Audio Transcript

Tithing — giving ten percent of our income to a church — is a common theme here on the Ask Pastor John podcast. Not so much recently, but in our first decade it did come up a lot, and you can see how in the APJ book, on pages 101–103, if you have a copy handy.

After several years, we return to the theme today with the question “Can a church force tithing?” The question is from an anonymous man who listens to the podcast. “Good morning, Pastor John! What do you think about forced tithing? Recently in my church there has been an expectation that our church leaders tithe ten percent of their income back to the church as a condition of their ongoing employment at the church. While I understand the importance of supporting the church financially, I’ve found myself conflicted about the approach being taken by our leaders. It seems to me that forcing individuals to tithe can potentially do more harm than good.

“I believe that true worship is born out of a heart of gratitude and sincerity rather than obligation (2 Corinthians 9:7). When Abraham gave his tithe to God, it was out of a genuine sense of thankfulness for God’s blessings, not because he was compelled to do so by another person. I’ve attempted to discuss this issue with our leadership, and while some have expressed willingness to engage in dialogue, others seem to dismiss it as unworthy of discussion. This has left me feeling uncertain about how to proceed. What do you think about forced tithing?”

The short answer is that I do not think tithing is a New Testament requirement the way “love your neighbor as yourself” is a New Testament requirement (Mark 12:31). I think the New Testament has put Christian generosity toward the cause of Christ on a new footing of freedom motivated by the joy of seeing Christ magnified in people’s lives. I think tithing was an integral part of the Old Testament sacrificial priestly system, which God designed for the support of the priesthood — a system that no longer exists in the Christian church. That’s the short answer.

Some Commands No Longer Apply — Others Do

This question is part of the larger question of which commandments from the Old Testament come over into the New Testament as binding on those who are in Christ. “Thou shalt not kill” is an Old Testament commandment (Exodus 20:13 KJV). So is Deuteronomy 14:10: “Whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.” So, you can eat trout but not catfish. “Thou shalt not steal” is an Old Testament commandment (Exodus 20:15 KJV). So is Deuteronomy 14:22: “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year.”

Now, not all the commandments of the Old Testament come over as binding into the New Testament. Some of them we call the moral law, which are rooted in our nature as God created us and in the nature of God’s love and justice being worked out in our lives. And some of them are simply temporary, as part of the priestly, sacrificial Old Testament system, which has passed away after the coming of Jesus Christ as our priest and our sacrifice.

“The New Testament has put generosity on a new footing of freedom motivated by the joy of seeing Christ magnified.”

Once, the people of God were an ethnic people, a political regime set off from other peoples with their ceremonial practices. But today, the people of God are not an ethnic people but are made up of all ethnicities, and we are not a political regime but are embedded as exiles in all political regimes, and we are not set off from the world by ceremonial practices but by allegiance to Jesus Christ and the moral implications that belong to his way of saving us through love and justice.

Why We’re No Longer Required to Tithe

I have four reasons for thinking that tithing is not one of the moral commandments that remain binding.

1. Tithing was God’s way of sustaining the Levitical priesthood. Numbers 18:21: “To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do.” Since that system of Levitical ministry is now gone, I think the designed support for it is gone.

2. Paul taught that when we died with Christ by faith in his death for us, we also died to the Old Testament law so that we could live in a new way — not by law-keeping but by Spirit-motivated love, informed by the moral implications of how God created us and how the gospel shapes us.

You also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. . . . We are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:4, 6)

And then Paul illustrates this specifically in Colossians 2:16–23 and Galatians 4:10–11. He says, despairingly almost, “You observe days and months and seasons and years!” And there were all those Old Testament stipulations. You observe all that. “I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.” Do not submit to rules about “food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” Now, I think tithing is built into that category of shadows.

3. I think the New Testament puts giving on a new footing of freedom motivated by the joy of seeing Christ magnified in people’s lives. All of 2 Corinthians 8–9 unfolds this new footing, but especially 2 Corinthians 9:6–7 — very famous verses, very important verses: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Now, that’s crucial: “not . . . under compulsion.” Nowhere in any of the New Testament letters do the apostles motivate giving by mentioning tithing, which would just seem strange if that were the typical way funding the church was to happen in the early church.

4. Finally, when Jesus said in Matthew 23:23, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others” — sometimes that’s used to argue about the ongoing validity of tithing: “without neglecting the others.” He was speaking to the Pharisees before his world-changing death and resurrection. They were living under the old regime of the Old Testament law.

This would be similar to Jesus telling his disciples back in Matthew 5:23–24 to offer their gifts at the temple, or telling the lepers, “Go, show yourself to the priest” (Matthew 8:4). These are commands, but they’re not abiding commands because they’re under that regime of Old Testament law. These are not commandments that apply after the era of the law passes away with the death and resurrection of Jesus.

So, my conclusion is that it’s a mistake for the leaders of a church to make tithing a requirement for church leadership. I have always taught that Christian freedom in the light of the lavish generosity of God toward us in Christ will motivate Christians to give more than a tithe, but it will not be under compulsion because “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).