Theopedia

Tithing

Definition

Tithing is the practice, commanded under the Mosaic law, of giving a tenth of one’s produce or income to God (Lev. 27:30; Deut. 14:22). Whether this specific requirement still binds Christians under the new covenant, as opposed to naming a proportion Christians may still find instructive, is a disputed question among otherwise-orthodox believers, not a matter the historic Reformed confessions address directly. The New Testament’s own instructions on giving call instead for a proportionate, freely willed response (1 Cor. 16:2; 2 Cor. 9:7), without repeating the Mosaic tithe as a fixed requirement.

Confessional Contrast

Neither the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession nor the wider Reformed confessional family addresses tithing’s continuing obligation as such. What the 1689 does say bears on giving without settling the tithing question: its chapter on the church requires congregations to “communicate to [pastors] of all their good things according to their ability, so as they may have a comfortable supply,” grounding this duty in “the law of nature” and Christ’s own command “that they that preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel,” rather than in any fixed percentage.1 Pastor treats this clause in full.

The Larger Catechism states the same general pattern for giving outside the pastoral-support context specifically. Among the duties it lists under the eighth commandment is “giving and lending freely, according to our abilities, and the necessities of others.”2 Both confessions name liberality, scaled to what a believer actually has, as the governing principle. Neither specifies ten percent as the measure of that liberality.

Arguments

The case that a fixed tithe no longer binds Christians rests on tithing’s place within the old covenant system Christ fulfilled. Jamie Dunlop argues that the tithe “was part of old covenant worship instituted at Sinai,” so that “the requirement to tithe is no more a part of our worship today than are animal sacrifices or a regular pilgrimage to Jerusalem.”3 On this reading, the New Testament never commands Christians to tithe; when Jesus commends the Pharisees for tithing (Luke 11:42), he addresses people still under the old covenant, which in fact required more than ten percent, since the law described multiple tithes and Malachi 3 itself pairs the tithe with “offerings” beyond it.3 Malachi 3:10’s promise of blessing, on this view, is not a transactional formula available to New Testament believers for a ten-percent gift: Jesus promises blessing for obedience in this life and the next, but he has also promised difficulty in this life (Mark 10:30).4 Dunlop reports a similar conclusion from church history: surveying centuries of Christian giving, Lukas Vischer found that an original emphasis on freewill giving “gradually gave way to a reintroduction of the Old Testament law of tithing” as the church’s financial needs grew, a reintroduction Vischer judged as diminishing Christ’s own, larger challenge to give rather than fulfilling it.4

Even on this reading, ten percent retains some standing as a reference point rather than disappearing altogether. Dunlop himself calls it “a great place to start” for a Christian’s giving, noting that Jacob gave a tenth “long before the Law of Moses” (Gen. 14:20; 28:22), a pattern that predates Sinai and so cannot be dismissed as belonging only to the old covenant’s now-fulfilled system.3 What he denies is that ten percent marks a ceiling or a floor Scripture requires: “our stewardship neither begins nor ends with giving 10 percent,” since every believer’s whole income, not merely a tenth of it, belongs to Christ.3 The New Testament’s own instructions to the Corinthians describe giving in exactly these terms, regular, planned, and set “in keeping with” income (1 Cor. 16:2), and freely willed rather than compelled by a fixed rate: “each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7).

Related Doctrines

References

  1. The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1677/1689), chap. 26, “Of the Church,” para. 10. ↩

  2. The Larger Catechism (London, 1648), Q. 141. ↩

  3. Jamie Dunlop, Budgeting for a Healthy Church: Aligning Finances with Biblical Priorities for Ministry (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019), 57: “In fact, the old covenant expected more than 10 percent: the law described multiple tithes, and Malachi 3 expects more than just a tithe.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. Lukas Vischer, Tithing in the Early Church (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1966), 30, quoted in Dunlop, Budgeting for a Healthy Church, 58: “The problem is that the reintroduction of the commandment to tithe not only dulls the sharpness of the challenge which Christ makes but also falsifies it in its very essence. Christ’s challenge was diminished as soon as nothing more than the tithe was required; and its evangelical character was obscured when the amount of that which Christ challenges us to do was fixed a priori.” ↩ ↩2