Abraham and his progeny tithed prior to the law being written. The written law contained three different tithes. Jesus spoke of not leaving tithing undone. And, Hebrews speaks of the One in Heaven (of whom it is witnessed that He lives) receiving the tithe given to Him through men on earth. The tithe is given from a person's increase. For an employee, "gross pay" is representative if your increase, whereas "net pay" is only a portion of your increase. If the difference between your gross pay and net pay did not represent real dollars, Uncle Sam would not receive anything on which to operate government, pay our federal employees, and take care of the nation’s expenses. Thus, the difference is real dollars accounted to you, then taken from you as taxes routed through the IRS.
When asked what they make, you never hear people quote a net income figure or take-home pay. They always identify the gross amount because this is the amount they were actually paid during the year. When their employer identifies the amount they make per year, it always identifies the gross amount because this is the amount of money the employer actually paid them. When you work for an employer, gross pay is your increase, regardless of whether you receive it directly and must pay expenses out of it or whether the employer pays expenses out of it to someone else on your behalf.
It would be out of order to consider net pay the basis for tithing (due to the premise that you only tithe on what is actually received in your pay check) because you could do many things to cause net pay to be far less than gross pay. For example, you could have child support taken out of your check or you could have your pay garnished and sent to someone who holds a judgment against you. If these things are not increase, the receiver would not want it because he / she would not be getting real money.
The current mechanism for taxes being taken out of your pay up front by employers was established by the government to ensure that people did not fail to pay taxes during the year, then spend all their earnings, and then be unable to pay taxes after the end of the year.
Entrepreneurs / business owners are in a different situation, because they incur some expenses long before they receive revenue from customers. Such expenditures give them an opportunity to receive income, and hopefully abundantly. Thus, they can reduce gross pay by the amount of expenses necessary to obtain revenue and the result would be their true increase.
It is always best to offer the Lord the best of everything earned (the first-fruit of your increase) because you want to (1) recognize His handiwork in your life, (2) thank Him for continuing to abundantly bless and reward you and meet all your need according to His riches in glory, (3) do your part to advance His kingdom and Church, (4) help meet other people’s needs, and (5) give you the desire of your heart as you delight yourself in Him.
Please pray for this ministry and email me with any questions. May the LORD bless you richly as you follow His plan!
Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15, Acts 1:8, 1Corinthians 9:22
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