Christians Are Supposed To Be Fat

Thin is good if you're a model walking down a runway at the height of fashion week in New York City. Thin is terrible, though, if you're walking down the center aisle of a church with nothing on your spiritual hips but the tired old cliché your pastor threw at you during last Sunday's sermon.

Christians are supposed to be fat. They get that way by feasting on the richness of God's Word. A fat Christian is a healthy Christian, and that is the opposite of what the world calls healthy. Someone who feeds constantly on Scripture is spiritually fat. It's the main meal, it's the snack, and when you can't sleep at night, you're not opening the refrigerator, you're opening your Bible.

Thin Christian, bad. Fat Christian, good.

Plenty of folks sit in church Sunday after Sunday, hear sermon after sermon, and are starving spiritually. Why? Because they depend on being spoon-fed Scripture rather than feeding themselves. Folks who'd rather be spoon-fed the Bible aren't just skinny spiritually; they're lazy too.

Think about the difference between throwing something in the microwave and cooking a meal from scratch, ingredient by ingredient. Which is the more nourishing meal? Let me tell you, it's not the microwave meal. Settling for spoon-feeding from the pulpit is like bringing your microwave to church. It's quick, it may even taste fairly good, but there's nothing to it. A steady diet of clichéd sermons will do you as much harm as a steady diet of microwave dinners.

Nothing that comes easy is any good, or lasts. Nothing. Look back on your own life. What are the things you value most? What are the things that have had the most impact on your life? They're the things you worked hard to achieve. Things you've lost sleep over. Things you fought tooth and nail to finish. When you finally did, it was worth it all. Given the chance, you'd probably do it all again.

Let me give you an example or two of what I mean. Let's take tithing. It's a biblical principle first laid out in the Old Testament, where a person would bring a tenth of the harvest into the temple and offer it before the Lord. That gift supported the Levitical priesthood as they carried out their duties in the temple.

Quite a few Old Testament verses back this up. From that vantage point, giving a tenth was something all people of faith were expected to do. Simple. When there is biblical support for something, it ought to be done.

Ask a congregation today, "Is tithing for today?" and ninety-five percent would say, "Yes." Ask them why, and they'd answer, "Well, that's what Pastor told us the Bible says."

A fat Christian might still give a tenth today because they want to, but their answer to that question would be a resounding, "No." Why? Because they have spent time studying the Word of God and have spent time thinking about the Word of God. That's how they got fat: taking in Scripture by studying it, digesting it by chewing on it in prayer.

Let's dig into this a bit. Pull up to the table, put your napkin under your chin, and get ready to eat. Comfy? Good. Here we go.

Want to stay spiritually thin? Keep following whatever your pastor says and leave your Bible on the shelf. Want to grow up in the Word instead? Test what you hear from the pulpit against Scripture itself. How do you validate what you've heard? Open your Bible. Find the Scripture the pastor was talking about. Read it slowly. Ask the Lord to show you the truth, and He will.

Now, while we may have some senior saints among us, I feel almost certain none of them were alive back then. Since even the oldest among us wasn't alive back then, we aren't the people Moses was speaking to. Tithing was for them back then, not for us now.

"But what about the promise in Malachi that pastors always bring up?"

Great question. Here's the passage:

Malachi 3:8-10 — "Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 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."

That command to tithe belonged to the Old Covenant God made with the nation of Israel. Since we are under the New Covenant in Christ, Scripture doesn't command us to tithe. It calls us to give freely, cheerfully, and according to our ability.

So why do pastors keep teaching on this if they obviously know better? I don't know the answer to that question. Maybe it's because that's what they've been taught, or it's just a tradition of men. Honestly, there's no biblical basis for commanding a New Testament believer to give a tenth.

Here are two Old Testament verses on the subject:

Leviticus 27:30: "Every tithe of the land... is the LORD's. It is holy to the LORD."

Deuteronomy 14:22: "You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year."

Put simply, God told the people of Israel to give Him one tenth of what they received, as a way of showing that everything they had came from Him.

Paul talks about New Testament giving in 2 Corinthians 9:7 — "Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

Pastors often cite two Gospel passages when teaching on this, parallel passages in Luke and Matthew. Jesus did talk about tithing, but let's look at what He said and whom He was saying it to. Read in context, Jesus was addressing people still living under the Mosaic Covenant. Jesus was talking to Jews, not Gentiles. He was simply talking about tithing, stating a fact, not telling his listeners they had to tithe.

Luke 11:42 — "But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others."

Matthew 23:23 — "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."

Notice what's actually happening in both Testaments. Scripture describes the practice before the Law, in Genesis, when Abraham gives a tenth to Melchizedek. It commands the practice under the Law, given to Israel through Moses. Nowhere, though, does the New Testament command the church to follow it. It isn't about whether the word tithe shows up in a text. It's about whether God commanded it as an ongoing obligation, and for the church, He didn't.

Some point to Hebrews 7:1-6 as New Testament evidence for the practice, since it recalls Abraham giving a tenth to Melchizedek. Look, though, at what the passage is actually doing. The author isn't teaching believers to tithe; he's building a case for the superiority of Christ's priesthood. Because Levi's ancestor Abraham paid a tithe to Melchizedek, the argument goes, the Levitical priesthood, and the Law it was built on, is shown to be lesser than the priesthood of Melchizedek, which points to Christ. The tithe is cited as historical evidence for that argument about priesthood; it isn't offered as an instruction for believers to give a tenth. Hebrews 7 describes what happened. It doesn't prescribe what the church must do.

Once people know what the Bible actually says, maybe they'll feel better about not tithing instead of carrying guilt over it. Staying spiritually thin isn't just bad for your soul, it can wear on your body too.

A person wanting to tithe, wanting to give 10, 20, or even 30 percent, that's fine. Give whatever you want, but don't feel the 10 percent is a minimum you must hit, because that requirement simply does not apply.

Those who stay spiritually thin may feel guilty about not giving a tenth, as if they're being disobedient, as if God isn't pleased with them. Spiritually mature Christians will know the truth. What they decide to do with it is up to them, but at least they know.

What kind of Christian you want to be, well, that's up to you. Are you simply going to stay thin and go along with whatever you hear on Sunday morning, or do you want to put on some spiritual weight and study God's Word in all its richness and glory?