’s people—it was what I wanted to do. Every opportunity I had, whether it be a Bible Study or an activity night, if I was free, I was traveling to this next town over to be with these people.

But we’ll come back to this.

Another question I have for you today is this: of the following two things, which do you think better represents what the church should be like: a school or a family. Who thinks a school represents the church better? Who thinks family represents the church better?

Most people consider that the church should look more like a family than a school, but when we gather, we are often sitting in rows, looking up front at the teacher, much like a classroom. Though back in my day the teacher would have a wooden pointy stick to point at the blackboard, and which would also serve as a veiled threat against potential mischief makers. Now all I have is this little clicker thing—doesn’t do much for crowd control. Anyway, I don’t think this is what Jesus had in mind when He said He would build His church.

Many people refer to their church as a family. Why is church often viewed as a family? When we moved to Fresno, we eventually joined Butler Church. It is the first Mennonite church we have been a part of. Now maybe many of you don’t know about the history of the Mennonite Brethren church, we certainly didn’t when we started coming here.

I did not grow up around or anywhere near Mennonite communities. I had heard of Mennonites, but really knew nothing about them. I first encountered some Mennonites when I was in training for a short term mission in Ontario. There were a couple of Mennonite women there, one had the last name Dyck, which I thought was odd, because it was spelled with a “y”. The other had one of the most unusual last names I had ever heard: Warkentin. Unusual, I thought, until I visited her in her hometown of Abbotsford and looked in the phone book and saw column after column of Warkentins in the fine print. I looked up Dyck with a y, too. Same thing.

Shortly after joining Butler Church, we were hosting a small group at our home. There were some couples there who had a long Mennonite Heritage. The first night we introduced ourselves to each other. Anyone want to guess what game they played? That’s right, they played the Mennonite Name Game. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this game, it is when two or more Mennonites get together and try to figure out if they are related and how, or if they have any historic family connections and where those happened. This was something new to us. It turns out that some of the people there had common connections in a place called Corn, Oklahoma. Corn. Is that really a place? I thought they were playing games with us newbies to the Mennonite World. But it turns out Corn does really exist—turns out about 500 people call it home and it has a Baptist Church and an MB Church. It was in Corn, Oklahoma back in 1951, where the first tornado was captured on video in the US. Anybody here have family connections that go back to Corn?

While we do not have a Mennonite heritage, my oldest brother is really into genealogy stuff. If he meets someone with whom he will have more than just a passing relationship, he will try to figure out how they are related. He even knows his relationship to his wife—she is his 10th cousin twice removed—whatever that means. I think the fact that she is his wife is more important. And they’ve been together over 50 years and he hasn’t removed her yet.

Why do people care about such things? I think it is because we are longing for connection with others. We want a sense of belonging. We want to feel part of something bigger than ourselves. And if you’re keeping track, that is my first point—healthy families are characterized by a sense of belonging.

When I became a believer, it was like I was an orphan who was adopted into his forever family. I had this connection with other believers, not by the blood that flows through our veins but by the blood of Jesus that flowed down from the cross. And this forever family has been very important to us, especially as we have lived most of our lives far from our siblings and parents. And so, we have been welcomed into homes all around the world because we are part of the family of God.

Perhaps this was one of the things that was going on in this passage in Acts. We have a bunch of people who are far from their homes—far from their families—and now they have found a new family in the assembly of believers in Jerusalem.

If we have grown up in church culture, we can take this sense of family for granted. After all, we belong to a local church, which is part of a regional conference of churches, which is part of a national group of Mennonite churches, which is part of a global family of churches. And if we are ethnic Mennonite, we may also share a last name with many people in those churches.

But in minority-Christian cultures, that sense of belonging is not as well entrenched. If you are one of only a handful of believers in a province, you can feel quite lonely. This was the case in Thailand.

Family Camp

Each year in Thailand, the Mennonite Brethren churches get together for family camp. When we think of family camp in North America, we think of a camp that families attend together as opposed to something like a youth camp or a men’s camp. But the meaning in Thailand is a bit broader. It is a time when a family of believers get together. This is a very significant time for them. The believers are encouraged to see that there are many other people in Thailand who love Jesus. And they are also excited to hear about how there are many such people all around the world. They are not alone. They belong to a big family.

Healthy families are characterized by Belonging, and this was an important characteristic of the early church, but we often don’t think about it, or we take it for granted.

Sharing

Growing up, my family lived around the corner from my mother’s brother and his family. My dad and my uncle had been friends since before they each got married. They went in together on buying an extension ladder. Most of the time, a section of the ladder was at each of our houses. But if the need arose, we would walk down the street to borrow the other half—though it took a lot of effort to carry those heavy, wooden, twelve foot ladders down the street. And how many times do I remember going to see my aunt to borrow some item needed for cooking, or fetching such a thing from our cupboard when one of my cousins came asking for it.

Families share resources.

This connection between families and sharing resources affected our ministry in Thailand a great deal. In Thailand one’s family and one’s village (which would include a lot of extended family) provide for their socio-economic security. If you run into problems, these are the people that will help you out. You look out for your own family. One of the things that kept people from coming to faith in Thailand was that they might get kicked out of their families if they became believers and they did not want to give up the security that it represented.

It is not surprising, then, that often we would see the most rapid church growth among those lacking in familial connections—those who don’t have a well-established socio-economic support system.

If the church is going to grow in Thailand, it needs to make up for the security people may lose from their earthly family.

This sharing of resources should also be true of God’s family. We read in Acts 2:44 that the newborn church had all things in common. The expression in common comes from the Greek koinos, which is the root of the word for fellowship in verse 42, Koinonia. Koinonia is typically translated as fellowship, but, as John Stott writes:

Thus koinōnia is a Trinitarian experience; it is our common share in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But secondly, koinōnia also expresses what we share out together, what we give as well as what we receive. Koinōnia is the word Paul used for the collection he was organizing among the Greek churches (Romans 15:26; 2 Corinthians 8:4; 9:13), and koinonikos is the Greek word for ‘generous’.

Koinonia is about sharing—sharing lives and sharing resources. People sold belongings to help others. People shared their lives over food at the dinner table. This sharing would have contributed to the family-like atmosphere that made this group seem so inviting. Being family means using one’s resources to care for others in our family.

Just like the new believers wanted to spend time together, we don’t see anywhere that they were commanded to do this. It seemed to come natural to them that sharing resources was something they should do.

In Christian circles, we will often say that “our” possessions are actually God’s. But how well do we live that out? In Thailand, we had two vehicles—a pickup and a small car. On many occasions, God would have us lend one of them out for extended periods. After all, they were God’s cars, and our willingness to do this opened up opportunities to share the gospel, because people saw that we treated them like family.

But it wasn’t always so easy let go of ownership. One time we had a group visiting from Laos for a few days. They asked to borrow my guitar, so I let them. When they returned it, I noticed it had suffered quite a bit of abuse in those few days. I remember being upset because they had damaged “my” guitar.

Do people see Butler Church as a place where their physical and emotional needs can be met? How loosely do we hold “our” possessions. Are there people around us who lack meaningful family relationships that can help provide for their needs?

Because Healthy families share.

Growing

Another characteristic of healthy families that we see in this passage is that they grow. Family members and families grow in two ways. They grow in maturity, and they grow by multiplying.

The family is to be a place of learning. Most of what we learn is not taught in school, but is taught in the home. New believers are spiritual infants, as Peter writes: Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation. (1 Peter 2:2, ESV) Part of the task of our church family is to help us grow from newborn babes to functional adults. But how does that happen? One way we learn is through actual instruction. We are even taught in scripture to do this.

Psalm 78:5-7
  ⁵ He established a testimony in Jacob
    and appointed a law in Israel,
  which he commanded our fathers
    to teach to their children,
  ⁶ that the next generation might know them,
    the children yet unborn,
    and arise and tell them to their children,
  ⁷ so that they should set their hope in God
    and not forget the works of God,
    but keep his commandments;

But most of what we are taught, we learn by example. When I saw my dad brush his hair, I wanted a brush so I could do the same thing. I learned how to remove stubborn bolts when he showed me the trick to loosen spark plugs without breaking them. I learned how to treat all people with respect when we welcomed people of different colors and cultures into our home. We weren’t just told what to do, we were shown how to do it.

Suppose a father tells his son that he should not go out and get drunk. But every Friday after work, the dad goes out with his buddies and comes home drunk. What two things is this father teaching his son? Some might say he is teaching him both that he shouldn’t get drunk and that it is okay to get drunk. But what he is really teaching is that it is okay to get drunk and that his words carry little weight. We teach mostly by example, and our words should reinforce that example.

I remember asking one of the parents in our church of they could help teach. This person said they couldn’t teach because they weren’t a teacher. But if you are a parent, you are a teacher, though you may not be a very good one.

In these verses in Acts 2, we see the believers spending time together. I’m sure the believers did more than just share a meal when they met in people’s homes—this is when they could talk about what’s going on in their own lives and how they can live more like Jesus. And new believers could see how the Christians actually lived their lives on a day-to-day basis. The new believers could see if the behavior of the disciples matched up with what they were teaching in public.

As a church family, how intentional are we about raising healthy children? Do we just hope that by attending church on Sundays it will be enough for them to mature as Christians? Or do we take time to meet with new believers and mentor them. Does our behavior correspond to the things we say when we gather on Sunday?

Still another way families grow is in numbers. People have children, who have children.

In the same way, the church should grow numerically. The challenge for us is how do we continue to grow as a healthy family? How do we adopt new family members in the midst of a community that looks and speaks less and less like we do?


We read in Acts 2:47:
praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

We see in this verse that it was the Lord who added to their number each day. But it is not like the church did not have a role. One role they played was through their teaching. But another important role was to behave in such a way as to have favor with all the people.

Often, in our church outreach programs, we focus on getting people in the door—getting people in the door of the church building as if we can somehow trap them into becoming part of our family. But the picture I see here is not inviting someone into a building but rather inviting them to the table. Inviting them to be part of the family.

There may be some reluctance when we invite people to meet our family. I think of the young men and women who invite their significant other to meet the family for the first time. It can be a scary thing. If you meet your possible future son-in-law carrying a shotgun, you probably won’t see him again.

The picture I see here in the book of Acts is like going to a restaurant and seeing that table that you would like to be a part of. Did you ever see something like that? Maybe it’s the joyous laughter that catches your attention. Perhaps it is a person talking while the other person actively listening. Or maybe it is just the interesting conversation taking place. You can see, feel, and hear the love that the people at the table have for each other. It is something that makes you want to get up from your own table and go join theirs.

Church Family Gathering

This method of evangelism means being at the table that other people want to be a part of, and then inviting them to join you. Are we this kind of family? Do people know we are disciples of Jesus because of the love we have for each other as we read in John 13:34-35? Does our light shine before people, so that they see our good works? (Matthew 5:16) And if we invite new family members to our table, are there any changes we need to make so that they feel at home? Or do we just say that you’re welcome here as long as you conform? Is the love that our family members share for each other evident to those on the outside and make people feel like this is a family they want to be a part of?

Closing

To summarize, the church is a growing family where everyone feels like they belong and that is characterized, in part, by a sharing of lives and resources.

I want to end by going back to my original question. Why am I here? First, let me state a couple reasons that are not why I’m here.

I’m not here because Butler Church is a perfect church. In fact, I think it is a very dysfunctional church. There is a saying that goes every family has at least one strange, oddball character, and that if you can’t figure out who it is in your family, it is probably you. Well in my family, that person is me, but I’m okay with that. So I know Butler Church is dysfunctional because I’m a member here.

I’m also not here because this is such an awesome building, as nice as it is (we are about the same age, after all). But I find it odd that all the doorways point inward instead of outward—it does not make it seem like an inviting place.

No, the reason I’m here because Butler Church is my family—a family that welcomed us when we first moved to Fresno over 20 years ago, and has become part of our forever family.

I’d like to close today by having us gather together in a circle and join hands. We’re going to sing a song that was written about 60 years ago by a fellow who was a Catholic priest at the time. In those days, there was a lot of civil unrest due to race relations—not so much unlike the present. Reverend Scholtes saw that the church needed to be that family where everyone was welcomed and loved, regardless of their background, race, color, social status or whatever. The song is called “We Are One in the Spirit”, many of you older folks will probably know it. At the end we will sing a benediction.


We are one in the Spirit
Peter Scholtes 1966

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord.
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord.
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored,
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love,
Yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand.
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand.
And together we’ll spread the news that God is in our land,
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love,
Yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

We will work with each other, We will work side by side.
We will work with each other, We will work side by side.
And we'll guard each man's dignity And save each man's pride.
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love,
Yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

All praise to the Father, from whom all things come,
And all praise to Christ Jesus, His only Son,
And all praise to the Spirit, who makes us one:
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love,
Yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

What's in Your Cup?

In my last blog, I brought up the topic of coffee shops. We have been to many coffee shops across the continents. Some coffee shops are rather plain; others go to a great deal of effort to decorate their spaces. It seems common for the purveyors of caffeinated bliss to post signs with various kinds of cute or wise sayings, and that will be the focus of this blog.

For this piece, I will share signs and sayings that particularly relate to the handiwork of the baristas of the world.

I will begin close to home, in the town of Woodlake, a quaint village at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Tulare County. A coffee shop with the strange name of Munchies can be found on the east side of Highway 245 (North Valencia Blvd.). With a name like that, I wasn't sure whether I was going there to eat or drink coffee. Inside of Munchies you will find a proverb that, even if you disagree with the first part, you may agree with the second.

Munchies Coffee in Woodlake, California

It's hard to argue with the statement that Good Friends are a Treasure. I can also relate to good coffee being a pleasure. But there is such a thing as bad coffee, which is not a pleasure, and fortunately they did not serve me any at Munchies. Because elsewhere I read that Life is Too short for Bad Coffee. That was the sentiment shared on the wall of The Coffee Shop in Mariposa.

Life is Too Short for Bad Coffee

Unfortunately, life was also too short for The Coffee Shop, as I no longer see it on Google Maps. But back to Munchies Coffee. On another wall of that establishment we find a much more bold statement.

Everything Gets Better with Coffee

Everything Gets Better With Coffee, the saying goes. For some, it even improves their blood pressure scores, that is, if you are looking for higher grades.

From Woodlake, we will travel to the north of Fresno to the city of Madera. Madera is one of the many "M" towns along Highway 99: Madera, Merced, Modesto, and Manteca. These are all Spanish words, which translate wood, mercy, modesty, and lard, respectively. (Fresno is also a Spanish word meaning ash tree, but that's a story for another day.)

One day, we were coming into Madera from the east, having taken the back roads from Oakhurst through Raymond. We had already had a picnic lunch at the Fresno River Recreation Area and we were looking for a place that might sell us a blended mocha. We pored over Google Maps and found a place called Charita's. At Charita's they sell ice cream as well as coffee. And they also sell succulents. (I'm not sure what succulents have to do with coffee and ice cream, but that's how it is.)

There was one sign posted at Charita's that used a play on words, Love You a Latte.

Love You a Latte

Well, they did not love me enough to get a free latte, but the blended mocha was good—though perhaps sweeter than we needed. Elsewhere they had posted a rewrite of Matthew 19:26 that went: With Enough Coffee, Anything is Possible.

With Enough Coffee Anything is Possible

Well, Jesus might disagree with this statement, but apparently not everyone does. This statement is also fairly open, because anything could include good things and bad things; wise things or foolish things.

We'll travel up the road from Madera to Mariposa, to the now defunct The Coffee Shop. Their walls had a lot to say about the beverage that replaced beer as the breakfast of choice in Britain many years ago. I'll begin with one of their milder statements: First I Drink the Coffee, Then I do the Things. I like the use of the definite article in this saying. The coffee. The things.

First I Drink the Coffee, then I do the Things

That one was fairly innocuous, but this next one was a bit threatening: Just Give Me the Coffee and No One Gets Hurt.

Just Give me the Coffee
and No One Gets Hurt

I wonder if they ever had a threat like that. Mariposa does seem like a bit of an outlaw western town. Maybe that's why they had to close. Another sign in The Coffee Shop also seemed like a bit of a warning: Drink Coffee—do Stupid Things Faster With More Energy.

Do Stupid Things Faster with More Energy

The last sign I'll post from The Coffee Shop had to do with the aroma of the morning brew—Good Morning: Wake Up and Smell the Coffee.

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

With that, we will waft on the coffee fumes over to Thailand, where there are other coffee shops that call out the morning fragrance.

Just up the road to the northeast from Big C in Kalasin City is Ellie Cafe. (The Ellie is pronounced ee-lee with a rising tone on the second syllable.) Their coffee cups shared the same sentiment as The Coffee Shop—Wake Up and smell the Coffee, though it is a bit hard to read the font.

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

To the southeast of the city of Kalasin, in the small village of Dawn Han, Sae Jom Coffee also called out the fragrance of coffee, proclaiming on their window: I Like Coffee—Smell It and Taste It.

Smell and Taste the Coffee

Unfortunately, Sae Jom Coffee seemed to be closed more than it was open, and later on two more coffee shops opened in their village including Order Here Coffee, which I mentioned in my previous blog.

I like coffee, but caffeine really doesn't affect me a whole lot. So while I enjoy a good cup of coffee at the beginning of the day, I can also enjoy one before I go to bed. Most people, it seems, are not wired this way. These folks struggle to begin their day without a caffeine fix. This next group of signs is for them.

I'll begin with a sign we saw at Ban Toem Phlang coffee shop in the village of Thanya, Kamalasai District, Kalasin, Thailand. This coffee shop was attached to a restaurant, but it closed down when the proprietor moved to Bangkok. Life Begins After Coffee is the sentiment expressed on this sign.

Life Begins After Coffee

This same sentiment was shared at Coffee Arigato at the Laem Thong Mall in Bang Saen, Chonburi Province.

Life Begins After Coffee

The folks at De Herdt Gardens in Barrhead, Alberta, Canada, seem even more desperate for their morning brew. "I would say good morning but I don't think I've had enough coffee yet" is the saying of a true addict.

Frazzled Cat at De Herdt Gardens

Other folks may be able to get going without their coffee, but the buzz enables them to keep going stronger and longer. This is the feeling expressed at a coffee shop, whose name I don't remember, in the Com Thong District of Chiang Mai. "Coffee. You can sleep when you're dead," declares the sign.

You can sleep when you're dead!

Chao Yan Yen Coffee (the name means "morning until evening") in Nong Khai puts a note on their cups to remind you that life is short, and coffee will help you stay awake for what little there is of it.

Life is Too Short

There are others who seem to need coffee to get their inspiration. Blue Gold Coffee in the Tha Sadet Market in Nong Khai comes right out and says it: Cup of Your Inspiration.

Inspiring Coffee in Nong Khai

Cake Lamoon Coffee—our favorite coffee shop in Phon Phisai in the province of Nong Khai—puts it a little differently: Great Ideas Start With Great Coffee. These guys started out as a modest shop with a good vibe. Then they made it even better by roasting their own beans and adding a bakery where they make all the stuff they sell. So if you're ever in the area, go get inspired with some great ideas (and great coffee and great food).

Great Ideas Start With Great Coffee

Still others have the opposite idea. Instead of using coffee time to be inspired with great ideas, they recommend using it as a time to take a break from thinking. This neon sign, Stop Thinking, Start Drinking, appears to have been made for a bar, but it ended up in a coffee shop called Cham Cafe in the city of Roi Et.

Stop Thinking Start Drinking

There are a bunch of coffee shops who draw a connection between love and coffee, either the love of coffee or the relationship between human love and coffee. I suppose some people might be challeged separating the two. Anyway, these next images will call attention to these.

Good Time Coffee, a coffee shop that used to exist at the Kasemrad Siriburin Hospital in Chiang Rai, was fairly direct about the relationship between Love and Coffee with the bold statement "Love Coffee" in big letters on the wall.

Love Coffee

Sea Street Coffee in Pranburi (Prachuap Kiri Khan Province), took a cue from the Beatles, "All You Need is Love & More Coffee.

All You Need is Love, Well Maybe Not Quite All

Sweetheat Coffee was a really cute coffee shop in the Chai Wan District of Udon Thani. The decor was full of hearts and similar romantic motifs. One would think that a place like this would draw a connection between coffee and human relationships. But, no, you can skip the love because All You Need is Coffee.

Or Maybe You Don't Need the Love After All

If you can't you have love, then at least maybe you can find happiness. After all, this is the weekend when we celebrate the occassion when our American forefathers wrote about the right to pursue happiness. I wrote elsewhere about a coffee shop that promises happiness in your cup.

Piamsuk=Full of Happiness

Other coffee shops indicate that you may need more than just coffee to find that happiness. At Brown Coffee Bar in the city of Kalasin, we are told that you also need cake: Happiness is a cup of coffee and a good piece of cake.

Will a Cookie Do if I Don't Have Cake?

And if cake isn't your thing, then the folks at this coffee shop at a Caltex gas station south of Chiang Rai would have us know that Coffee with a friend is like capturing happiness in a cup.

Coffee + Friend

And if happiness just seems too elusive for you, remember that You can't buy happiness, but you can buy coffee. Such was the wisdom from Tam Sabay (make yourself comfortable) Coffee in Lat Krabang.

The Best Thing Money Can Buy

Some coffee shops are less philosophical. Hom Kaew, a small coffee stand down the street from where we lived in Kamalasai, Kalasin, stuck with a simple definiton of coffee on their cups.

How Do You Define Coffee?

Well, maybe that is not the definition you might find in Merrimam-Webster, but it will do.

And this coffee shop in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos, devoted a wall to the benefits of coffee.

Just in Case You're on the Fence About the Magical Brew

Some coffee shops leave us wondering what they are actually feeding us. That coffee shop in Com Thong, which told us that we can sleep when we are dead, puts this on their cups:

What Exactly Did I Order?

PEA in love! What exactly is in this cup?

Canada's Tim Hortons seems to generate a lot of strong emotions. Some people seem to swear it is the best coffee and others seem to think it gives Canada a bad name. But leave it to Tim Hortons to keep the mystery going: Same Secret Recipe Since 1964.

Not Sure I'll Get Coffee at Timmy's Anymore

Secret recipe!?! I just want roasted coffee beans and water! I'm not a great fan of Starbucks, but after reading this cup, I think it might be a better option.

While we may be confused about coffee and love and relationships and secret recipes and caffeine addictions, at the end of the day, as the Comfy Corner Cafe in Roi Et reminds us, just remember: Life isn't perfect, but your cup of coffee can be.

Life Doesn't Always Go As Planned

And with that, I think I'll have another sip.