To Tithe or Not To Tithe

Across the airwaves and all the way to the local church, the pursuit of God's money is proclaimed. The message comes packaged with a "free" gift for a "suggested" donation. Sometimes the tactic is an obligation and guilt using the Old Testament word עָשַׂר, translated as "tithe." More recently, tithing has become an investment plan where people are promised a return on their money. The envelopes are neatly bundled together with a tax statement of the previous year's giving and distributed to members. People are urged to give to fund the programs, salaries, and outreaches of the church for the next fiscal year.

In this article, I will briefly share the history of giving in the church and compare modern giving practices to the teachings of the New Testament. If we examine the data, the statistics prove that most churches in America preach tithing, but only a small fraction of Christians put it into practice. The current theology being practiced leaves both pastors and members feeling guilty and frustrated. In this article, I argue that the current model practiced in the church is not found in the history of the New Testament, but rather it is an invention of the institutional church of America.

Where It All Began

When settlers came to America, each colony had a church, and townsfolk were required by law to live no further than several hundred yards from the church building. 1 In New England, the clergy were hired by their congregations but employed by the town.2 In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the clergy were well educated and well paid, sometimes making as much as three times the standard of living. Pew-renting became the normal and legal way to raise funds under the Church Buildings Act.3 The more money a person could pay guaranteed them a good place to sit in the church. The slaves and the poor had to stand around the outside walls or were given balcony seats in larger buildings.

The transition in America occurred when churches and clergy went from being supported by the government to getting private support. This was sparked by the Great Awakening revivals. Any man, regardless of his education level, could get up and preach during and after the revivals. If he were a good speaker, he would get a following, and a new church would be born. The idea of one church per town became a thing of the past as Christianity continued to grow from the colonies out west. The expansion of Christianity and the move from public religion to private religion required other means and methods to raise funds.

In the 1970s and '80s, many churches began social programs such as food banks and child-care programs.4 These programs were created to fill the void left as the political culture in America turned its back on the idea of a welfare state. These programs were promoted to the congregation as a way to encourage the affluent to give. This method allowed the giver to be a part of something bigger than one's self and a way to help people in need without getting one's hands dirty in the trenches.

In the 1980s and 90s, the wealth of Americans continued to grow, and the narrative in the church focused on giving from gratitude. Robert Wood Lynn argued in numerous speeches that the only theologically defensible reason for asking people to contribute was to express gratitude to God for their abundance.5 Currently, the narrative in the prosperity Gospel is "give to get." Giving to the ministry is preached as an investment program with a 100-fold return promised to those who give in faith. Throughout the short history of American Christianity, giving has gone from pew-rent to giving motivated by the sin of greed. Regardless of what motivates people to give, the amount agreed upon is called the "tithe" and is enforced by reading some Old Testament Scriptures. This topic begs the question- What is a tithe, and is there a New Testament directive given to the Church to preach and practice the tithe?

The History of Tithing In the Church

The first example we have of tithing is in the book of Genesis when Abraham gave a tithe to the King of Salem, Melchizedek. The king is a mysterious character in the Bible mentioned in Genesis 14 and again in the book of Hebrews. Some Bible scholars believe Melchizedek was an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament. I will save that discussion for another article because it isn't relevant to this topic. The Scripture records, "And Melchizedek king of Salem brought bread and wine. (He was a priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!" And Abram gave him a tenth of everything" (Gen 14:18-20 ESV). Abraham gave a "tenth of everything" to the priest of God Most High. This event is the very first record we have of someone giving a tenth of their possessions. The tenth that Abraham gave to the king was a one-time event, and nothing in the Hebrew text would indicate a binding ordinance for the New Testament church.

Tithing in the Old Testament

In Leviticus, all the tithes of the nation of Israel belonged to God. "Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord's; it is holy to the LORD. If a man wishes to redeem some of his tithes, he shall add a fifth to it. And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal that passes under the herdsman's staff, shall be holy to the LORD" (Lev 27:30-32 ESV).

The tithe was to be brought to a Levite Priest.

The tribe of Levi or the Levites did not have any inheritance of the promised land as the rest of the tribes did. The Levites were priests unto the Lord, and they performed the work of priests, going before God on behalf of the people and offering sacrifices for sin. Tithes were brought to the Levite priest from the people in return for their service. God established the tithe as an inheritance for the priest. God said, "To the Levites, I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting, For the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as a contribution to the LORD, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel" (Num 18:21, 24).

Whenever the tithes were brought to the Levites, they took a tenth of whatever was offered to the Lord as a sacrifice. This practice meant that the priest was worshiping God in the same way that they expected others to worship. They gave a tenth to the Lord! "Moreover, you shall speak and say to the Levites, 'When you take from the people of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present a contribution from it to the LORD, a tithe of the tithe" (Num 18:26).

In the Old Testament, the tithe was referred to as the "first fruits." The law of Moses was given to the nation of Israel before they entered the promised land. Safeguards were written in the law so the people would not forget God when things were going well. After the nation arrived in the Promised Land, the people would own land and houses, plant crops, and tend to livestock. When things are going well, it is sinful human nature to forget the one from whom all blessings come. Because man tended to forget the blesser, God commanded the first fruits, the firstborn, brought to Him in an act of worship. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses wrote in the law that the tithe's purpose was to support the Priesthood and the fatherless, immigrants, and widows. "And you shall rejoice in all the good that the LORD your God has given to you, your house, you, the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you. "When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled" (Deut 26:11-12 ESV).

Later in history, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed, and the city of Jerusalem was under siege. Worship of God had ceased at the temple and was replaced with idol worship, and tithing had ceased. God raised a young King, Hezekiah, 700 years before Christ was born, who reformed the priesthood, restored the temple and tore down the idols. The King commanded the people to give some of their first fruits to the Levites to give themselves to the law of the Lord (2 Chron 31:3-5). The Scripture records that "the people of Israel gave in abundance the first fruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field. And they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. The people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought the tithe of cattle and sheep and the tithe of the dedicated things that had been dedicated to the LORD their God and laid them in heaps. (2 Chron 31:4-6).

The Tithe was Required.

Giving tithes to the Levites was required by God. It was not a suggestion or an option. Remember that the nation of Israel was a theocracy. There was no separation of the political leaders and the religious leaders. This is why King Hezekiah tore down the idols and restored worship. As the king went, so the nation went in their worship. Because of Israel's political and religious system, the tithe was the equivalent of our tax today. We don't have the option of whether or not we want to pay taxes. It is required. God told the people through the prophet Malachi that failure to pay the tithe was robbing from God and hindered them from receiving God's blessing. Will man rob God? Yet, you are robbing me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse so there may be food in my house. And thereby, put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need" (Mal 3:8-10).

Tithing in the New Testament

The concept of tithing is only referenced on two occasions in the New Testament. Jesus mentioned the tithe in his rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt 23:23, Luk 11:42), and the writer of Hebrews mentions the tithe of Abraham to king Melchizedek in the seventh chapter of the book of Hebrews. In the first instance of the tithe in the New Testament, Jesus is correcting the religious leaders because they are so careful to tithe religiously while at the same time they are neglecting what Jesus called the "weightier matters" of law which are judgment, mercy, and faith (Matt 23:23). The dialect between Jesus and the leaders was to show them their need for God's love and grace and their inability in the flesh to keep the law to the letter. It is clearly not a mandate for the church today to be like the scribes and Pharisees. For one, there is no mention of this encounter in the writings of the Apostles when they wrote to the church, and the message of Christianity is counter to the religion that the Scribes and Pharisees were striving for.

Second, in Hebrews 7, the word δεκατόω (tithe) is used in the argument that Jesus' priesthood is better than the Levitical priesthood. The argument is a well-known metaphor in biblical literature, namely the "lesser to greater." 6 He is comparing Melchizedek is greater than Levi since Abraham paid tithes to Levi. Hebrews 7 is not an instruction for Hebrew Christians to pay tithes. Instead, it's a literary method to prove that the greatest priesthood is that of Jesus Christ.

The New Testament Instructions on Giving

Under the Law, tithing was a requirement. Failure to tithe and obey God's law was the reason given for the nation's lack of prosperity. Speaking through the prophet Malachi, God commanded the nation to bring the tithes into the storehouse to prove Him. God promised the nation that He would open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing upon that nation that there would not be room enough to receive it (Mal 3:10). That was then. This is now.

Today the message of Christianity is that in Christ, the law of God has been fulfilled, and the believer is no longer bound by its precepts.

The Apostle Paul wrote that the handwriting of ordinances that was against us was blotted out and nailed to the cross (Col 2:14). Paul also wrote that the purpose of the law was to be our instructor to bring us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith, but after that faith has come we are no longer under the law (Gal 3:24-25). When Jesus was on the cross, he said, "It is finished" (John 19:30). Every argument of man that says we are still under the law and that not one jot will pass from the law until all is fulfilled is crushed by these three words that Jesus spoke from the cross. When Jesus said, "It is finished," the law was fulfilled.

We don't give in order to be blessed.

The motivation for one to give in the New Testament church is out of the abundance of blessings. Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, "Bless be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Eph 1:3). He also writes to the Church in Corinth, "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him." (1 Cor 16:2). Giving today is not so that we can get from God. Notice in this verse from Ephesians that the blessing is past tense "hath blessed us" we are already blessed in Christ with everything that we need for this life and the life to come. In the verse from 1 Corinthians notice that the prospering is also in the past tense "hath prospered." We are instructed to give because we are already blessed, and we have prospered. God leaves what we give to be decided by each individual. Paul writes, "Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:7).

The early church consisted of rich people and some poor (1 Tim 6:17, James 2:1-4), which means that the practice found in the book of Acts of communal living among believers (Acts 2) was for a short period. Giving in the New Testament church was to support the orphans and widows (1 Tim 5, James 1:27). Every believer has a calling to help the poor when it is in their power to do so (James 2:15-16). Christians also have a calling to support those who labor to teach and preach the Gospel. Paul writes, "If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you" (1 Cor 9:11ESV)? In the context of elders who teach and preach, Paul told the church that "the laborer deserves his wages" (1 Tim 5:18). Finally, in the book of Galatians, Paul instructed, "Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches" (Gal 6:6).

The issue is not whether Christians should give to support the work of the ministry and help those in need. The issue is whether the believer in Christ is under a mandate from the law of God to give a tenth of his/her salary to the institutional church. If one decides to follow one part of the law, it is required in Scripture to follow all of the law. The New Testament teaches a better way. It's a message that will not frustrate preachers and heap guilt on the listeners. It's the way of grace. We give out of love motivated by the love of Christ that has been stirred in our hearts.

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1. James David Hudnut-Beumler, In Pursuit of the Almighty's Dollar: a History of Money and American Protestantism (The University of North Carolina Press, 2014), 22.

2. Ibid., 25.

3. John Charles Bennett, “The English Anglian Practice of Pew Renting, 1800-1960” (University of Birmingham, 2011).

4 . Cynthia Woolever, A Field Guide to U.S. Congregations: Who's Going Where and Why (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 59.

5. Hudnut-Beumler, In Pursuit of the Almighty's Dollar: a History of Money and American Protestantism, 377.

6.David M. (David Michael) Parker, “Tithing: Instruction or Instructive?,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 21, no. 2 (2012): 201–20, https://doi.org/10.1163/17455251-02102003.