Do Christians have to tithe a tenth?

The Church & Christian LifeIn theological review

The short answer

No. The tithe, a tenth, belonged to Israel under the old covenant, chiefly to support the Levites and the temple system, and the New Testament never commands Christians to give a tenth. What it commands is generous, regular, cheerful giving in proportion to what God has given, decided in the heart rather than extracted by a rule. Many Christians still use a tenth as a helpful starting point, but as a guide, not a law.

The fuller answer

Read Malachi in its setting first. The famous challenge about robbing God is addressed to Israel under Moses' covenant, about a tithe system that funded the tribe of Levi, who had no land inheritance, along with provision for the poor at set seasons. Israel's tithes, taken together across the law, amounted to more than a single tenth in an ordinary year, which already complicates the simple slogan. Jesus affirms the tithe to scribes and Pharisees living under that covenant, while rebuking them for neglecting justice, mercy and faithfulness. Neither text, read in context, installs a fixed portion rule for the church.

Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you ask, ‘How do we rob You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are still robbing Me. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the LORD of Hosts. “See if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you blessing without measure.

Malachi 3:8-10 (BSB)

The New Testament's own giving teaching sounds different. Paul collects for famine struck believers in Jerusalem and instructs the Corinthians to set something aside on the first day of the week, as each may prosper. His fullest teaching says each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, and pictures generosity as sowing: whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully. The measures are proportion, freedom, regularity and joy. Notably, Paul, who had every opportunity, never once names a fixed portion for his churches.

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver.

2 Corinthians 9:6-7 (BSB)

So handle the tenth honestly in both directions. A preacher who binds Christians to a tenth as law, or who promises that tithing guarantees wealth, is teaching beyond Scripture, and the prosperity version of that claim should be refused outright. Equally, a comfortable believer who gives a trivial amount and calls it freedom has not understood Paul either; the New Testament standard is not lower than the law's, it is differently shaped, toward sacrifice and gladness. Many find the tenth a wise floor from which to grow. Let it be a floor you choose, weighed with your means and your church's real needs, not a bill you are told God has sent.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

Matthew 23:23 (BSB)

Jesus' own tithe saying deserves a closer look, because it is quoted to settle this question and actually unsettles both camps. To Pharisees who tithed mint, dill and cumin while neglecting the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy and faithfulness, he says these they ought to have done without neglecting the others. He affirms their tithing as men under the law, and in the same sentence demotes it below justice and mercy as a measure of faithfulness. A Christian whose giving is generous and whose life is unjust has reversed Jesus' order, whatever portion leaves his account.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

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