TITHE?
Ten percent of increase?
Or ten percent of total earnings?
Most of the time we hear it is the second. Probably because the first is harder to calculate and easier to rationalize and deceive ourselves into paying very little tithe.
For example -- A farmer sells his crop at the end of the season and receives XXXX number of dollars. Does he pay tithe on the total amount then received, or has he kept record of the expenses it took to produce the crop -- (money spent on seed, fertilizer, hauling expenses, equipment expenses, etc. etc. and deducts that from the total amount received for the crop, then pays his tithe on the "increase"?
Then the question arises == what about the working mother. If she earns $2000 a month but has to pay 600 of that to the child care -- can she deduct that expense from her "increase" before paying tithe on the "increase"? But then it can go further -- what about the gas to drive to work? Or what about the car itself?
So even though there seems to be a place for legitimate calculation to determine "increase", yet there is also great danger in subtracting expenses, for as soon as one starts "deducting" expenses it becomes very easy to rationalize all kinds of expenses that were really part of the "increase" and thus pay a very dishonest tithe.
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