Should Christians tithe 10% of their income — or did the church turn an Old Testament agricultural tax into a guilt-loaded fundraising machine?

• Y

  Yuki1w ago

  My church straight up told us that if we weren't tithing we were 'robbing God.' I was a single mom working two jobs and I would write that check and then pray there was enough for groceries. Looking back I am genuinely angry. That is spiritual manipulation dressed up as obedience.

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  Reese 215d ago

  The comparison to prayer is wild. Nobody's wallet was emptied by prayer abuse.

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  Jordan4d ago

  I've been in church leadership for 22 years and I'll be honest: the way tithing gets taught in most American evangelical churches is shaped more by institutional survival instinct than by careful biblical theology. I still believe in generous giving. But if you disagree with the mandatory 10% framing, you're not robbing God. You might be reading your Bible more carefully than some of us taught you to.

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  Drew5d ago

  This whole thread is exactly why I left the evangelical world. Fifteen years of tithe pressure, guilt, and watching my church leadership live well while quietly telling struggling families that their financial hardship was a faith problem. I still believe in Jesus. I no longer believe in the fundraising apparatus around him.

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• OB

  Omar B.5d ago

  I mean... the storehouse in Malachi literally existed so the Levites and the poor and the foreigners COULD be fed from it. The whole point was redistribution. Pastors who say 'give to us, not to the poor directly' have inverted the entire purpose of the original institution they're quoting.

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• JK

  Jordan K.4d ago

  I was told as a young believer that tithing was 'the entry level of obedience.' That framing haunted me. Every financial setback felt like divine punishment for not giving enough. Every blessing felt borrowed and conditional. It took me a decade to untangle a healthy theology of money from that. If you disagree with the mandatory tithe, explain to me how telling a 22-year-old in debt that God's blessing is tied to their check is not spiritual harm.

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• YS

  Yuki S.5d ago

  YES. I asked my pastor once if supporting my neighbor through a medical crisis counted toward my tithe and he basically said no, the tithe is for the storehouse. So according to him, buying medicine for my dying neighbor is less spiritually valid than paying for the church's parking lot expansion. I never looked at that man the same way.

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• C

  Casey1w ago

  The tithe was grain and cattle paid to Levites who had no land inheritance and served full time. There are no Levites. There is no theocratic Israel. The New Testament never — not once — specifies a percentage. We are under grace and 2 Corinthians 9:7 says to give what you've decided in your heart, not under compulsion. The 10% rule is theological cosplay.

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• Z

  Zara5d ago

  My issue isn't tithing itself — it's that churches almost never talk about giving to the poor, to neighbors, to community organizations as counting. It's always 'give to THIS church.' Somehow God only receives money through one specific institution's bank account. That's not stewardship, that's a subscription service.

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• L

  Leo1w ago

  The 'robbing God' verse is specifically addressed to priests who were withholding tithes the people had already given. Read the context. Malachi 3 is not a fundraising pitch to lay people. But prosperity preachers have been plucking it out of context for decades because it works.

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• M

  Marco6d ago

  The early church in Acts 2 sold possessions and gave to ANYONE who had need. That's not a tithe. That's communal redistribution. If we're serious about following the actual model the apostles practiced, the prosperity-adjacent tithe doctrine is the farthest thing from it.

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• T

  Taylor1w ago

  The historical problem nobody wants to touch is that there were actually THREE tithes in the Old Testament — the Levitical tithe, the festival tithe, and the poor tithe every third year. Add them up and faithful Israelites were giving closer to 23% annually. So if you want to go full 'the OT tithe applies today' energy, buckle up. You don't get to cherry-pick just the one that's already the highest number most people will accept.

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• Z

  Zara6d ago

  Ananias and Sapphira died for LYING, not for keeping some of their money. Peter explicitly says the land was theirs to keep. Read Acts 5:4. Giving was voluntary. They were judged for deception and hypocrisy. Stop misusing that story to justify compulsory giving structures.

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• O

  Omar4d ago

  Here's what nobody wants to say: middle class American Christians give around 2-3% on average. The tithe guilt doesn't even work. All the sermons, all the Malachi quotes, all the 'test me in this' challenges — and the average giving rate is embarrassing. Maybe the guilt-based model deserves to die and we try something else.

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• L9

  Liam 926d ago

  Theologically I lean toward tithe being fulfilled, not abolished, in Christ — meaning we're called to something HARDER than 10%, which is total stewardship and generosity with everything we own. The problem is the church usually uses that framing to ask for 10% PLUS special offerings PLUS building campaigns. So the new covenant somehow always ends up costing more.

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• PS

  Priya S.4d ago

  Maybe the answer is that Christians should actually know their neighbors who are struggling, their missionaries, the organizations doing real work — and give to those because they KNOW the need, not because a pastor told them to hit a number. Relationship-driven generosity. Not percentage-driven compliance.

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• T

  Theo1w ago

  okay can we just acknowledge that churches that preach mandatory tithing ALSO tend to be the ones with the biggest pastor salaries, the nicest campus, the jumbotrons and the fog machines and the coffee shop in the lobby. correlation isn't always causation but... come on.

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• Z

  Zara4d ago

  if your faith in God depends on a percentage you calculated off your gross income then idk man. Jesus said follow me and sell everything. he didn't say follow me and calculate 10% of your W-2. we have made Christianity very very tidy.

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• N_

  Nina _x5d ago

  Here's what I actually think: the tithe is a useful default rule for people who have no idea how to structure generosity in their lives. Is it the New Testament command? No. Is it better than nothing? Dramatically yes. Churches should be honest about that framing instead of pretending Malachi is a direct deposit instruction.

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• T

  Taylor6d ago

  The person who said 'most people who give from the heart give almost nothing' just admitted they don't actually trust the Holy Spirit to move people. That's the real confession buried in the pro-tithe argument. You don't trust God's people unless there's a rule.

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• O

  Omar4d ago

  Bottom line for me: give generously, give regularly, give sacrificially, give cheerfully. If 10% helps you do that, great. If it becomes a ceiling or a guilt mechanism or a way to grade your spiritual standing, throw the number out. God cares about the posture, not the percentage. That's not a cop-out. That's actually harder to live.

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• A_

  Avery _x4d ago

  The 'you're just looking for an excuse to give nothing' accusation is a classic silencing move. I can believe the 10% rule is theologically unwarranted AND still give generously. These aren't mutually exclusive. Get out of my wallet.

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• D

  Diego6d ago

  Malachi 3:10 says test me in this. So I did. I tithed for a year when I genuinely could not afford to. And I'm not going to sit here and tell you God dropped money from the sky. What happened was my anxiety about money actually decreased and my relationship with money fundamentally changed. That's real. I can't explain it theologically but I lived it.

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  Noah1w ago

  I tithe because I want to, not because I have to, and the distinction matters to me spiritually. It's a practice of trust. I genuinely believe God has been faithful and money is the one area where my faith becomes concrete and testable. Judge me if you want.

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• TT

  Taylor T.6d ago

  Prosperity gospel people LOVE that testimony. 'I gave and my anxiety decreased' is the soft-sell entry point to 'give and God will make you rich.' Be careful with that narrative. God is not a vending machine and packaging your personal peace as a universal promise is how the shakedown starts.

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  Hana4d ago

  Hebrews 7 uses the Melchizedek tithe to establish CHRIST's superiority over the Levitical priesthood, not to mandate a giving percentage. The argument is about who receives honor, not about what percentage Christians should send to their church's Venmo. Strong exegetical reach, though. A for effort.

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• ZT

  Zara T.5d ago

  I'm not a Christian but I find this fascinating. From the outside, the tithe looks like a membership fee that gets spiritualized. Every institution needs funding. Just say that. The theological dressing seems to make it worse, not better, because it turns a practical question into a test of your soul.

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• Z

  Zara6d ago

  I grew up in a tradition where tithing was treated as the absolute floor of Christian giving, and honestly it produced some of the most generous people I've ever known. The principle — giving a meaningful percentage — creates a discipline that 'give what you feel' never will. Most people who 'give from the heart' give almost nothing.

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• A

  Alex4d ago

  A church leader admitting this publicly. I didn't expect that today. Respect.

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• EM

  Elena M.1w ago

  Okay but if everybody in your church decided 'in their heart' to give 2%, your pastor's family starves and the building gets foreclosed. At some point someone has to keep the institution funded. I'd rather have a clear expectation than a congregation of freeloaders who show up every Sunday and give nothing.

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• N

  Nina6d ago

  Look I pastor a small church. 80 families. If everyone stopped tithing tomorrow we would close in 60 days. I pay my staff fairly. We run a food pantry. We fund two missionaries. None of that happens without regular giving. I don't preach guilt but I do preach that the local church requires real financial commitment. Is that manipulation? I don't think so.

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  Theo4d ago

  Genuine question for the people saying tithing is an Old Testament agricultural tax and therefore abolished: where do you land on Hebrews 7 and the tithe of Abraham to Melchizedek? That predates the Mosaic law entirely. If Paul's using it to argue for the priesthood of Christ, does that give the tithe principle more staying power than you're granting?

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  Theo5d ago

  This is the most sensible thing in this thread and it'll get ignored because it doesn't have enough outrage attached to it.

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• MB

  Morgan B.6d ago

  Respect to that pastor being transparent. But notice even he's framing it around what the INSTITUTION needs, not what the BIBLE commands. Those are different conversations.

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• E9

  Elena 921w ago

  My grandfather tithed through the Great Depression. He always said God provided and he never went without. I have seen that faithfulness in my own family for four generations. Call it manipulation if you want. I call it covenant.

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• F9

  Feli 925d ago

  I tithe 10% to my local church and I give above that to other causes. It's not that complicated. You make a decision, you stick to it, you don't spend your life agonizing over the theology. Some of y'all are using this debate as cover for giving nothing and feeling justified about it.

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• I

  Iris5d ago

  That's fair. But can we separate 'churches have abused this' from 'the principle of regular sacrificial giving is unbiblical'? Because abuse of a principle doesn't negate the principle. People have abused prayer too. We didn't throw out prayer.

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  Feli1w ago

  nope. hard disagree with the whole framing. jesus said give EVERYTHING if needed. rich young ruler. so fighting over whether it's 10 or 0 is kind of missing the bigger ask.

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• Z

  Zara6d ago

  acts 2 was also a specific moment in a specific community facing specific pressures. we dont build entire church polity out of one transitional period in acts. the church figured that out pretty quick when ananias and sapphira showed us how bad forced communal economics can go.

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• L

  Leo5d ago

  Interesting outside perspective but I'd push back a little — the theology of giving being connected to the posture of your heart isn't just fundraising cover. Jesus talked about money more than almost anything else. The way you hold your resources really is a spiritual issue. It's not ONLY about keeping the institution running.

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• N

  Nina1w ago

  If you're not giving at least 10% and you call yourself a committed believer, what are you actually committed to? Your comfort? Your savings account? I'm not saying it has to be called a tithe but the stinginess of the average American Christian is genuinely embarrassing compared to any serious reading of Scripture.

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• M

  Marco4d ago

  What would 'something else' look like though? Asking sincerely. Because pure 'give as you feel led' produced the 2-3% average you're referencing. I don't love using law as a motivator for gospel living but the results of pure grace-based giving are also... not great.

  44Reply

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