Is tithing required in the new covenant?

To tithe or not to tithe, that’s the question.

The passage that I am going to explain and talk about today is Malachai 3:10 which is usually
coupled with Mathew 5:48 since they fit with each other very well. I will talk through the first
passage and try to uncover its teaching and resolve confusion it brings around in people’s lives.
Let’s go through the passage:
Malachai 3:10 says: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My
house, and test 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 a blessing until it overflows."
This single verse is the linchpin in favor of all the tithe and the way we use this verse. Typically,
it has led to extortion that has led to squeezing of millions & millions of dollars, pounds and
euros from church members over the years.
Why is it extortion? Because fear is used to force people to pay tithe. If you don’t give tithe, God
is going to get you: that can’t be right.
So what is Malachai actually saying? If we read Malachai, we discover the answer.Malachai is a
small book containing four chapters only and quick outline can explain everything.
In Chapter 1 people are complaining that God doesn’t love them. God responds by recounting
how Jacob was chosen over Esau even though Esau was older. In the same chapter, priests
are seen offering blind and lame animals for sacrifices. God tells them to offer pure sacrifices,
remember these are pictures of Jesus after all, and it will stop profaning His name.
Chapter 2 explains that priests have corrupted the covenant of Levi or the Mosaic Covenant
which has caused people to stumble. Therefore, the priests are going to be cursed. Chapter 2
again: men have sinned against their wives by breaking the marriage covenant and marrying
pagan women. Without repentance, these men will be cut off, removed forever from the
covenant people. Chapter 2 again: God speaks to people and says, “you have wearied the lord
with your words because you say everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and
He delights in them.”
Chapter 3: the lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple. Verses 1&2 are one of the
great Messianic prophecies in all of the Old Testament. And in Malachai 3, like the priests the
people have turned away from God. The priests showed this by their tainted sacrifices and
corrupting the covenant, the people showed it by refusing to pay tithe. The end of Malachai 3:
the people who have said it is vain to serve God, what is the profit of our keeping his charge
then they say. But God says to them at the end of 3, “there are those who truly follow me and I
will remember them.”
Chapter 4 starts with great day of the Lord be on its way. And Malachai closes this out with one
of the strongest statement, “therefore remember the law of my servant Moses.” That is a
completely reasonable statement for Malachai to say to those people under the Mosaic
Covenant. So Malachai is calling the people, priests and regular folks, back to God via that
covenant. To pretend that the only useful part of Malachai is about tithe, willfully ignores that
message. Clearly tithe was part of the Mosaic Covenant. It was a tax on the people, used to
support the tribe of Levi, widows, orphans and homeless aliens passing through the country.
Clearly we are no longer under the Mosaic Covenant. Just one passage out of dozens &
dozens: Ephesians 2: 14-15, “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups
one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the
law with its commands and regulations.” We are no longer under that covenant.
Tithing actually was not part of the church after Jesus until a couple of church councils in 567-
585. Here is a quote from Catholic Encyclopedia (1912 edition): “as the church expanded and
various institutions arose, it became necessary to make laws which would insure the proper &
permanent support of the clergy. The payment of tithes was adopted from the Old Law, and
early writers speak of it as a divine ordinance and an obligation of the conscience.”
So we are talking about building bigger buildings, more buildings, more churches, more power,
etc., etc. Voluntary giving was not going to cut it so they started casting about the laws and it
was like, “we can use tithing.” Literally we can use tithing because it’s in the bible and we can
use it to cajole these people into giving. Later laws created anathema not to pay tithe, they
could throw you out of the church and in fact could throw you into hell if you didn’t pay tithe.
Therefore, what you should be doing, is giving as Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 8&9: planned,
without compulsion, joyfully, based on what you have, etc. It is a voluntary thing, a grace given
to us in the Holy Spirit by Jesus Christ himself. We shouldn’t be afraid to ask for support to
preach and teach the singular beauty of Jesus Christ back to the world, but we are not meant to
ask tithe at all. The basic gospel simply is too important to denigrate with fear based appeals to
laws gathered from here, there and everywhere. Walk by grace through faith and let the spirit
lead you into your giving.
Somebody may hear your argument about Malachai and then they will ask the question, does
Jesus use tithing and use this particular verse: Mathew 23:23-24 and it says, “23 “Woe to you,
teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill
and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and
faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind
guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”
So somebody might say that right there, Jesus is telling us to tithe. What is the context here: is
Jesus telling us we need to tithe? The answer is no; he was saying those who were still living
under the Mosaic Covenant they needed to continue out the requirements of the Mosaic
Covenant. But they needed to do so not just the external matters but the way to your matters;
justice, mercy and faithfulness and likes. And he is also talking about this in terms of the
hypocrisy of the Pharisees. They were tithing even down to mint and dill and cumin but they
were neglecting real people. They were neglecting real relationships. They were neglecting
justice and mercy and faithfulness. That was not a part of their daily living and Jesus was
jumping all over them. We can’t use this passage as a passage to teach tithing. That’s not what
Jesus was saying. That was not his message there. He was trying to show them the matters of
the heart; we have missed the heart of the whole message if we think otherwise. He was doing
that in a loving way so they could turn to him and have their hearts made right.
Our responsibility is to be moved by grace of God; by grace through faith and Jesus. As the
grace of God moves through our hearts, we respond and we learn to give. God so loved the
world that he gave. He’s alive living in us. If He is a giver, then guess what he is going to do
inside of us. He is going to produce that desire to give and so that we can reflect that attitude of
His out there in the world and so as we grow in the grace of God, we are going to see ourselves
start to excel in this grace of giving as mentioned in 2 Corinthians 8&9.
So, no, we are not required to tithe. We are not required to give 10%, but as we grow in grace
we are going to see this desire to give start to grow within each and every one of us. That’s
when giving becomes joyful. It will put a smile on your face, knowing that your money is going to
be used by God to connect somebody to love of Christ.