Should Christians TITHE?

A brother in the Lord recently asked me about tithing and giving. I will endeavor to answer his question by the grace of God in the fear of the Lord, and in light of the many scriptures on this topic. May God reveal truth to all of our hearts through His Word and may God give us the grace to walk in His perfect will.

Here is my response:

“Giving is extremely important to the Lord. We are not under the Old Testament law of tithing but we ARE under Jesus and the New Testament guides and commands about giving from the scriptures. The New Covenant is a higher standard than the Old Covenant because now we have regenerated born-again hearts and we are filled with the Holy Spirit. So the standard for us is much higher than it was for the Old Testament saints.

It is important to see that Jesus COMMANDED us to give. Jesus said, “Give to all who ask of you” (Matt 5:42). Jesus also said we need to give to God what belongs to Him (Mark 12:17).  Jesus even told us that if people are greedy and not giving and helping those in need, He would throw them into the lake of fire (Matt 25:31-46). This is one way God will separate His true sheep from the false Christians (goats).

So we see that Christians are in sin if they are greedy and aren’t giving back to God by helping others. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and it has caused people to even fall away from the faith (1 Tim 6:10).

We should never love money, instead, we should generously give of all our increase.

Some say, “Hey! The Bible says don’t give out of compulsion! So that means we don’t have to give in the New Covenant!”

But this is taking one verse out of context and leaving out all the rest. When Paul wrote that, he wasn’t saying we didn’t need to give, Paul was saying when we do give, we need to give out of a cheerful heart, not out of a dead compulsion. Under the New Covenant, everything we do should flow from hearts of love. Jesus was clear that we are expected to give and help others as believers.

The early church knew they were expected to give. Jesus specifically COMMANDED us to give (Matt 5:42, Mark 12:17) and there are big consequences if we are greedy and don’t give to others (Matt 25:31-46).

The Bible says if we don’t give to help others, then God’s love is not in us:

“But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? 

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:17-18

In the early church, Paul told them to set aside money every week from their increase so that when he came, they would have it ready and they wouldn’t have to take up a collection at that time.

1 Corinthians 16:2 “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.”

But who do we give to?

1. We need to be giving to the poor (Prov 19:17, Luke 14:12-14),
2. We need to give to the needy (James 2:16, Matt 25:35-40, Luke 12:33-34)
3. We need to give to the windows & orphans (James 1:27, 1 Tim 5:3)
4. We need to help other saints that are in need (1 Cor 16:1-3, 2 Cor 9:1-10, 1 John 3:17-18)

(Caution: This does NOT mean to financially support idle people who are sitting around and not working or ministering but they want to be supported financially from others and are thus a burden to others. Some people are able to work but they mooch off other people without contributing and these people should be encouraged to work. Laziness should not supported (see 1 Tim 5:8-13, 2 Thes 3:6-12, 1 Thes 4:11)).

5. We need to support missionaries and ministers that are faithfully laboring in the gospel (1 Cor 9:1-18 & 16:5-10, 2 Cor chapters 8 &9, Gal 6:6, Phil 4:10-20, 2 Thes 3:6-12, 1 Tim 4:17-18, Matt 10:10, Titus 3:12-14, Rom 16:1-2, This is also supported by early church documents like the Didache).
6. We should give to everyone who God leads out of a cheerful and happy heart because nothing we have belongs to us anyways, it is all the Lords. We are bought with a price, our lives are not our own (1 Cor 6:19-20).

If we refuse to open our hands to help others even when God tells us to, then we are in sin.

Giving doesn’t need to be a legalistic 10% though, it can be much more. I think 10% is a good starting point though. It is like a bare minimum in my eyes because even BEFORE the Mosaic law came, Abraham gave Melchizedek 10% of his income (Heb 7:2). So I believe 10% is a good precedent or guide point but if God tells someone to give 20% but they are only giving 10%, they are still in disobedience. In reality, ALL that we have belongs to Him so whatever portion of our increase He asks for, we need to immediately do it with joy and thankfulness. In the Old Testament, the expectation was to give 10% but in the New Testament, the expectation is that we are willing to give all we have, we don’t consider anything we have as belonging to us. Everything we have is the Lords, so we willingly share and help others as he impresses on our hearts.

Giving doesn’t need to be a legalistic thing, we are not under OT law.  But certainly, in the New Covenant, we should be giving even more generously than in the Old Covenant. We should have hearts like JESUS, denying ourselves, picking up our cross, and following after Him. It should be no longer we who live, but Christ living in us and through us (Gal 2:20).

The early church sold all they had and helped each other (Acts 2:44-45).
This is our example- extravagant and cheerful generosity. If cheerful generosity is not in our hearts, then there is something wrong because God doesn’t want us to be giving out of bitter compulsion, he wants us to choose to give JOYFULLY.

Think of the rich young ruler, he was commanded to sell ALL he had and give to the poor but he didn’t want to do it and he went away sad. He was greedy for his wealth and thus he wasn’t allowed in heaven. (Matt 19:16-22).

In contrast, think of the tax collector Zaccheus who joyfully gave his wealth, the Lord said salvation had come to his house! (Luke 19:1-10).

Jesus takes note of not just WHAT we give but also HOW we give (Luke 21:1-4). He loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:7).

Giving is amazing because you can’t out-give God. He promises to supply ALL your needs if you seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness (Matt 6:33). And the Lord tells His people to test Him in this!

Mal 3:10
“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.”

That was the Old Covenant but God has the same promise for us today, if we will generously give back to God by helping those in need, God will pour out a blessing on us!

Here is the precious promise of Jesus:

Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Also, God promises to provide “seed to the sower” (2 Cor 9:10). When we give to others, God gives to us so we can give more and more. And you can’t outgive God. God tells us that if we sow generously, we will reap generously! But if we sow sparingly, we will reap sparingly (2 Cor 9:6-8).

If I only have $100 in my bank account but I have bills coming, I know that I can give that $100 away and God will STILL miraculously cover my bills. I have seen Him do that kind of thing again and again. He is faithful! I can’t tell you how many times God has provided abundantly if I have given abundantly and cheerfully to Him.

One time years ago, I gave my little sister a bit of money to teach her this principle. I told her to give the $2 to God and watch what He will do. So she gave the money to God.  Then, I believe it was that same day, we were out together and a lady we didn’t know randomly came up to us for no apparent reason and gave each of us $20! My sister was so excited! God had powerfully shown her that if she gave to Him and trusted Him, He would bless her abundantly. It is so much more blessed to give than to receive!

I have learned that God ALWAYS provides because He is trustworthy. Living by faith is an exciting adventure! So give generously and abundantly and without any fear of lack and watch what God does! I tell you this so that you know that you can trust God.

Living by faith is so fun! When you have no money left and no way to pay the bills but you know 100% God will provide. He always does. Hallelujah! So if I only have a little left, I would much rather give it all to the Lord because I know He will supply my needs abundantly. There is SUCH joy in living life with an open hand and just trusting the Lord! Isaiah 58 has great promises concerning this principle.

Giving is about a relationship with the Lord. Do you trust Him? Do you trust that if you give your last $10 to a needy person that God will give back to you abundantly? I have learned that God is so, so, SO trustworthy and he will always take care of His children whose hearts are trusting Him.

If we love God, we will love others and give generously and cheerfully. When we do this, we can trust that God will provide for every need.

***WARNING 1*** LOOK OUT FOR FALSE PROPHETS EXPLOITING PEOPLE

When talking about giving, I want to give a warning:

Some people have perverted the Biblical truth of giving and turned it into a wicked prosperity gospel. They treat God as if He is a slot machine and say that if you give a pastor $1000 that God will give you a $30,000 car or boat or something. This is so wrong. God doesn’t give us money to enrich ourselves! We are not called to live in luxury on this earth. God gives us money to meet our needs  and overflow so we can help others! Of course, God might bless us and we are free to enjoy His good things, but we should never go into luxury, extravagance, and greed.

“Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.  Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”

 1 Tim 6:17 – 19

This passage shows us that people are allowed to enjoy the good things on the earth but people’s hearts should never trust in those riches. We should be willing to give and share and be rich in good works.

When Elisha was offered wealth, he said it was not the time to receive those things. His eyes were on heavenly things. (See 2 King’s 5).

It is important and very Biblical to joyfully support ministers so they can focus on preaching the gospel. Many verses show this in the New Testament. However, some ministers are living in luxury and not following the footsteps of Jesus. They buy house after house and car after car way beyond what is needed or appropriate. They use the precious gifts from God’s people to enrich themselves instead of helping the poor and needy. This is like stealing from God himself and it is very dangerous. We are called to be a FUNNEL, not a cup. Meaning that when we receive blessings, we are called to bless others, not to greedily hoard it all on ourselves.

“You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.” James 5:5

It makes me think of the false teachers spoken of in 2 Peter 2

“15 They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; “

If a minister is like this, don’t give them your money. Go give to the poor and needy instead. Don’t support greedy ministers who exploit you and don’t share the full gospel.

Here are some warning signs:

If a minister refuses to call out sin or refuses to preach on holiness because he doesn’t want to offend his doners and lose his tithes and offerings, then RUN AWAY!

If a minister tells you, “Give me money and your kid will be healed,” then RUN AWAY. These are deceptions!

If a minister tells you “Sow into my ministry and then you will get deliverance,” or “If you give me money, you will get your miracle,” then RUN AWAY.

If a minister tells you, “I’m rich because of God’s blessing and if you give me money, God will bless you too and you will be rich!”  Then RUN AWAY!

The greatest ministers in the Bible did NOT live in luxury and most were martyrs (Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, etc). If they had riches they would have given it away to those in need. So being rich is NOT a sign of God’s blessing and it is NOT a sign of increased godliness or favor from God.

If God is in the heart of a minister, they will want to store up riches in HEAVEN, not earth. And they will want to help the poor, not get mansions to enrich themselves. Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing, you will know them by their fruits (see Matt 7).

***WARNING 2*** DON’T GO INTO THE OTHER EXTREME!

Don’t become UNBALANCED!

As I have shown from scripture, Biblical giving is very important and Jesus commanded us to give. So if preachers teach this, it doesn’t make them false.

Many people think that if a minister ever mentions tithing or giving that they are a false minister. But that is not true at all. You can’t judge a minister false by that. Many true ministers believe in giving back to God the first fruits and tithing. Judge people based on their FRUIT. Have grace. Just because God has given you a revelation about New Testament giving doesn’t mean everyone who doesn’t have the same revelation is a false pastor.

I had a beloved friend of mine who I was discipling in the Lord. She was a very young believer and had been taught that if you ever hear a pastor talking about tithing, then they are automatically a false teacher and you need to run away. This caused her to want to run from true church community and isolate herself! Even though the church was a true church with godly preaching, she would see certain flaws in the church and decided that it must be false and so she abandoned the in person fellowship of the saints all together. Soon, because she wasn’t rooted in a true believers community, she was sucked into false doctrines she heard online and went into deep deceptions. I am still praying for her to be set free. So don’t fall into the same trap she did. If a church has good fruit of HOLINESS, righteousness, love, humility, etc then don’t run from them just because they believe in tithing or they don’t have the same revelation you have on certain issues. We should strive to keep the unity of the faith and the bond of peace with our true brothers and sisters. We are all growing and learning, so don’t let pride and criticalness enter your heart and cause divisions in Christ’s body.

Another young believer I knew also fell into this trap of harshly judging pastors. He declared that if a pastor ever took a salary from a church, that they were automatically a false pastor and you should leave the church. Why? What verse do you have to support that? “Freely you have recieved, freely give.” Yes this is true, but you must balance it with the rest of scriptures. No one should charge for preaching the gospel, healing the sick, or casting out demons etc. It should never be “I will share the gospel but first give me $100!” That would be wrong. But a pastor who works week after week in laboring for the flock should absolutely be able to be supported by the flock. That is totally Biblical.

If it is a TRUE church and a godly pastor, the congregation of the church should absolutely be giving to the church! The Bible says a worker is worthy of his wages and you shouldn’t muzzle an ox while it treads the grain (1 Tim 5:18). Meaning that if a minister is faithfully working hard to feed the flock the Word of God, the flock should absolutely be feeding and providing for him. In fact, the Bible says those who minister well should be worthy of double honor! (1 Tim 5:17).

Here is an extremely clear verse on this showing that the LORD himself commanded that those who are preaching the gospel should be able to be supported by the people they are preaching to:

“Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.”

 1 Cor 9:13-14

Here is another Biblical command that shows we need to give to ministers:

“Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.”

Galatians 6:6-7 

Some people point out that Paul made and sold tents so that he wasn’t a burden to people and this is absolutely true. However, we must read the rest of that passage in context. Read 1 Cor 9:1-18 and you will see that Paul was NOT saying it would be wrong or sinful for him to be supported by them, in fact, he said that him being supported financially by them is his RIGHT because he is feeding them spiritually. However, he says he didn’t want to use this right because he wants spiritual rewards and later in 1 Thes 2:9 he tells us that he didn’t want to be a burden on them. Paul wanted to set a good example. However, there were times in Paul’s ministry that Paul WAS financially supported by others (Phil 4:15-18). This shows us that if a minister works a normal job to support himself, that’s great! Likewise, if a minister spends his time teaching and preaching and helping others and and other believers support him, that is great too!

If a faithful preacher or missionary is working hard to bring the true gospel, other believers should be supporting them so that they can devote more of their time to preaching so more souls can be saved. People even financially supported Jesus when he did ministry on this earth! (see Luke 8:1-3).

When Jesus sent out missionaries, he told them to accept the help from others because “a worker is worthy of his wages” (Matt 10:10).

So we can see from scripture that the two extremes are wrong. One extreme is the prosperity gospel that treats God like a slot machine and tells people to give to rich and greedy pastors so they can be blessed. This is a twisted extreme.

The other extreme is when people say that pastors shouldn’t be supported by the people that they feed and care for spiritually and every pastor that talks about giving or tithing is a false pastor. This is also a twisted extreme.

We need to have a well balanced view of scriptures and not pull out some verses and leave out others. Anytime someone is over-emphasizing one verse and leaving out others, they will end up with deceptions. Remember, that is how the devil tried to trick Jesus in the desert. The devil tried to take verses out of context and leave out other scriptures but the Lord knew the true meaning of the verses and he knew scripture in balance (see Matt 4).

I hope that this has been a balanced and scriptural response to your question. I have heard people jump from one extreme to the other and both extremes on this issue are wrong.

If we take the totality of the scriptures, we can see that it is very important and essential to give and we should do it with joyful and generous hearts, not out of dead compulsion.

May God bless you!

-Mikayla