Are Christians commanded to tithe, or does the New Testament teach us to give in a different way? I have heard believers warned that they will be cursed if they give less than ten percent. Others use freedom from the tithe law as a reason to give almost nothing. Neither fear nor selfishness should decide how we give, so we need to understand what these passages ask of us in their own settings.
Abram, Jacob, and Giving Before the Law
Since the Lord owns all things, following Him includes how we use the money He entrusts to us. Every believer is a steward, responsible for managing what God provides. That does not mean the church must continue Israel’s Levitical tithe system. Christ fulfilled the temple system and changed the priesthood, and the church neither possesses Israel’s land inheritance nor lives under the Mosaic covenant.
I have seen people wounded on both sides of this question when Scripture is handled carelessly. Legalism can leave someone feeling guilty over a requirement God has not placed upon him, so that giving out of fear is mistaken for faith. Selfishness causes harm too, by neglecting gospel ministry and people who are suffering. We should honor what God commanded Israel without placing that covenant upon the church, while taking the New Testament’s call to generosity seriously.
The first tithe mentioned in Scripture appears in Genesis 14. Abram had just rescued Lot after a group of kings carried people and goods away from Sodom. God gave Abram victory, and he returned with the captives and recovered spoil. The king of Sodom came to meet him, and so did Melchizedek, the king of Salem.
The two kings give us quite a contrast. Abram refused to keep the wealth of Sodom, a corrupt city represented by its king. Melchizedek, however, came as king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He brought bread and wine and blessed Abram, praising God for delivering Abram’s enemies into his hand. Abram then gave Melchizedek a tenth.
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave him a tithe of all.
What helps me understand Abram’s gift is that he had already received God’s help. God delivered him before he offered a tenth, and Melchizedek blessed him before he gave. Abram was responding in worship to that deliverance, not buying divine help or bargaining for victory. His tenth was not a religious tax.
We also need to understand who blessed Abram. Genesis records a real encounter with Melchizedek, and Hebrews gives us reasons to see him as more than an ordinary king used as an illustration. Hebrews calls him the king of righteousness and the king of peace. The biblical record gives no father or mother for him and records no genealogy. Neither the beginning of his days nor the end of his life is presented, and his priesthood is described as continuing. I believe these details identify him as a Christophany, an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament before He became man.
Abram received blessing from One greater than himself. Hebrews uses his tithe and that blessing to show why Christ’s priesthood is superior to the priesthood that later came through Levi. The argument concerns who holds the greater priesthood; it does not turn Abram’s gift into a command for Christians to pay ten percent.
A tithe is a tenth, and the Hebrew word commonly written as ma’aser is connected with ten. Understanding that word tells us the amount being discussed, but we still need the surrounding passage to understand the gift accurately. Who gave it, where did it come from, and why was it given? Those details help us distinguish a voluntary gift from something God commanded.
In Genesis 14, Abram gave a tenth of the spoil from a particular battle. Nothing in the passage says that he tithed his regular household income or followed a monthly schedule, and Melchizedek is not described as demanding the gift. Nor does God command every later believer to give that exact percentage. I can honor Abram’s faith without making his gift into a law that the passage never states.
Abram’s gift loses none of its value when we recognize that it was not a universal command. He honored God as the Possessor of heaven and earth because the victory had come from Him. Holding the recovered spoil was no reason for Abram to boast in his own strength. By giving, he humbly acknowledged God’s deliverance with gratitude and worship.
Jacob gives us another example before the Law. He was leaving the land under painful circumstances when the Lord met him at Bethel and promised to stay with him and protect him. God also confirmed the promise of land and descendants through the covenant line. Jacob responded with a vow.
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God. And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”
Jacob promised a future tenth of what God would give him. Abram had given after a victory, but Jacob was looking ahead to God’s care. Genesis presents his vow as a personal response to God’s promise, expressing devotion and dependence. It was not a universal law addressed to everyone, so it does not establish a giving system for the church.
Both men responded in worship: Abram after deliverance, and Jacob with a promise to honor God if He brought him home in peace. Their examples should make me acknowledge how completely I depend on the Lord for what I have. But recording a gift or a promise to give is different from commanding the church to follow the same percentage. Neither account gives that command, and Moses and the apostles did not turn these personal gifts into a tithe law for the church.
Tithing Under Moses and the Rebuke in Malachi
Under the Law of Moses, tithing became a command within Israel’s covenant life. God had brought a nation out of Egypt and given it a land, with His sanctuary among the people. Their worship was served by an authorized priesthood. The tithe belonged to that arrangement, so we need to understand more than the percentage itself.
Leviticus connects the tithe to the produce of the land and the animals of the herd and flock. It calls the tithe holy to the LORD.
And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’s. It is holy to the LORD.
The tithe came from agriculture because Israel’s covenant life was tied to the land God had given them. Deuteronomy even allowed people to convert goods to money when carrying them to the appointed place of worship would be difficult because of the distance. This provision still belonged to Israel’s worship calendar and priestly order, with its farms and herds supplying the tithe. Scripture does not present it as a paycheck rule for every economy in every age.
Numbers explains one of its central purposes. Levi did not receive the same kind of territorial inheritance as the other tribes. God set the Levites apart for tabernacle service and provided for them through Israel’s tithes.
“Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting.”
The Levites received this provision for their service at the tabernacle, where they guarded the holy things and assisted the priests. They also taught the Law, and they lived from what God assigned to them. Even they gave a tenth of the tithe they received. We can see that God had ordered both the service and its support; He had not simply given one group a way to collect money from another.
Deuteronomy also tied tithing to worship and mercy. Israel was to rejoice before the LORD and learn to fear Him. In the third year, food was stored within the towns so that the Levite could receive provision. The stranger, the fatherless, and the widow were also invited to eat and be satisfied.
“At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.”
The Mosaic tithe meant more than “ten percent for religious leaders.” It supplied the Levites’ inheritance as part of Israel’s national worship and provided practical care for vulnerable people. These purposes belonged together in God’s government of Israel under the Law.
Giving under that covenant was meant to involve gratitude and fellowship with God, not merely the payment of a religious bill. Deuteronomy’s instruction to rejoice before the LORD and learn to fear Him shows how personal that worship was meant to be. We cannot reproduce it simply by taking its percentage and leaving behind the land and sanctuary, along with the priesthood and national life that gave it its setting.
This is the setting in which we need to hear Malachi 3, probably the passage quoted most often in church arguments about tithing. God accused Israel of robbing Him by withholding tithes and offerings. Before applying that serious charge to ourselves, we need to know whom He addressed and what covenant obligations they had broken.
“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. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.”
Malachi rebuked Israel for breaking its covenant, rather than addressing a Gentile church after the resurrection. The temple storehouse supplied God’s house, and the blessings and curses were those of the Mosaic covenant. Israel’s unfaithfulness affected its offerings and priesthood, but it also damaged marriage and justice. The corruption extended throughout the nation’s worship.
That rebuke still calls us to examine how we treat God. Stingy worship and empty words do not honor Him, and we should not expect His blessing while treating Him casually. But a church building is not the temple storehouse, and giving less than ten percent does not place a Christian under the Mosaic curse. We can heed the warning without turning Israel’s covenant penalty into a threat against believers.
I also notice that both priests and people needed this rebuke. The priests had handled holy things carelessly, while the people withheld what their covenant required. That gives leaders and worshipers alike reason to examine themselves. We should receive the warning against empty religion while respecting the historical covenant in which God gave it, rather than assuming its terms remain unchanged.
Christ redeemed believers from the curse of the Law through His saving death and His own blood, not through silver or gold. The curse was upon lawbreakers, and He rescued us by giving Himself; the Father did not curse Him. A pastor should not use Malachi to put people bought by Christ’s blood back under the covenant curse from which He redeemed them. We are still called to generosity, but Israel’s storehouse system does not pass unchanged to the church.
Christ, the Changed Priesthood, and the Pharisees
The priesthood is the greatest change we need to consider here, more fundamental than a change in culture or economics. Jesus came as the final sacrifice and the eternal High Priest. His priesthood is forever according to the order of Melchizedek, so He did not become another Levitical priest in Aaron’s line.
Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law.
Paul’s argument in Hebrews is not, “Abraham tithed to Melchizedek, so churches should collect ten percent.” He points out that Melchizedek blessed Abraham, and that the one receiving the blessing is lesser than the one giving it. For the purpose of this argument, Levi was still in Abraham, so Levi’s priesthood also stood beneath Melchizedek’s. Paul is showing the superiority of Christ’s priesthood over the Levitical order.
The change of priesthood brings a change of law. Christians no longer bring animal sacrifices because Christ’s sacrifice is finished. We do not need Levitical priests to stand between us and God because Christ is the one Mediator. Nor do we continue Israel’s temple economy after Christ fulfilled what it foreshadowed.
Reading the Law in light of Christ’s fulfillment gives us a reason for generosity, not an excuse for greed. God first gave His Son, and Christ bought us with His blood. Our giving responds to His finished sacrifice and resurrection instead of continuing the earlier system that pointed toward Him. Through the Spirit, believers learn to support the ministry of the Word and to express love for one another through practical help.
When Jesus rebuked the scribes and Pharisees, He addressed another problem with their tithing. They measured out even tiny herbs while neglecting justice, mercy, and faith. Their careful calculations could not make up for that neglect. Jesus exposed their hypocrisy rather than treating their precision as spiritual maturity.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.”
Jesus was speaking before the cross to Jewish leaders who lived under the Law. He told them to obey it without neglecting its weightier demands. I can see why precision with a percentage is not enough: a hypocrite can be exact about something that costs him little while becoming careless when obedience requires humility and real love.
We should take that warning seriously in our own lives. Giving a calculated percentage does not excuse mistreating a spouse or ignoring the poor, any more than it excuses dishonesty in business or refusing mercy. God sees the heart behind the giving record. A gift cannot cover rebellion or buy forgiveness, because only Christ’s blood cleanses sin. If He has forgiven me, I should not use what I give as a way to avoid obeying Him elsewhere.
How the New Testament Teaches the Church to Give
The apostles teach believers to choose their gifts thoughtfully and willingly, with sincere and cheerful hearts. That generosity should support real ministry or meet a genuine need. They call the church to give generously without commanding it to continue the Levitical tithe law.
Paul gave the Corinthians instructions for an orderly relief collection for needy believers in Jerusalem. Each person was to set something aside on the first day of the week as God prospered him. That regular planning meant the church would not need a hurried appeal when Paul arrived.
On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.
Paul’s instruction gives us a way to make giving part of ordinary life instead of leaving it to an emotional moment. We can look honestly at what God has entrusted to us and set aside support for needs we know about. His words “as he may prosper” allow for different incomes and changing circumstances. They also challenge someone who has prospered to consider what he can give, rather than settle for the smallest possible amount.
I don’t see planning as making a gift less spiritual. It helps us follow through on a sincere desire before competing expenses absorb the money. Regular support also helps a church meet ministry and relief needs without having to manufacture a crisis every week. Paul wanted the Corinthians to prepare for the collection so that generosity would not depend on a hurried appeal when he arrived.
In 2 Corinthians 8–9, Paul urged the Corinthians to complete the relief effort they had already wanted to join. He pointed to the Macedonian believers, whose deep poverty had not prevented generous giving. They first gave themselves to the Lord and then gave willingly. Their response grew out of Christ’s grace, rather than competition with another church.
So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.
“Not grudgingly” and “not of necessity” leave no room for threatening or publicly shaming someone into giving. Manipulation and false promises work against that willing response too. Each believer should decide before God what to give, with the gladness that comes from trusting Him more than money. A sacrifice may still be difficult; cheerful giving does not require us to pretend otherwise.
That generosity includes supporting people who labor in the Word. Paul tells those being taught to share good things with their teachers, and he says elders who rule well are worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in sound teaching. Spiritual work still requires material support, and the church should recognize that need.
Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.
A faithful teacher spends time studying Scripture and caring for people, and supporting him recognizes the work involved. The money should serve that ministry rather than reward spiritual showmanship. It also cannot put a leader beyond biblical accountability. We should expect integrity in the use of what we give.
Acts describes believers voluntarily sharing what they owned to meet urgent needs in the early church. We can see that this was not forced confiscation from Peter’s words to Ananias: the property was his before he sold it, and he still controlled the proceeds afterward. His sin was lying to God, not refusing a compulsory community policy. Their giving arose from the Spirit’s life in the church.
The New Testament pattern is not, “Give nothing unless you happen to feel like it.” It is also not, “Pay a required ten percent and stop thinking about stewardship.” Our whole life belongs to Christ, and the way we use money reveals where our loyalties lie.
Giving Faithfully Without Legalism or Selfishness
Putting this into practice begins with acknowledging what already belongs to God. Our income and savings are His, along with our homes and any businesses we own. Even the tools we use and the strength to work come from Him, so we cannot claim to have created our own opportunities independently of His provision. Before calculating a percentage, I need to ask how I am managing what He has entrusted to me. The question is not, “How little can I give and still be acceptable?” It is, “Lord, how do You want me to manage what already belongs to You?”
The local church where we receive faithful teaching and shepherding deserves our support. Through the Word, it also corrects us and prepares us for service, and meeting those needs involves real work. We should share in that work through consistent, honest giving after seeking the Lord in prayer. This does not mean supporting every ministry without discernment. Its teaching should be biblical, and its use of money should be honest.
Our giving should also reach people whose needs are real. Sound doctrine should not leave us cold toward a widow or orphan, or indifferent to a stranger or a poor believer. Missionaries and persecuted Christians may need help too. Sometimes it is an exhausted family right in front of us that needs care. I want their needs to move me to practical help rather than remain something I only discuss.
Caring for others does not release us from providing for our own households. Neglecting ordinary obligations or refusing to pay debts in order to appear generous in public is irresponsibility, not faithfulness. Honest work and contentment belong with sober planning for the people God has placed in our care.
Giving should not be extracted by twisting Scripture to frighten people. Public pressure and staged guilt are abuses, as are promises that a gift will guarantee financial wealth or healing or earn special favor from God. The Bible’s teaching about sowing and reaping does not authorize a sales pitch. God calls for cheerful giving, which means people must be able to give willingly instead of being cornered.
I need to be just as alert to selfishness hiding behind a correct understanding of the tithe. Saying that I am not under that law does not put my use of money beyond question or release it from Christ’s claim. If I use theology to avoid generosity, I am hiding selfishness rather than living in Christian freedom. Grace teaches us to hold our possessions with open hands.
For some Christians, giving a tenth may be a wise starting habit that helps the household plan instead of spending everything on itself. But it should not become a law by which we judge others or a ceiling for someone God has greatly prospered. The same percentage may require serious sacrifice from one household and hardly be noticed by another. The New Testament directs us to consider the giver’s heart and actual ability alongside the need, rather than assigning everyone a flat number.
We should consider our present responsibilities alongside opportunities to support the Word and help people in need, then give honestly before the Lord. That asks more of us than finding the smallest amount that would satisfy a religious requirement. Believers may arrive at different amounts, but each remains responsible to Christ for the whole of life.
The passages used to argue for a required church tithe need to be read within those distinctions. Genesis records Abram’s gift before the Law, but gives no universal command or regular schedule and does not describe a tithe of his normal income. Malachi’s charge of robbing God addressed Israel under the Mosaic covenant and its temple storehouse, so it is not a charge against every Christian who gives less than ten percent. In Matthew 23, Jesus addressed Pharisees under the Law before the cross. Each passage still teaches us, but we should not make it say something it never says.
I am not setting any of these passages aside as useless. Abram helps us understand worship in response to deliverance, while Moses explains the order God gave Israel under its covenant. Malachi confronts unfaithfulness to that covenant, and Jesus confronts hypocrisy concealed by religious precision. Hebrews explains why Christ’s priesthood changes the legal structure. The apostolic letters then teach the church how to give after His resurrection. Reading each in its setting allows us to learn from all of them.
Some fear that people will stop giving unless churches require ten percent. That may happen, but it would reveal a heart problem that a percentage cannot settle. The New Testament calls us to respond generously to grace, not merely meet a minimum. Being free from the tithe law does not free us to neglect ministry or become indifferent to people in need. We still owe them love.
Our giving should become a thoughtful, regular response to God’s provision, increasing as He prospers us and taking genuine needs into account. We should give without seeking attention that feeds pride, while remaining honest about stewardship within our households. Gratitude can replace fear because our treasure reaches beyond this present age. That kind of giving involves more than a one-time emotional appeal.
Christian giving grows from Christ’s finished work. Wicked men physically tortured and punished Jesus, then killed Him. He willingly bore that real punishment for our sins in His innocent body. He shed His blood and died, was buried, and rose bodily. The Father did not punish or curse Jesus, and He did not abandon Him. Neither did He strike or bruise His Son or pour wrath on Him. Father and Son remained united in the work of redemption. We give in response to that grace, not to purchase God’s favor.
Christ died for the whole world and genuinely offers salvation, though people can resist Him. Everyone who repents and believes is forgiven and justified, meaning declared righteous before God. He is born again and made new, with the Holy Spirit indwelling and sealing him. His eternal life is secure because salvation is God’s work. That security does not excuse lawlessness, and a superficial profession does not prove new birth. Generosity grows from life in Christ; it is not a payment that produces that life.
For related studies, see A Complete Bible Study on Melchizedek, How to Study the Bible Properly, and A Complete Bible Study on Communion.
My Final Thoughts
I do not believe these passages place the church under Israel’s tithe law. Abram and Jacob gave before Sinai, but neither example creates a recurring command to give ten percent. Under Moses, the tithe belonged to Israel’s land and provided for its Levites and sanctuary within that covenant. Christ changed the priesthood and fulfilled that temple system. We now give in response to His grace, willingly and thoughtfully, with cheerful generosity toward faithful ministry and people in need. A tenth may be a useful place to begin, but I need to consider more than the amount. The way I manage my money should honestly reflect the lordship of the One who gave Himself for me, whatever percentage I give.