{"id":12130,"date":"2024-11-22T09:46:34","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T14:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=12130"},"modified":"2024-11-22T13:59:41","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T18:59:41","slug":"should-churches-require-members-to-tithe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/11\/should-churches-require-members-to-tithe.html","title":{"rendered":"Should Churches Require Members to Tithe?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Adobe Stock | Inset: @johnpiper \/ X<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As churches continue to struggle with financial fallout from the 2020 pandemic, a debate has cropped up on whether a church should require tithing. The concept of tithing, paying 10% of one\u2019s income to a church, comes from the Bible, with Abraham giving a tenth to the mysterious priest, Melchizedek and later in Genesis 28, when Abraham\u2019s grandson, Jacob, vows to give a tenth to the Lord. Chapter 3 in the book of Malachi also discusses the importance of tithing and accuses God\u2019s people of \u201crobbing\u201d God by withholding tithe. Jesus also appears to support tithing in Matthew 23:23. Many churches rely on tithes from their congregation in order to afford building and maintenance expenses, minister salaries, and other everyday expenses.<\/p>\n

Pastor John Piper addressed the issue of churches enforcing tithing in a recent \u201cAsk Pastor John<\/a>\u201d episode. The question was brought up by an anonymous follower who stated his church was requiring ministry leaders to tithe as a condition of their employment. The questioner stated feeling \u201cconflicted\u201d about the policy. \u201cWhile I understand the importance of supporting the church financially, I\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piper\u2019s response stated that while he believed tithing to be a system established in the Old Testament, he did not believe it to be established under the new covenant of the New Testament. \u201cI think tithing was an integral part of the Old Testament sacrificial priestly system, which God designed for the support of the priesthood \u2014 a system that no longer exists in the Christian church. That\u2019s the short answer,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

Piper went on to outline what Old Testament commandments remain binding to Christians. \u201cNow, 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\u2019s 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,\u201d he wrote. He continued to state that he believed tithing did not fall under moral law because it was originally established to support the Levitical priesthood, which is no longer necessary with Christ serving as the priest and mediators for all believers. Eventually, he concluded that, \u201cit\u2019s a mistake for the leaders of a church to make tithing a requirement for church leadership.\u201d He stated he would rather followers of Christ focus on \u201cChristian freedom in the light of the lavish generosity of God toward us in Christ\u201d and quoted the Bible, stating, \u201cGod loves a cheerful giver.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As churches continue to struggle with financial fallout from the 2020 pandemic, a debate has cropped up on whether a church should require tithing. The concept of tithing, paying 10% of one\u2019s income to a church, comes from the Bible, with Abraham giving a tenth to the mysterious priest, Melchizedek and later in Genesis 28,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":12142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church"],"yoast_head":"\nShould Churches Require Members to Tithe?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/11\/should-churches-require-members-to-tithe.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should Churches Require Members to Tithe?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As churches continue to struggle with financial fallout from the 2020 pandemic, a debate has cropped up on whether a church should require tithing. The concept of tithing, paying 10% of one\u2019s income to a church, comes from the Bible, with Abraham giving a tenth to the mysterious priest, Melchizedek and later in Genesis 28,…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/11\/should-churches-require-members-to-tithe.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-22T14:46:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-22T18:59:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2024\/11\/tithe-john-piper_credit-Adobe-Stock_Inset-@johnpiper-X.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Should Churches Require Members to Tithe?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/11\/should-churches-require-members-to-tithe.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Should Churches Require Members to Tithe?","og_description":"As churches continue to struggle with financial fallout from the 2020 pandemic, a debate has cropped up on whether a church should require tithing. 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