Many people asked me whether they could pay tithes under the New Testament. I told them that they could pay more than tithes and that since there was no Levitical priesthood under the New Covenant, they could pay free-will offerings with a cheerful heart to the ministers of God who preach the gospel as well as to the poor saints in their midst. We are under the covenant of grace and not under the Old Covenant. The incident of the poor widow giving her two mites as recorded in the Luke's gospel is the best ensample for us to emulate. In Jerusalem, Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. Jesus said that truly this poor widow put in more than all (Luke 21:1-4). When others put in their offerings for God out of their abundance, this poor widow put in the entire livelihood she had out of her penury. Here is a poor widow who put in what she had with her. She had no more savings to fend for herself, having dropped her two mites into the treasury. Her name is not mentioned here. The Bible calls her “a certain poor widow”. Let us note that this poor widow lived under the old dispensation of the Law of Moses. Christ had not yet died for her. The Holy Spirit was not given to her at that time. But still she loved the God under the old Covenant. Nor did she have the wonderful promises of reward or blessings in return for her two mites. She did not have any expectation of reward for her sacrificial offering. She left the place after dropping her two mites. We do not know where she had gone or how she lived the rest of her life.
The Bible also does not tell us how she was induced to make this great sacrifice. When I was a small boy, I had seen a picture of this poor widow with a baby in her hands, though the Bible does not specifically say so. If she had a baby in her widowhood, what made her give all she had to God without caring for her baby? Did she love God more than her baby under the Old Covenant? Dear reader, it is for you to answer.
What a surprise! A poor widow comes near the treasury and drops all her coins and then disappears and that too, without being watched by the priests of the temple! These days, when we give a few dollars to some servant of God, we go about telling the whole world.
It was only Jesus Who had seen the poor widow throw her two mites into the offertory. As we give to God secretly, the eyes of Jesus are on us. Let us give to God without expecting any reward from Him. Let us not heed the preachers of the so-called prosperity gospel. Let us imbibe the poor widow. Let us also be anonymous as “a certain poor widow”.
Let us examine ourselves today. Are we better than the poor widow? How much we have to give to God under the New Covenant now that Christ has died for us and that we have received the Holy Spirit?
-Job Anbalagan