Paying January Salary to Pastors
Some friends have asked me if it is right to give their entire January salary to their pastor or priest in the name of what is now called “first fruit offering.”
Well, in the first place the question should not be about the rightness or wrongness of it, rather the question should be: WHY do you give your January salary to your pastor or to the church? The answer to this “why” question will answer the question if it is right or wrong.
As a priest for some years now, I have encountered people who come to give their entire January salary or first salary in a new job to priests or pastors. I have also encountered priests who do not accept the money once they are aware that it is the person’s entire salary; they bless it and return it.
To make the whole thing much more dramatic, I know of some of those whose offerings were blessed and returned that later took the same money to another pastor of another church that will accept it (even if they don’t attend the church), so as to get the fulfilment of having sown seed.
Funny right?
I took a study of some of our Christians paying tithes and especially those paying January salary as first fruit even to the detriment of their children’s school fees, here is what I discovered that runs in almost all of them: They mistake fear for faith.
Dear friends, there is a thin line between fear and faith. A lot of what is propelling these people and indeed a large majority of us is not really faith as we may think, but fear.
Faith and fear are both very powerful tools. But they are never the same. In fact, they do not exist in one person at the same time. Once there is fear, there is no faith. Once there is faith, there is no fear.
This is why St Paul will tell Timothy that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of virtue, and of love, and of self-restraint,” (2 Timothy 1:7).
Fear is powerful because it is fueled by the whole notion of reward and punishment. The devil uses it a lot. It is a promise of, if you do so and so, you will get a reward of so and so, or a punishment of so and so. Unfortunately, this is how we teach in churches today. So, a lot of what we do as Christians are tied to fear, not faith.
It is easier to command compliance once you ignites the person’s fear. It is more difficult with faith because faith comes from God himself. Faith is a gift.
Do you know that the scribes and Pharisees in their bid to keep the ten commandments faithfully, had to explicitly itemized and break down the commandments until it was multiplied into 613? They were so afraid of breaking the commandments that they even became imprisoned by it.
When Christ came, he brought down their 613 commands into love of God and neighbour. This is simply to communicate one thing, that we can’t keep God’s precepts by fear. Fear is enslaving while faith is liberating. (Romans 8:15).
But today, some of our church ministers prefer their members to remain caged. How can someone tell you about her problems, the first thing a minister will ask is the last time the person paid her tithe or first fruit offering. How does being sick translates to not paying tithe?
The truth is, the reason most Christians give their January salary to pastors even to the detriment of their children’s school fees is generally tied to fear. They feel that if they don’t, their business or health will not go well. Or if they do, there will be more blessings.
This is why even if someone is dying, they will rather pay tithe than help the person. They will quote Malachi 3:10, Proverbs 3:9, Leviticus 23:10, Exodus 23:19, and forget that strictly speaking those laws no longer bind Christians. They forget too that every first born child is suppose to be given to God as first fruit to serve in the temple, if we are to follow those laws strictly. They forget that a farmer of those days harvesting his first produce is not to be equated with a worker of today donating his entire salary.
This is why churches are opening every day and if you oppose the payment of tithe or first fruit, they will come for your head and quote how it works for them. Yet, the richest man in Africa does not pay tithe and he is building a refinery. If the condition for God to bless you this year is that you must give your entire January Salary to your pastor, then it is better to be an atheist.
Friends, the Lord is not putting pressure on any of us. He is not standing somewhere taking record of your tithes or January salaries before he blesses you. Strictly speaking, he does not need them. Your pastor does. And your pastor is not God. What God need is your heart of purity and love.
Being generous from the heart towards God’s work and God’s ministers is not the same as being compel to be paying certain amount of money every month or year such that your blessings or curse is tied to it. The former is faith, the latter is fear. Learn the difference.