#STRask - Are You Accursed If You Tithe?

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

Questions about whether anyone who tithes is not a Christian and is accursed since Paul says that if you obey one part of the Mosaic Law you’re obligated to obey all of it, and the claim that tithing preceded the Law and therefore remains a principle for the church today.   Since Paul says that if you obey one part of the Law to please God you’re obligated to obey all of it, does that mean that anyone who tithes is not a Christian and is accursed? How would you respond to the claim that tithing preceded the Law of Moses, as evidenced by Abraham giving a tenth to Melchizedek in Genesis 14, and therefore remains a principle for the church today?

Good morning, Greg. Good morning, Amy. We are starting this episode with a question about tithing. So here is a question from Lewis. I'm just going to give you a tenth of an answer. Would that be right? Okay. All right.

Here is his question. why does the Lord's Church tithe in America when it's part of the law? If you obey one part of the law to please God, the Apostle Paul said you're obligated to obey at all, which means you're not a Christian, you're a cursed. Well, he's citing a passage from Galatians 5, which is kind of a capstone of an argument that Paul is developing through the entire text, dealing with the problem of Judaizers who have been teaching that faith in Jesus is not enough. must also have adherence to the Jewish law. So the Gentiles that are becoming believers in the Jewish Messiah must join in Judaism and keep the law. And Paul's argument, not just here in Galatians, but also in the book of Romans, and the argument in Hebrews is that these are two separate systems. And from the very beginning, law was not something that justified you. It was grace. And both in – I think they're in Galatians and certainly in Romans, Paul is harking back to – actually, very near this passage, the circumstance with Abraham is in Genesis 14.

In Genesis 15, you have a declaration that Abraham believed God and God reckoned it to him, counted it as righteousness. And so that's the key you have to keep in mind when you read through Galatians is that this argument is being made. Paul is not arguing against anyone practicing something in the law. What he's arguing, for example, circumcision. He does say there in Galatians 5, if you have received circumcision, then Christ will be of no used to you. But you know, our rule, never read a Bible verse. In what sense is he concerned here? Those who are seeking to be justified by law are under obligation to keep the whole law, he says,

and that therefore those who are getting circumcision for that reason have separated themselves from Christ. They've fallen from grace. Now, he's not making, I don't know that he's making a definitive statement there on who's saved and who's not in an individual circumstance. Like, if you get circumcised because you think that's what God's want, God wants, are you now severed from Christ? I think he's making a point about two approaches to this project, and the approach of the Judaizers was Jesus plus law, and Paul is arguing that there is no way that these two go together. It's like oil and water, and there's one passage in Galatians, I think, chapter three towards the end, where it's very interesting.

He makes like five or six or seven different contrasts between grace and law. It's either one or the other, one of the other, and he finds different ways to make this point. And so we get to chapter five, he's just summing up what he's been arguing all along. if this is why you're getting circumcised or doing anything that is part of the old system, if you're doing it to accomplish some kind of justification, atonement, forgiveness, whatever, then you don't understand Jesus. In fact, you're not drawing from Jesus' grace if you're drawing from your own merit. It's one or the other, which is what he'd argue earlier.

And so that's the point there. Now, there are lots of Christians who tithe because they think this is their biblical obligation. I don't think those who tithe thinking it's their biblical obligation. By the way, a tithe is a tenth. In other words, they give 10% of their income, and this is the way it's often communicated by pastors. And then they go back not only two passages like the law, which talks about tithing, but here prior to the law, you see. Abraham appearing to tithe, in other words, the same practice in place before the law,

they might argue, and then they're looking at the very last book, Malachi, where Malachi is saying, you're robbing from God because you're keeping the tithe from the storehouse where it should be brought in. I think this is a complete mischaracterization of tithing. Who is it, Lewis? I think Lewis is right here that this is part of a covenant that God had with Jewish people, and the tithe was a means to help them run the government because you didn't have a distinction between the spiritual, religious community and the political community, so to speak. And what God promises Abraham in Genesis 15 is that he's going to give them a great nation.

That includes a land, a people, and a government to govern the people. people. And then some other things are going to eventuate from that. All the world would be blessed, all the nations of the world. But he's got to build this nation of Israel that will be God's beacon to go to the world. In fact, just as a little aside, when Jesus in Matthew Chapter 5 is saying, you are the light of the world, there is no concept of church that's in place at that point. I think he's speaking to the Jews as Jews. You Israel are the light of the world. That would take some more time to develop. In any event, the point, though, is that God has ordained this group of people to accomplish a particular end and therefore gives them a governmental structure

for them. The governmental structure, the law, Mosaic law, in Exodus, Leviticus, and ultimately in Deuteronomy, where we have a repeat of that law, 40 years later, is meant to provide structure for the government in all ways and also provide funds for the government to operate and the religious system to operate. And so it has all kinds of provision for that, including tithing. Now, John MacArthur's pointed out that 10%, when you look closely at the entire law, 10% is not what was required. It turned out that the different times giving was required

entailed more than 10% of individual income. But since the end of the Jewish Commonwealth governed by the Mosaic law, there has been no further obligation for anyone, Jewish or Gentile, to tithe, give 10% as an obligation. Paul identifies a completely different aspect. Giving, of course, is required, but Paul says, as the Lord has prospered you from your heart and cheerfully, not as an obligation. Well, the tithe in the Old Testament was an obligation. It was what the law required. It wasn't whatever a person wanted to give it.

It wasn't according to how God has prospered you, but rather just 10%, or whatever the final number happened to be. So I think that Lewis is correct in saying that it is a mistake to presume that we have an obligation to 10th of our income to the local church, which obviously there's no local church, even in view in the Old Testament. And now this has been transferred. You have to bring it into the storehouse. What's the storehouse? It's us. Well, Paul's principle in Galatians chapter six with regards to giving and teaching is he says, let him who is taught share all good things with him who teaches. That means if you are receiving spiritual sustenance from somewhere,

you should be supporting that. Now, if that's in your local church, you ought to be doing that. But If you're receiving it in other places, say, stand a reason, for example, or any of a multitude of other organizations that provide training and teaching of some sort, then it's certainly important and legitimate and even arguably obligatory to be able to pay back, so to speak, for what you've received, the workers worthy of his wages, kind of thing. So you have a New Testament ethic there that is opposed or not to oppose isn't the right word. It's a new situation with a new set of rules. The Mosaic covenant no longer applies, nor any provisions of the Mosaic covenant apply in any way to the new covenant Christian. Jeremiah 3131 makes it clear, I'm giving you a new covenant, not like the old one which you broke when you came out of Sinai, et cetera. This is entirely new. Now, because people are giving or even mistakenly following certain patterns of the Mosaic law, thinking they're obligatory, like tithing, that's the

most common. Some people participate in the Passover Seder, and that's just cultural as fine, but not out of obligation. But if people are doing that in an obligatory sense, they have Sabbath on Saturday because they think they're not going to be saved if they disobey the Sabbath law, well, then you have a different circumstance. They're seeking, as Paul says in Galatians, to be justified by their works, and this isn't going to work, and this is his argument throughout the book of Galatians. So I'm not concerned about people who are tithing and feel they're obliged to. I think they're mistaken.

I think that it is easy for pastors who are concerned about the bottom line, as they should be, to sometimes employ passages to encourage people to give that aren't appropriate under the circumstances. The tithing passages don't apply to New Testament Christians. That doesn't mean New Testament Christians shouldn't be giving. They should be. but a different pattern applies, and Paul talks about that in the New Testament. Well, I think there are all sorts of principles, moral principles, wisdom principles, all sorts of things in justice principles in the Old Testament law, in the Mosaic covenant,

that we follow now, but we follow those principles for a different reason. It's not because, as you said, it's part of our covenant. It's because we are now to become like Christ, and so we see who God is in the Old Testament law, and we conform ourselves to that, and we follow those principles because our goal is to become like Christ, not because we're trying to fulfill the, not because we're trying to fulfill the requirements of our covenant. So this doesn't mean the fact that Paul said we, you know, the fact that he told them not to be circumcised doesn't mean we can't follow principles from the law. Obviously not because there were all sorts of things that were in the law, especially moral principles, that he still had us follow. In fact, he even circumcised Timothy, right? It was Timothy, not ties. And obviously he didn't think then Timothy was no longer saved. It just depends on the reason, as you were explaining, Greg, why you're doing it. So I recommend you look at Romans 14 and 1st Corinthians 8 and 9 and see what Paul says about following principles that are in the law. Because I think this probably falls under a lot of what he's talking about in Romans 14, where he says, don't judge the people who are.

not eating. And if you're eating, don't regard the others with contempt. Right. So I think that would probably, that would probably apply to this too. And I would say, too, deciding that you're going to give a tenth of your income, I mean, there's nothing, obviously you're going to be making decisions about how much of your income to give away. There's nothing wrong with saying, I'm going to make it 10%, and that's going to be my baseline, and that's where I'm going to start. There's certainly nothing wrong with that. And I agree. So I hope people won't take that away from this. Yeah, it's whether one mistakenly thinks that this is what is required of them by God. And again, I think sometimes pastors foment this confusion. But it's just not. And even in the

Genesis passage with Malachi, not Malachi, but rather Abraham, fighting that battle and giving 10% of his, of the goods there to Melchizedek, when you look at the passage carefully, it turns out that there's a whole bunch of... Let me ask the next question, because that's what it's about. Oh, okay. I thought this was folded in. No, this question comes from Josh. Okay, we can John...

How would you respond to the claim that tithing preceded the law of Moses as evidenced by Abraham giving one-tenth to Melchizedek in Genesis 14? This is often used to make the point that tithing isn't. part of the law and remains a principle for the New Testament Church today. Okay. It's just sorry you have to chuckle at this. If what happens in Genesis 14 remains a principle for the New Testament Church because these actions were described there, what about all the other things that Abraham did in Genesis 14? There's a battle fought, okay? And when they fought the battle, they took all these goods from the, from the

people. There was a spoil that was collected. And the spoil was then divided among the army, and they got all their people back. They might even take some captives. I'm not sure I'd have to look more closely. And then it says there that he gave them, he gave him, that is the Melchizedek, a tenth of all. That's verse 20. All right. So if we're going to take the tithing as not a mere description of what happened, but a prescription of what ought to happen for New Testament believers, why are we leaving out all the other things that are described that he did there? Notice the argument. Well, Abraham tithe till Melchizedek, therefore the tithing principle, it's not just a principle, the tithing obligation was there before the law was given,

and now that the law, now that we're in the New Testament time, we still have that tithing principle that's in play, all right? So what about that? And a couple of observations, just because it happens there and only there before the law does not mean that we are obliged to, to follow the practice any more than any of the other details of Chapter 14 obliges us to follow that practice. Okay, that's the first thing. The second thing is that what's interesting in this passage is that Melchizedek, I'm sorry, Abraham doesn't give a tenth of his belongings.

He gives everything. There were many other people that were fighting here. There was a consortium of groups of smaller armies that were working together to fight this foe, and the standard was they divide the spoil up. Abraham got one-tenth of the spoil, and what he did is he gave the entire thing to Melchizedek, and he did it for a reason because one of the other kings said, hey, take everything, take all your stuff, take what you need, no problem here. And Abraham says, I will take nothing except what the young men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me.

I'll bring my guys back. And what he says before there, I would not take a thread or a sandal thong or anything that is yours for fear. You would say, I have made Adam Rich. Or I'm sorry, Abraham Rich. So it appears, as this is on my reading, you guys can look at this, but it doesn't even seem like he had this income, as it were, from the battle, and he divided up 10% and he paid the church at the time, which was Melchizedek. He was the priest. He gave him 10%. It looks like he gave him everything because he did not want anyone to say Gentiles made me rich.

Okay, he gave it all the way. The others got their portion. The other Gentile combatants got their portion. portion, but not his guys. They just got what they ate, and then he moved on. So it doesn't even seem like the 10th thing that's going on there is the kind of tithing that people have in mind when they refer to the passage. And also, this is descriptive.

It's not prescriptive. It's not saying this is what we all have to do. It's just what he did. And when we get to the law, we do see this principle. employed, but it's for a specific purpose. It's for the welfare, in part, for the welfare of the nation of Israel, the Commonwealth to be able to function. It's like a tax, as John McArthur has pointed out. And in the New Testament, we see nothing like that. We're done. The only time we see a reference to tithing in the New Testament is in Matthew, what, 23, where Jesus is abrading

the Jews for tithing mint, dill, and cumin. You're given a tenth of your spices. You're really being particular about that, but you ignore the weightier provisions of the law, justice and mercy and kindness, et cetera. And then he adds this, which is where folks promoting New Testament tithing land, you should have done these tithed your mint, dill, and cumin, and not neglected the others. Oh, there you go. Jesus is commending tithing right there. Okay, we never read a Bible verse. So let's go broader to the entire piece, this discourse that Jesus is offering as a criticism of the Jewish leaders. And the way he starts that is really important. And this is what a lot of people don't understand. there is a restraint or restriction on this directive. All right, I'm going to turn to it so I get Matthew Mark. Matthew, so I get it exactly right here.

I kind of remember it, but I want to get it just so. Because the question is, what is the context in which, the legal context in which Jesus is making this command to the Jews to tithe? Matthew 20, what did I say? 23 or is it maybe it's 25 uh nope woe to you that's the woes are in matthew beginning of matthew 23 23 okay yeah Matthew 23 because what I just cited uh these things you should have done without neglecting the others um do you have it ever am you're 23 verse 23 yeah so 23 23 makes his reference to tithing. This was what you should have done. But go to the beginning of the discourse, 23-1. Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying the scribes and the

Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses. Therefore, all that they tell you do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds, for they say things and do not do them. And then he goes into these woes. Whoa, wait, wait a minute. Jesus is telling all those people to obey the full law of Moses. Well, that in this economy, that was appropriate. They were still part of the Mosaic Covenant at that time. And therefore, they should be doing the tithing as he talks about in verse 23. But he qualifies the entire presentation by saying, this is what happens, ought to be happening under this economy. Now, if we're going to seize on verse 23 and say, we should be tithing, mint dill in coming, et cetera, or whatever, or a financial equivalent to that,

then we also ought to be keeping the entire law of Moses, because that is what Jesus says at the outset of this discourse. We have to consider the context in which he's making this statement. And by the way, that's the only reference that I know of that looks like a command to tithe. Now, this is all kind of, in a certain sense, unnecessary conversation because there is no question about whether we ought to be generous in our giving that we ought to be. But this is what we should be teaching our people in church in a New Testament context. You give generously with cheerfulness as the Lord has prospered you to those who have fed you. That's the New Testament concept. And that's going to certainly include your local church as probably first order because they're the ones who are feeding you most.

But other what are often called paratrochurch organizations, which are just extensions of the church, they may be feeding. you too, and therefore it's appropriate for you to respond with kindness and giving. This is what we do, it's standard reason. Towards the end of the year, usually you bring it up and say, if we've been helping you all year long, okay, it's appropriate for you to respond. Wow, you're right. I didn't even do this on purpose for that. I know, I know.

People are thinking that. Chances are. This is going to be after the first year anyway with this. No, no. This is the end of the year. Okay. So if you have any questions about how the law, how we relate to. the Mosaic law as Christians. We have several articles on our website. If you just look up Old Testament law or Mosaic Covenant, Mosaic Law, Torah, any of those things, then you will find those articles on there where we explain more about this because maybe this sounds confusing the first time you hear it. So make sure you check those articles out. And if you have a question, send those to us on X with the hashtag STR Ask. Or you can always go to our website at STR.org. All you have to do is look for our

hashtag STR Ask Podcast page, and there's a link there. You can send us your question. We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you so much for listening. This is Amy Hall and Greg Kokel for Stand to Reason.