Question
Gramps,
Can somebody engaged in an liquor selling business paid tithes. Doesn’t that offend God considering that the nature of the business is against the word of wisdom?
Wilfredo
Answer
Wilfredo,
There is a scripture where the Lord commands us to deal with the beam in our own eye before we worry about the mote in someone else’s eye. Before you worry about whether somebody is offending God in some manner, you should be asking, am I offending God? Like the apostles, when the Lord tells them that one would betray Him, we need to be asking “Is it I?”
One of the ways to truly offend God is to not seek after Him, not to seek his counsel and wisdom in our choices and actions. One of the bigger choices in our lives is what we do to support ourselves and our loved ones. When it comes to finding a job there are lots of factors that are highly individualized, and we should absolutely be on our knees in prayer as we consider what kind of employment to take. If we are asking the Lord for His help and if we then take the answers He gives and apply them, then we will not offend God. However if we ignore Him and do not follow, then we do very much offend God, and we need to repent.
Very few of us manage (even with the Lord’s help) to get what we would think is the ‘perfect’ job. This life is about being challenged and learning and growing. The employment we take can be a big part of this. We should expect from time to time that our job will pose challenges for us. The Lord is very interested in how we grow from dealing with those challenges, so He will not take them away from us.
Paying tithing on our increase is also what God has commanded us to do. That in and of itself can not offend God.
Gramps