What does it mean to tithe, and is tithing required in the church age?

The word tithe simply means a tenth. In the Old Testament, God instructed Israel to give a tenth of their crops, herds, and produce, a practice that funded the Levites, who had no land inheritance of their own and served the tabernacle and temple full time (Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:21). Some scholars note Israel's system actually involved multiple tithes across different years, amounting to more than a flat ten percent overall.

The tithe was not simply a generic act of generosity. It was tied to a specific covenant, a specific land, and a specific system of worship and provision for the priesthood, all part of Israel's unique relationship with God under the Mosaic law.

It is worth noting that tithing actually predates the Mosaic law. Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils of battle to Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High (Genesis 14:18-20), and Jacob vowed to give God a tenth of all he received (Genesis 28:22). These early examples show a pattern of grateful, worshipful giving that existed before the formal law was ever given at Sinai.

When you look for a New Testament command instructing the church to tithe ten percent, you will not find one. Jesus mentions tithing while critiquing the Pharisees for neglecting justice and mercy while meticulously tithing even their spices (Matthew 23:23), but this is not a command establishing tithing as the church's giving standard. Paul, writing extensively about giving, never once tells the churches he planted to tithe.

Instead, Paul describes giving that is voluntary, cheerful, and proportional to what someone has been blessed with, not compelled by a fixed percentage or law (2 Corinthians 8:12; 9:6-7). This reflects the broader New Testament pattern of the law's ceremonial and civil requirements giving way to gospel-shaped freedom and grace.

Paul instructs the Corinthians to set aside a portion of their income on the first day of every week, in keeping with their income, so that a collection would already be gathered when he arrived (1 Corinthians 16:2). Notice the pattern here, regular, planned, proportional giving, but again with no percentage attached, leaving the exact amount to each believer's own conscience before God.

Strictly speaking, the New Testament does not command Christians to give exactly ten percent. Giving under grace is not measured by hitting a legal minimum, it flows from a transformed heart that has experienced God's own extravagant generosity in Christ (2 Corinthians 8:9). Some believers give more than ten percent, some give less while in genuine hardship, and neither is automatically more or less faithful than the other.

That said, many conservative evangelical churches still teach the tithe as a wise, time-tested benchmark, a starting point for proportional giving rather than a binding legal requirement, useful precisely because it prevents giving from becoming an afterthought.

Some point out that if Israel, under the law and without the fuller revelation of Christ's finished work, was expected to give generously, it would be strange for New Testament believers, who have received so much more in Christ, to give less generously simply because the exact command has changed. This argument does not reinstate the tithe as law, but it does challenge believers to let gratitude, not the absence of a rule, set the standard for their giving.

Scripture cares far more about the heart behind giving than the exact percentage given. God loves a cheerful giver, not a reluctant one giving grudgingly under pressure (2 Corinthians 9:7). Giving out of guilt or fear of punishment misses the point entirely and reduces generosity to a transaction rather than an act of worship.

This is why generous giving is meant to flow naturally from gratitude for the gospel, remembering that Christ, though rich, became poor for our sake, so that we might become rich through His poverty (2 Corinthians 8:9).

If you are wondering where to begin, ten percent remains a reasonable, biblically informed benchmark, not because Scripture legally binds the church to it, but because it reflects the seriousness with which God's people have historically taken generosity. Start there if you can, and let it grow as your heart and circumstances allow.

Whatever amount you give, give it prayerfully, cheerfully, and as an act of worship toward the God who gave His own Son for you, rather than as a fee paid to maintain good standing.