Hi all,
Now that we've asked the average pastor, 'Which tithe do you want?'(lol), let us realize giving is a small part of the Jewish concept of righteousness.
Tzedakah....the Hebrew word for 'righteousness' and 'charity'
We non-Jews are taught we are righteous before God by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. We are taught vertically we are righteous. That's true, but it is only half of righteousness.
Tzedakah embodies and only includes rightness with God vertically AND rightness with man at the same time. You cannot separate the two in the word righteousness. Sadly, most every Christian only hears the half-truth that righteousness means being made right with God vertically.
The word 'righteousness' means right with God vertically and right with man horizontally.
It is also translated as 'charity' or 'giving' or 'alms giving' for that reason. It means we are so amazed that we have been made right vertically with God, that out of that overflow of joy and Life we give to our fellow man horizontally. To be right with God means being a generous person to our fellow man. Tzedakah is a lifestyle of generosity to our fellow man because we have been made right vertically with God.
The Old Testament tithe, which is first seen as a grace in his heart when Abraham gave voluntarily to Melchizedek, was made an external law in the Law of Moses. This was to 'force' Israel to live a life of generosity to their fellow man. It was made a law because in all the Old Testament no one was born again. They were sinners forced to live generously to their fellow man by the external law of Moses.
I can't emphasize this enough:Righteousness MUST include both the vertical right with God AND the horizontal right with man. The word 'righteous' means that. There is no dividing the word righteous to mean you are just talking of the vertical between you and God being right. Righteousness is always the vertical rightness with God AND the horizontal rightness with man. You can't have one without the other.
This is the law and prophets. This is the command to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is righteousness. It is also charity. Generosity. Giving. Tzedakah. To be right with God you must be right with man.
We have never understood to be right with God we must first be right with our fellow man.
The rabbi's teach the poor person receiving a gift is actually doing the giver a favor, not the other way around. It gives the person an opportunity to express their joy at being right with God vertically, so naturally they want to be generous with those in need horizontally.
The foundation of tzedakah (righteous) is that the home and family is first priority in giving.
One's family must be taken care of first. This is why Paul equates one who doesn't work to provide for his own home as worse than an unbeliever in I Timothy 5:8, stating he has denied is faith. He denies his faith because he isn't tzedakah - righteous - because to be righteous one must be right before God and man, and not providing for family is unrighteousness, which is a denial of one's faith.
After flowing to family, tzedakah (righteousness) then flows outward to those closest to them in the faith, friends, neighbors, co-workers, strangers in the community, in that order.
Jesus spoke of this in Mark 7:13-19. The Pharisees had made a law saying if you had a tithe or offering the temple got that even if your parents were in need of food. Jesus said that is wrong, for in tzedakah family comes first, they are the first recipients of giving. Jesus told them; "You make the Word of God of no effect to honor your tradition." There are pastors who tell their people their tithe to the church comes first, leaving people without money for food, rent and ability to live - shame on those pastors for they have become the pharisees of our day, not understanding righteousness includes and must include both the vertical and horizontal right-ness.
The foundation of all Jesus taught, all the NT teaches, is NOT our actions 'upwards' to God, rather horizontally, in our responsibilities to our fellow man.
In Matthew 19:16-22 the Rich Young Ruler comes to Jesus:"Good master, what must I do to have eternal life?" Jesus responded:"Why are you calling me good?"
This was the first opportunity for the young man to confess Jesus is the Christ. It was the first opportunity to say, "I'm calling you good because you are Christ, God's Son", as Peter did. But he said nothing. Jesus continued:"There is no one good but God." (Are you calling me God because you called me good?)
Still, there is silence from the young man. Another opportunity missed to express his faith in Jesus. So the Lord continued along a different path to reach him:"If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."
Here we see tzedakah in action.
After the young man claimed to keep all the horizontal commands since he was a boy, Jesus tells the young man:"If you want to be complete, sell what you have, give to the poor and you'll have a storehouse deposit in heaven, and come follow me."
The man's faith was very self-focused. Jesus listed the parts of the 10 Commandments that were horizontal - honor mom and dad, don't murder, don't do adultery, steal, lust or lie - and he said he had kept those since he was a boy. Jesus was looking for true tzedakah - a giving heart towards others.
How could Jesus have such a self-centered believer become a disciple? He was being invited to give his life for others in an expression of tzedakah that could lead to his martyrdom. Not just tzedakah, but tzedakah that could lead to his death, such would be a life of giving in the ministry.
Was his spiritual life so vibrant vertically with God that it spilled over in a life of generosity to his fellow man to the point he would be willing to die for someone?
To discover his heart, and to show his heart's deepest (stingy) truths to himself, Jesus asked him to sell everything and give to the poor in an act of tzedakah. The man went away sad, and Jesus let him go, for the life He had invited the man to required living generously from the heart. He didn't have that. He wasn't truly tzedakah, righteous, for his priorities were merely the vertical.
Notice how in the gospels when Jesus speaks of the kingdom of heaven, there is also the horizontal element:
"And Jesus went through Galilee teaching in their synagogues (vertical) and preaching about the kingdom of God (vertical & horizontal) and healing all manners of disease among the people (horizontal)." Matthew 4:22 (read also v23), Matthew 9:35 says the same.
The gospel of the kingdom must include both the vertical rightness with God and horizontal rightness with man. The purpose of healing in the NT therefore is first to demonstrate to the unsaved they can be made right with God. That He heals them is proof of His provision for rightness with the Father.
What does tzedakah look like with New Testament realities? That's for next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
http://www.cwowi.org and email me at [email protected]
Now that we've asked the average pastor, 'Which tithe do you want?'(lol), let us realize giving is a small part of the Jewish concept of righteousness.
Tzedakah....the Hebrew word for 'righteousness' and 'charity'
We non-Jews are taught we are righteous before God by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. We are taught vertically we are righteous. That's true, but it is only half of righteousness.
Tzedakah embodies and only includes rightness with God vertically AND rightness with man at the same time. You cannot separate the two in the word righteousness. Sadly, most every Christian only hears the half-truth that righteousness means being made right with God vertically.
The word 'righteousness' means right with God vertically and right with man horizontally.
It is also translated as 'charity' or 'giving' or 'alms giving' for that reason. It means we are so amazed that we have been made right vertically with God, that out of that overflow of joy and Life we give to our fellow man horizontally. To be right with God means being a generous person to our fellow man. Tzedakah is a lifestyle of generosity to our fellow man because we have been made right vertically with God.
The Old Testament tithe, which is first seen as a grace in his heart when Abraham gave voluntarily to Melchizedek, was made an external law in the Law of Moses. This was to 'force' Israel to live a life of generosity to their fellow man. It was made a law because in all the Old Testament no one was born again. They were sinners forced to live generously to their fellow man by the external law of Moses.
I can't emphasize this enough:Righteousness MUST include both the vertical right with God AND the horizontal right with man. The word 'righteous' means that. There is no dividing the word righteous to mean you are just talking of the vertical between you and God being right. Righteousness is always the vertical rightness with God AND the horizontal rightness with man. You can't have one without the other.
This is the law and prophets. This is the command to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is righteousness. It is also charity. Generosity. Giving. Tzedakah. To be right with God you must be right with man.
We have never understood to be right with God we must first be right with our fellow man.
The rabbi's teach the poor person receiving a gift is actually doing the giver a favor, not the other way around. It gives the person an opportunity to express their joy at being right with God vertically, so naturally they want to be generous with those in need horizontally.
The foundation of tzedakah (righteous) is that the home and family is first priority in giving.
One's family must be taken care of first. This is why Paul equates one who doesn't work to provide for his own home as worse than an unbeliever in I Timothy 5:8, stating he has denied is faith. He denies his faith because he isn't tzedakah - righteous - because to be righteous one must be right before God and man, and not providing for family is unrighteousness, which is a denial of one's faith.
After flowing to family, tzedakah (righteousness) then flows outward to those closest to them in the faith, friends, neighbors, co-workers, strangers in the community, in that order.
Jesus spoke of this in Mark 7:13-19. The Pharisees had made a law saying if you had a tithe or offering the temple got that even if your parents were in need of food. Jesus said that is wrong, for in tzedakah family comes first, they are the first recipients of giving. Jesus told them; "You make the Word of God of no effect to honor your tradition." There are pastors who tell their people their tithe to the church comes first, leaving people without money for food, rent and ability to live - shame on those pastors for they have become the pharisees of our day, not understanding righteousness includes and must include both the vertical and horizontal right-ness.
The foundation of all Jesus taught, all the NT teaches, is NOT our actions 'upwards' to God, rather horizontally, in our responsibilities to our fellow man.
In Matthew 19:16-22 the Rich Young Ruler comes to Jesus:"Good master, what must I do to have eternal life?" Jesus responded:"Why are you calling me good?"
This was the first opportunity for the young man to confess Jesus is the Christ. It was the first opportunity to say, "I'm calling you good because you are Christ, God's Son", as Peter did. But he said nothing. Jesus continued:"There is no one good but God." (Are you calling me God because you called me good?)
Still, there is silence from the young man. Another opportunity missed to express his faith in Jesus. So the Lord continued along a different path to reach him:"If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."
Here we see tzedakah in action.
After the young man claimed to keep all the horizontal commands since he was a boy, Jesus tells the young man:"If you want to be complete, sell what you have, give to the poor and you'll have a storehouse deposit in heaven, and come follow me."
The man's faith was very self-focused. Jesus listed the parts of the 10 Commandments that were horizontal - honor mom and dad, don't murder, don't do adultery, steal, lust or lie - and he said he had kept those since he was a boy. Jesus was looking for true tzedakah - a giving heart towards others.
How could Jesus have such a self-centered believer become a disciple? He was being invited to give his life for others in an expression of tzedakah that could lead to his martyrdom. Not just tzedakah, but tzedakah that could lead to his death, such would be a life of giving in the ministry.
Was his spiritual life so vibrant vertically with God that it spilled over in a life of generosity to his fellow man to the point he would be willing to die for someone?
To discover his heart, and to show his heart's deepest (stingy) truths to himself, Jesus asked him to sell everything and give to the poor in an act of tzedakah. The man went away sad, and Jesus let him go, for the life He had invited the man to required living generously from the heart. He didn't have that. He wasn't truly tzedakah, righteous, for his priorities were merely the vertical.
Notice how in the gospels when Jesus speaks of the kingdom of heaven, there is also the horizontal element:
"And Jesus went through Galilee teaching in their synagogues (vertical) and preaching about the kingdom of God (vertical & horizontal) and healing all manners of disease among the people (horizontal)." Matthew 4:22 (read also v23), Matthew 9:35 says the same.
The gospel of the kingdom must include both the vertical rightness with God and horizontal rightness with man. The purpose of healing in the NT therefore is first to demonstrate to the unsaved they can be made right with God. That He heals them is proof of His provision for rightness with the Father.
What does tzedakah look like with New Testament realities? That's for next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
http://www.cwowi.org and email me at [email protected]
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