The word rob has two primary meanings. One is to steal or take something by force. The second is to withhold or deprive of something due or expected. When most Christians hear the expression, robbing God, they immediately think of Malachi 3 concerning tithes and offerings.
�Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, �In what way have we robbed You?� In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation� (Malachi 3:8,9).
Numerous ministers use this scripture to pressure people to give more offerings to them or their ministry. And we can see in this scripture that robbing God refers to the withholding of something due to God, in this case tithes and offerings.
But I would suggest that the body of Christ is robbing God in a much more serious way, having nothing to do with money. Paul tells the Corinthian church, �Now for the third time I am ready to come to [visit] you. And I will not burden you [financially], for it is not your [money] that I want but you; for children are not duty bound to lay up store for their parents, but parents for their children� (2 Corinthians 12:14 Amplified). When�s the last time you heard someone preach that? When�s the last time you heard a preacher more interested in your spiritual welfare than your money?
Yet Paul is exemplifying the heart of God here. God is much more interested in you than in your money. And this is exactly how we are robbing God in the body of Christ. We are withholding or depriving God of ourselves. Notice what Paul told the Corinthian church:
�Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's� (1 Corinthians 6:19,20).
�You were bought at a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for by Christ]; then do not yield yourselves up to become [in your own estimation] slaves to men [but consider yourselves slaves to Christ]� (1 Corinthians 7:23 Amplified).
We are not our own! Our lives do not belong to us anymore. Why? Because we have been bought with a price, we have been purchased by God with the blood of Jesus Christ. We do not have the right to live and do as we please. We have become the bondservants of God and as such are His to do with as He pleases. When we withhold our lives from God to live for ourselves, we are thieves and robbers withholding what rightfully belongs to God. And just as withholding tithes and offerings brought a curse, so does withholding our lives.
�Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever. Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything� (Deuteronomy 28:45-47).
Yes, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law. The curse of the Law is the penalty of sin resulting from disobedience. The wages of sin is death. Christ�s redemption is based on the old man of sin being nailed to the cross with Him in order to deliver us from the power of sin in our lives. When we are delivered from the power of sin, the result is our ability to walk in obedience to God thus redeeming us from the curse of the law or the wages of sin. As long as we continue to live in the flesh under the power of sin we are still subject to the curse of the law.
We belong to God: body, soul, and spirit. We are His to do with as He pleases. Our responsibility is to obey His commands and fulfill His purposes. We now exist for His pleasure. We are saved to serve Him and do His will and to do it with joy and gladness of heart because of what He has done for us. This is why we are exhorted, �that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service� (Romans 12:1). We present to God what rightfully belongs to Him. This is our reasonable service or the least that is expected of us because our life no longer belongs to us but to God.
Are you robbing God by living for yourself? Are you using God�s body for your own pleasure? Are you depriving God of using His bought and paid for body for His own purposes? �For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God� (Romans 8:14).
