No, tithing is an Old Testament requirement. Instead, we Christians are called to give freely from the heart, not under any pressure (2 Corinthians 9:7).

Absolutely! We live under a new covenant, but the entire Bible – from Genesis to Revelation – is the inspired Word of God. And we can learn a great deal from the Old Testament.

Two thousand years ago, the Corinthians were getting drunk and eating up all the food at the Lord’s Supper. It was for this reason that Paul said they were partaking in an “unworthy manner” and needed to examine themselves. But the Lord’s Supper is to be done in remembrance of Jesus Christ and His finished work, not in remembrance of our recent track record of sins. So, we can keep the focus on Jesus and celebrate the Lord’s Supper with joy!

Is 1 John 1:9 meant for Christians? While 1 John 1:9 is often interpreted as a formula for believers to get more forgiveness of sins, the verse is actually addressing sin deniers known as Gnostics. So, John is not prescribing a “daily bar of soap” to help Christians get more forgiveness and cleansing from God. Instead, he is inviting unbelieving sin deniers to acknowledge the reality of sin and find forgiveness and cleansing of all unrighteousness (past, present, and future!) through Jesus Christ.

Fellowship with God is synonymous with salvation in the New Testament. When we believe the Gospel, we are invited into an intimate and unending fellowship with the Trinity (1 John 1:1-3; John 17:21).

Repentance for salvation is a change of mind from unbelief to belief in Jesus (Acts 19:4; John 3:16-17; Ephesians 2:8-9). After salvation, repentance becomes about maturing in the faith through an exchange of sinful mindsets and behaviors for righteous mindsets and behaviors (Romans 6:2, 12, 18). For the believer, repentance from sins doesn’t make us more forgiven by God, but it does help us to express more fully our new identity in Christ.

James 5:16 states that confession of sins to other believers is an important part of the Christian life. Admitting wrongdoing helps us support one another in prayer. However, it is important to remember that we do not confess our sins to other people in order to get more forgiveness from God. He has already forgiven us – past, present, and future (Hebrews 10:14).

Some teach that Christians should recite the Lord’s Prayer, but Jesus warned against meaningless repetition of the same prayers (Matthew 6:7). Furthermore, in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus describes a forgiveness from God that is conditioned upon us forgiving others first. Here, Jesus wants the Jews of His day to imagine what it would be like if they received from God the same treatment they’ve been doling out to others. In short, the Lord’s Prayer exposed their hypocrisy and their need for unconditional grace from God.

In the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:5-15), we see a forgiveness from God that is conditional and based upon forgiving other people first. But when we read the passage in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, we discover that Jesus is wanting His Jewish audience to imagine receiving only the same type and degree of forgiveness that they’ve given to others. In this way, Jesus is pointing out their hypocrisy, their slavery to bitterness, and their inability to merit God’s forgiveness. Ultimately, this realization is what drives a person to see their need for God’s grace. Today, on this side of the cross, we believers are totally forgiven people, apart from our forgiving of others (Colossians 3:13; Ephesians 4:32; Hebrews 10:14).

James 5:15 does express the believer’s forgiveness using future tense. However, James is simply presenting a hypothetical situation (“if he has committed sins”) and assuring his readers that such a person will be forgiven in that scenario. This passage is intended to be comforting for anyone who might be afraid of a future struggle. Any sin committed will be forgiven because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, once for all (Hebrews 10:14).