Do We Give Tithes Today?

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Malachi 3:8
Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.

Hi @Mildred-Codilla! I’m sorry I missed this question back in July when you posted it. Here’s an answer!

The word “tithe” is commonly used to describe the practice of giving 10% of your income to God’s work through the local church. But nowhere in the NT do Jesus or any of the apostles or anyone else exhort Christians to tithe. The doctrine that Christians are supposed to tithe is rather an application of the Old Testament requirement of tithing.

But the requirement of giving for Christians today is not the tithe.

Let me explain: There are two passages in the OT before God gave the Mosaic Law to Israel that describe a person tithing: Abraham tithed to Melchizedek, a Gentile priest (Gen. 14:18-20), and Jacob promised to tithe to the Lord if God brought him back safely to the Promised Land (Gen. 28:20-22). But there is no mandate for tithing in either passage; Abraham and Jacob freely promised to tithe, but nowhere did God tell them to, or tell us to copy them.

Then, under the Law of Moses, Israel was required to tithe. There are three main passages in the Pentateuch that describe how Israel was supposed to tithe in obedience to God who gave them this requirement – Lev. 27:30-33, Num. 18:20-28, and Deut. 14:22-29. Tom Schreiner points out, in his book 40 Questions about Christians and Biblical Law, that “[i]t is difficult to work out the amount that was actually tithed” from these passages, for there were “two or three tithes” that Israel was to give “annually” (p. 219, 46). And the total percentage of what an Israelite made that he would tithe on may have been from 20% to 23.3% depending on how you calculate it (ibid., 219). This is definitely more than 10%! So even if we are supposed to tithe like Israel was, it would look very different than 10% of income! Therefore, we cannot say, “Christians must tithe 10% because that was in the Law,” because that wasn’t all that was in the Law!

Further, as Christians, we are not under the Law as Jews were; we are in the New Covenant era. Many principles and laws in the OT do apply to us, yes, in Christ; but just because a law was given to Israel doesn’t automatically mean we are to follow it.

In the New Testament, there are three passages that mention the tithe; however, two of them are in the gospels, when the Law was still in force. For instance, in Matthew 23:23, Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees and praised their tithing of “mint and anise and cumin” – however, that was under the Law. As Schreiner points out, “Jesus also commended offering sacrifices in the temple (Matt. 5:23–24), but no one today thinks such would be advisable if the temple were rebuilt” (ibid., 220).

The only mention of tithing outside the gospels, in an epistle written to Christians in the New Covenant era, is in Hebrews 7:10. In verses 1-10, the author of Hebrews shows that Abraham tithed to Melchizedek, who was a picture of Christ (v. 3), showing that his priesthood was greater than Levi’s, who was to descend from Abraham. Levi received tithes because the law commanded it (v. 5). However, now we have “a change in the law” (v. 12). So just because a picture of Christ received a tithe from Abraham (v. doesn’t mean that we must tithe like they did in the Law. Perhaps we should; but this passage doesn’t prove that, for everything in “the sacrificial system of the Old Testament and the priest and Levites of the old covenant,” including the tithes required by that system, “have passed away” (ibid.).

And when Paul wrote to the Gentiles, he didn’t tell them to tithe—based on the OT, or based on anything else! Besides, you can’t arrive at the modern idea of a 10% tithe from the OT!

My conclusion from all this is that tithing is not required in the New Testament era for us as Christians.

However, we shouldn’t conclude with relief, “I get to keep all my money!” Because the NT does teach that believers should “excel” in the “grace” of giving (2 Cor 8:7); that we should give freely and generously and gladly (2 Cor 9:7). And we should do that because, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8:9, “you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

@Mildred-Codilla said in Do We Give Tithes Today?:

Yes brother, I understand. Because if we will set 10% as the baseline, then we will fall into legalism. Giving from the heart will not be the basis then.

Yes, the danger is that we will fall into legalism.

We need to be careful here, because saying that Christians should tithe 10% doesn’t necessarily make those who say or practice that legalists, but it is a danger. If the Bible did say that Christians must tithe 10%, then saying that they should wouldn’t be legalism; but since the Bible doesn’t say that, we shouldn’t make it a hard-and-fast rule. But to make 10% a baseline for yourself isn’t wrong.

@Mildred-Codilla said in Do We Give Tithes Today?:

My follow up question is that, can we divide our giving? Can we not give all to the offering box, but also give portion to missions, street children whom we are reaching out, or to the members of our church who are in need? Many of the pastors I know here in the Philippines get rich because of the offering, but we don’t usually see that they use the money from the offering box to help the needy or support missions.

Much of what Paul says about giving is related to a collection he was taking up from various churches to give to needy believers in Jerusalem (Rom 15:26, 31). This wasn’t a “tithe” at all, but was given through a faithful servant of God (Paul) to meet the needs of needy saints.

If a local church is healthy, led by faithful pastors who distribute funds to the needy and to missionaries, then it is perfectly fine to give the money in the offering box! But nowhere in Scripture are we commanded to give to the local church to the exclusion of giving to missionaries or street children or to other believers in need.

In all this, keep in mind that we should seek to “do good unto all men,” as Galatians 6:10 says, but should focus especially on helping other believers (“especially unto them who are of the household of faith”). That’s the case whether we give through the local church or not.

@Brent-Karding said in Do We Give Tithes Today?:

But nowhere in Scripture are we commanded to give to the local church to the exclusion of giving to missionaries or street children or to other believers in need.

Brother, please make me understand that line. I’m sorry, I did not understand it.

@Mildred-Codilla said in Do We Give Tithes Today?:

Brother, please make me understand that line. I’m sorry, I did not understand it.

What I meant was that the Bible doesn’t teach, “You may only give money to the local church, not to missionaries or people in need directly.” Does that make more sense?

@Mildred-Codilla said in Do We Give Tithes Today?:

So my application for this is that if our pastor is not needy, we will give more to missions, street children or needy brother. Now, I will not feel guilty about all this, but can now give cheerfully.

I think that’s a good application: the Bible teaches that church members should take care of their pastors financially, thus freeing their pastors from the need to support themselves by working, and allowing them to spend much more time in the Scriptures and in prayer. And the Bible also teaches that we should support the needy (especially believers), praising people who do this, as well as praising those who help support missionaries.

I’m glad you understand better now!

@Brent-Karding said in Do We Give Tithes Today?:

I’m glad you understand better now!

Thank you for making me understand kuya.

I have a follow-up question brother. If we are not commanded to give tithes today, Is it Biblical to say that tithes or 10% of our income is just a minimum of what real christians give to God as a monetary offering? What I’m trying to say is that since the Holy Spirit really lives inside a converted person’s life, then he has become so transformed that the giving of the offering that he once hated to do, now he does cheerfully and joyfully knowing that everything he has even money is not his but God’s.

@Mildred-Codilla If we aren’t commanded to give exactly 10% of our income under the New Covenant, then we can’t make 10% a baseline, a minimum amount, that Christians must give.

But your instinct is correct, to say that since we have been transformed by the Spirit, since the New Covenant is so much greater than the Old (2 Cor 4:7-11), and since we have beheld God’s glory more fully in the face of Christ than people could in the OT, how can we have a mindset that says, “I’ll just give to God as little as possible, following the letter of the Law, and no more”? God wants us to give generously and cheerfully - from the heart. But we can’t make 10% the baseline that Christians are bound to surpass.

Yes brother, I understand. Because if we will set 10% as the baseline, then we will fall into legalism. Giving from the heart will not be the basis then.