some thoughts on the tithe

I've been wrestling with the issue of tithing lately, mostly because I discovered that I had fallen into a really ugly form of legalism about it. I'm still not sure what the whole biblical perspective on the issue is, but two things I know for sure: one, the tithe is a biblical concept which predates the Law; and, two, ALL that we possess belongs to God, and we are obligated to use everything we possess in a way that honors God.

What bothers me is the abuse of the third chapter of Malachi as a proof-text for tithing. One of the most basic principles of exegesis is that the Bible can never mean what it never meant, and the storehouse of Malachi 3:10 never meant anything other than the storehouse of the temple at Jerusalem. To transfer what applied to the temple to the modern local church seems to me to be stepping onto a slippery slope which, at its end, will have us transferring all sorts of types and shadows into the local church and failing to discern that WE, as Spirit-filled believers are the temple today. And there is no way to use the "robbing God" metaphor of Malachi to justify the tithe without ending up arguing that God needs something from us (see Psalm 50).

Another problem I have is that the ONLY reference to tithing in the entire New Testament (Matt 23:23, Luke 11:42) is made by Christ to the Pharisees before the crucifixion. Nothing anywhere else. One would be on as firm ground using the cleansing of the leper (Matt 8:2-4, Mark 1:40-44,
Luke 5:12-14) as justification for requiring an offering to be made at the local church every time God heals someone.

Well...I'll ramble on later when I'm less ambivalent about it.