Most people believe that Jesus taught about tithing and that Christians should give 10% of their income to the church.
But get ready because what Jesus actually said about money completely contradicts what you've been taught for years from the pulpit. Because in all four complete gospels, Jesus mentions tithing exactly three times. And in none of those occasions did he ask his followers to give it.
In this study, you're going to discover why Jesus never established the 10% as a rule for his disciples, what financial system he implemented instead that modern churches completely ignore, and the hidden secret in the scriptures that reveals how the first Christians actually handled money.
There's a passage in the gospel that most preachers quote to justify modern tithing. Matthew records Jesus speaking with the Pharisees about their religious hypocrisy in the temple of Jerusalem.
The religious leaders were meticulously giving 10% of their most insignificant aromatic herbs. They counted every leaf of mint, anis, and cumin to make sure they gave exactly the 10th part to the temple. Jesus tells them that this they should have done without leaving undone the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith.
Many pastors stop exactly there and shout from the pulpit with their Bibles held high, "See, Jesus completely approved tithing."
But here's the devastating problem that everyone ignores. Jesus was speaking with Jewish Pharisees who lived under the law of Moses. He wasn't speaking with Christians who would live under the new covenant that he would establish with his blood.
It was like a modern rabbi telling another Orthodox rabbi to follow kosher laws to the letter.
He's not establishing universal rules for Catholics, Protestants, or evangelicals living 2,000 years later.
He's reminding a religious Jew of his specific obligation under his own Old Testament legal system. The Pharisees had absolutely no choice in the matter of mandatory tithing. The Mosaic law established 1,400 years earlier in the burning desert of Sinai specifically commanded them to tithe.
But here's the technical detail that completely changes the entire argument.
The Old Testament tithing system looked nothing like what churches practice today.
First, the Old Testament tithe was never cash money, silver coins, or gold bars. It was exclusively agricultural products, grains of wheat and barley, fresh fruits, pressed olive oil, fermented wine, and live livestock.
A carpenter like Joseph, Jesus's earthly father, didn't tithe his income from making tables and chairs.
A fisherman like Peter, didn't calculate 10% of the market value of his daily catch.
A tent maker like Paul didn't set aside coins from each fabric sale he made.
Second, the Old Testament tithe didn't go to a religious building with a mortgage to pay monthly rent and preachers salaries.
It went specifically to three vulnerable groups in Israelite society.
The Levites who had no land inheritance, orphans without parents, widows without husbands, and poor foreigners.
Third, 3:26 and this completely destroys the modern 10% argument, there were three different types of tithes that Israelites had to
3:34 give. The Levitical tithe that was annual and sustained the landlesS priestly tribe, the festival tithe that
3:42 was given each year for community celebrations in Jerusalem during religious festivals, and the poor tithe that was delivered every 3 years
3:51 specifically to feed those in need. If you add up these three types of mandatory tithes under Mosaic law, an
3:58 obedient Israelite wasn't giving only 10%. He was giving approximately 23.3%
4:05 of his total agricultural production each calendar year. No modern evangelical church honestly teaches this
4:14 complete system from the pulpit on Sunday mornings. Because if they revealed the real and complete Old Testament system with all its
4:22 complexities, the congregation would instantly realize something devastating.
4:28 The simplified modern 10% tithe is a theological invention that literally doesn't exist anywhere in the biblical 4:36 scriptures. But solving the historical problem of what exactly the original tithe was doesn't answer the most
4:44 important and disturbing theological question. Why did Jesus during three complete years of intense public
4:51 ministry never specifically ask his disciples to tithe 10%. 4:57 During 1,095 consecutive days of teaching, Jesus had infinite perfect opportunities to establish tithing as a
5:06 mandatory requirement. When the rich young man came running and knelt, asking what he should do to inherit eternal life, Jesus could have simply responded,
5:16 "Make sure to give your 10% faithfully each month." Instead, he told him something radically different and much more costly.Sell everything you have,
5:26 distribute the money among the poor, and follow me. When he taught the hungry crowds on the mount during hours under
5:34 the scorching sun, he could have dedicated entire paragraphs to the topic of tithing. Instead, he spoke extensively about not storing up
5:42 corruptible treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy. He spoke about the impossibility of simultaneously 5:49 serving God and money as two opposing masters. He spoke about giving arms in secret without blowing trumpets to receive public recognition from men.
6:00 When he sent the 12 original apostles on their first evangelistic mission through the villages of Galilee, he could have clearly instructed them, "Collect 10%
6:10 from each city you visit to sustain the ministry. Instead, he ordered them something completely opposite. Freely
6:18 you have received, freely give without charging. Don't take gold, silver, or copper in your belts for the journey. Do
6:26 you catch the devastating pattern that emerges from the gospels? Jesus spoke constantly, repeatedly, obsessively about money, about radical generosity,
6:37 about the financial priorities of the kingdom. But never, not once, recorded in four complete gospels, did he
6:45 establish 10% as a universal standard for his followers. Here's the theological secret that no preacher
6:52 tells you from the pulpit. Jesus couldn't establish the Old Testament tithe for Christians of the New Covenant. Why? Because the complete 7:00 tithing system totally depended on a religious structure that was about to be completely destroyed.
7:09 The Old Testament tithe functioned exclusively within a very specific theocratic architecture centered on the
7:16 temple of Jerusalem. The Israelites brought their agricultural products and live livestock to the Levites because
7:23 the tribe of Levi had not received land inheritance. When the 12 tribes conquered Canaan under Joshua's military
7:31 leadership, 11 tribes received specific territories to cultivate and prosper.
7:36 But the Levites were set apart exclusively for religious service without land of their own for agriculture. The Levites in turn served
7:46 full-time in the massive temple of Jerusalem that Herod had embellished with gold. They performed daily animal sacrifices on the smoking bronze altar.
7:56 They maintained the holy of holies where only the high priest entered once a year.
8:02 They meticulously taught the law of Moses to the illiterate people in the synagogues. It was a closed, perfect, 8:10 and self- sustaining system for its specific purpose under the old Mosaic covenant. But Jesus knew something
8:18 prophetic that his disciples were barely beginning to understand with difficulty.
8:24 In the year 70 AD, exactly 40 years after his bloody crucifixion at Golgather, something catastrophic would
8:32 happen. The relentless Roman army of General Titus would completely surround the walled city of Jerusalem for months.
8:40 The soldiers would destroy the glorious temple to its massive stone foundations,
8:45 leaving no stone upon stone as Jesus prophesied.
8:50 More than 1,100,000 Jews would die in the most brutal siege in ancient history.
8:58 Nota single Levite would remain alive actively serving in the destroyed temple. There would be no physical altar
9:05 to continue the animal sacrifices prescribed by Moses. The complete system that theologically justified and
9:12 financially sustained the Old Testament tithe would not exist. Jesus knew this with absolute prophetic certainty. He 9:21 himself explicitly prophesied the total destruction of the temple, telling his astonished disciples that no stone would
9:28 be left upon stone. So how could he logically establish a permanent financial system based on a religious
9:36 institution that would cease to exist in less than a generation?
9:40 It was exactly like designing a complete retirement plan based on a national currency that you know with certainty will be eliminated next year.
9:50 It made absolutely no theological,
9:53 practical, or prophetic sense. But recognizing this creates an even deeper and more disturbing doctrinal problem
10:01 that most sincere Christians never seriously consider. If tithing was unequivocally an integral part of the
10:08 Old Testament Mosaic law and Jesus came specifically to fulfill that complete law and to inaugurate a superior new covenant sealed with his own shed blood,
10:19 what happens theologically to all the other 613 laws of the Old Testament?
10:25 Paul explains it with devastating logical clarity in his passionate letter to the Gentile believers of Galatia. He
10:32 emphatically tells them that if they're going to insist on keepinga specific part of Mosaic law, they're obligated to
10:39keep it all completely. You can't theologically choose to conveniently keep the 10% tithe, but ignore the other 612 remaining laws.
10:50 Either you're living completely under Mosaic law with all its impossible demands, or you're living completely
10:56 under the grace of Christ. There is no coherent theological middle ground between these two mutually exclusive
11:04 covenants. If you dogmatically insist that modern Christians must tithe because it's written in the Old
11:11 Testament, then logically they must also rigorously keep the Sabbath of the seventh day. They can't eat pork,
11:18 shrimp, lobster, or any seafood considered unclean by Leviticus. They must make literal animal sacrifices on an altar for their moral sins.
11:29 Men must wear fringes on the corners of their garments as a visual reminder of the commandments. But no modern evangelical Pentecostal, Baptist, or 11:38 Methodist church honestly teaches all these things from the pulpit.
11:43 They've carefully and conveniently selected only the Old Testament tithe to preserve it while strategically
11:51 discarding everything else as fulfilled in Christ and no longer applicable to believers of the new covenant. It's a massive, obvious, and flagrant
11:59 theological inconsistency that very few preachers are genuinely willing to honestly address. Because openly
12:07 acknowledging this fundamental contradiction means questioning the main source of predictable income for countless multi-million dollar religious organizations.
12:17 So if Jesus definitely didn't establish the 10% tithe, what alternative financial system did he implement for
12:24 his followers? The answer is hidden in plain sight in the first chapters of the book of Acts. And it's something much
12:31 more radical, costly, and transformative than anything modern institutional churches dare to practice. When the Holy
12:40 Spirit dramatically descended at Pentecost with tongues of fire upon 120 gathered disciples, 3,000 new Christians were spiritually born in a single day.
12:52 These first believers didn't immediately establish an organized system of 10% tithing with accountants and receipts.
12:59 They established something completely different, radically generous, and socially revolutionary for the Roman Empire. Luke records with amazement that
13:09 all the believers voluntarily sold their real estate properties and valuable possessions. They shared all the money
13:16 obtained with all members of the community according to each person's specific need.
13:22 No believer selfishly said that something they possessed was exclusively and privately theirs to hoard. It wasn't
13:30 the carefully calculated 10%. It wasn't the 23.3%
13:36 of the complete Old Testament system. It was literally 100% total financial availability for the community of faith
13:44 that shared everything. Can you even imagine amodern prosperous preacher confidently stepping up to the pulpit of his aironditioned megachurch and calmly telling the comfortable middleclass congregation, "The 10% tithe is not enough to be a disciple of Jesus. Sell your suburban homes with yards, your imported cars of the year, your retirement savings, and put absolutely everything at the disposal of the church to redistribute."
The reaction would be instant social chaos.
Families would flee indignantly from the building, threatening lawsuits. The elders would convene an emergency meeting to fire the pastor for insanity.
But that's exactly literally precisely what the first followers of Jesus in Jerusalem did. Not because Jesus established a specific mandatory 100%, percentage, but because they understood a much deeper spiritual principle about stewardship, grace, and community than the legalism of 10%.
This transformative principle is at the beating heart of what Jesus really taught about money, wealth, and material possessions.
And it completely destroys the modern concept of tithing as a cold calculated 15:04 religious transaction. Jesus never spoke about giving a specific mathematical percentage because the numerical
15:11 percentage simply wasn't the central point.
15:15 The point was the condition of the human heart and total voluntary surrender to God as Lord of absolutely everything.
15:23 When Jesus sat quietly observing rich people throwing their generous offerings into the bronze treasury of the temple
15:30 of Jerusalem, he didn't publicly praise the wealthy Pharisees who gave large amounts that sounded impressively when
15:37 they fell. Instead, he specifically praised the poor anonymous widow who humbly deposited two small copper coins
15:45 worth less than a penny. The rich were objectively giving more than the required 10% in absolute monetary terms.
15:53 But Jesus declared that the poor widow gave proportionally more than all of them combined. Why? Because she gave everything she had to live on that day, totally trusting that God would provide.
It wasn't about the calculated mathematical percentage. It was about costly personal sacrifice. It was about blind trust in divine providence. It was about where her heart and security were truly deposited.
When Jesus directly confronted the rich young man who ran and knelt asking about eternal life, he specifically told him, "Sell everything and give it to the poor."
He wasn't establishing a universal doctrinal rule that literally all Christians must sell absolutely everything they own. He was surgically exposing that particular man's specific and personal idol at that moment.
The penetrating point was what has control over your heart?
What possession prevents you from following me completely?
For that specific man, it was his great accumulated wealth that defined him socially.
Jesus asked for total surrender of his idol, not a comfortable percentage that would allow him to retain control and continue feeling secure.
This is the uncomfortable secret that modern institutional churches definitely don't want you to discover.
The fixed 10% tithe is infinitely more comfortable than total surrender.
Giving exactly 10% 17:25 allows you to calculate, budget, control, and retain the remaining 90% without question. It's predictable,
17:34 manageable, quantifiable, and doesn't dramatically interfere with your consumerist lifestyle. But the total
17:41 surrender that Jesus asked for is terrifying, unpredictable, costly, and potentially changes absolutely
17:49 everything. While the first Christians practiced this radical and scandalous generosity that amazed the Roman Empire,
17:57 a massive social problem arose. In the Greek church of Corinth, the community offering had become a chaotic disaster
18:06 that divided rich and poor. The wealthy believers brought abundance of expensive food to weekly meetings and ate until
18:14 they were selfishly stuffed. While poor brothers who worked as slaves arrived late and went hungry watching others
18:21 feast, Paul had to write them a furious and direct letter, telling them that their selfish conduct did more spiritual
18:29 harm than good. They were taking the Lord's supper in an unworthy and profane manner, dividing the body of Christ along economic and social lines. So, 18:39 what specifically did Paul teach them about the 10% tithe to correct this devastating financial and social problem? Absolutely nothing about
18:48 percentages. In the 13 extensive letters that Paul wrote to various gentile churches, which form the majority of the
18:56 Christian New Testament, he never mentions tithing even once, not even a passing or indirect reference to the concept of mandatory 10%.
19:07 If the 10% tithe were truly an essential and non-negotiable Christian commandment established by Jesus, Paul had literally
19:15 dozens of perfect opportunities to teach it explicitly. But instead, he consistently taught something radically
19:22 different based on grace, not on law. He told the Corinthians that each believer should set aside something every first
19:30 day of the week according to how they had prospered. He didn't specify a fixed percentage of 10, 20, or 30%. He simply
19:39 said according to how they had prospered each individually. To the Christians in Rome, Paul wrote that whoever gives
19:47 should give with sincere liberality without expecting anything in return. To the believers in Philippi, he thanked 19:55 them deeply for their sacrificial generosity, but reminded them that God will supply all their needs. To Timothy,
20:03 his spiritual son in the faith, Paul instructed him to command the rich of this world not to be arrogant, not to
20:10 put their hope in uncertain riches that can be lost, but in God who richly gives us all things, that they be generous and
20:18 willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the future. Do you catch the consistent pattern in all the apostolic letters?
20:28 liberality without limits, cheerful generosity, sharing according to individual prosperity, giving with joy
20:35 from the heart, but never, absolutely never in any letter, a fixed mathematical percentage of 10%. Paul
20:44 deeply understood what countless modern institutional religious leaders conveniently reject. Establishing a
20:51 mandatory fixed percentage transforms cheerful generosity into cold legalism.
20:57 The 10% tithe psychologically becomes a minimum flaw that people reach to feel spiritually correct and approved. I 21:05 already faithfully gave my 10% this month. I fulfilled my duty to God. The rest is exclusively mine to do
21:13 absolutely whatever I want without question. It's a transactional mentality that turns the relationship with God
21:20 into a cold business contract. But Jesus and the apostles consistently taught that everything you possess belongs to
21:28 God as creator and owner. There's no sacred and separate 10% for God and a secular 90% for you. Every financial
21:37 decision you make, every purchase you make, every investment you make is an act of worship or idolatry. When you
21:45 reduce complete Christian stewardship to a calculated percentage, you lose the complete transformative essence of what
21:52 it means to live as a radical follower of Jesus. Now, someone could legitimately object. But Paul clearly
22:01 told the Corinthians that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.
Doesn't that justify the tithing system to economically sustain full-time pastors?
It's an absolutely legitimate and fair question and the biblical answer reveals another layer of how the modern system distorts the scriptures.
22:21 Yes, Paul clearly established that those who dedicate their full time to gospel ministry deserve to be financially sustained by the community.
22:31 But observe carefully how he theologically grounds this principle. He doesn't cite the specific tithing laws of the Old Testament as his basis.
22:41 Instead, he uses practical analogies of universal common sense. The soldier doesn't go to war paying for his own
22:48 weapons and food. He who plants a vineyard has the right to eat of its fruit when it matures. He who shepherds
22:55 a flock of sheep has the right to drink the milk they produce. Then he cites an ethical principle from Mosaic law. You
23:04 shall not muzzle the ox that treads the grain in the field. But he immediately clarifies that he's not literally
23:11 talking about oxen and agriculture. He's talking about the universal principle that the worker justly deserves his
23:18 sustenance for his labor. Here's the devastating detail that no prosperous preacher tells you from the carpeted 23:25 pulpit. Paul himself repeatedly rejected this legitimate right. He emphatically reminded the Corinthians that he worked
23:34 with his own hands, making tents so as not to be an absolute financial burden to them. He told the Thessalonians that
23:41 he worked day and night with his hands to support himself while preaching the gospel to them freely precisely to give
23:48 them a personal example so that false teachers wouldn't come to take economic advantage of them. If Paul genuinely
23:56 believed that the 10% tithe was a mandatory commandment for Christians established by Jesus, why did he work
24:04 manually with his hands? Why didn't he simply collect tithes as an apostolic right? His personal conduct completely
24:12 contradicts the modern institutional system of mandatory tithing. After 21 centuries of complicated institutional
24:21 church history, countless ecumenical councils, theological creeds, and denominational confessions, a
24:28 devastating question remains without a convincing answer. If Jesus never explicitly asked for the 10% tithe, if
24:37 the original apostles never systematically taught about tithing in their letters, if the complete Old Testament system that theologically
24:45 sustained tithing was literally and physically destroyed with the temple in the year 70. When exactly and hoW
24:53 specifically did the 10% tithe become fundamental and non-negotiable Christian doctrine? The historical answer is in
25:01 the year 311 AD when the Roman Emperor Constantine dramatically converted to Christianity and declared it the
25:10 official tolerated and eventually preferred religion of the complete Roman Empire.
25:17 Suddenly, almost overnight, the church ceased to be a persecuted movement of radical believers meeting in houses and
25:26 became a powerful institution with massive buildings called basilas, paid professional clergy, and enormous
25:33 financial needs. The institutional church leaders urgently needed a stable,
25:39 predictable, and culturally acceptable financial system. They looked back to the Old Testament and strategically
25:47 adopted tithing, not because Jesus taught it or the apostles practiced it, but because it was convenient,
25:54 effective, and easy to explain. By the year 585,
26:01 the Council of Mon in France made tithing a legal canonical obligation for absolutely all Christians. Under serious
26:09 threat of official excommunication from the church and its salvific sacraments.Throughout the entire dark middle ages,
26:17 the institutional church had the political and legal power to Confiscate property from those who refused to tithe. Tithing became a forced religious
26:27 tax. backed by the sword of the state and fear of hell. This authoritarian system continued for more than a
26:34 thousand years until the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other reformers
26:43 bravely and dangerously questioned many practices of the Roman Catholic Church.
26:47 But curiously, most of them kept the tithing system almost intact. Why did they preserve this medieval tradition?
Because even reformed Protestant churches needed predictable money to operate their programs, it was
27:04 infinitely easier to maintain the existing and familiar tithing system than to return to the radical model of voluntary generosity of the New
27:12 Testament. Thus, we arrive at the modern present where millions of sincere and devout Christians faithfully give 10% of
27:21 their income. honestly believing it's a direct biblical commandment from Jesus without knowing the real history.
27:29 They're following a medieval tradition of institutional convenience, not an explicit teaching of Jesus or the
27:36 original apostles. Some modern pastors dogmatically teach that if you don't faithfully tithe, you're directly
27:43 robbing God. They quote out of context the prophet Malachi, "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me." But
27:51 Malachi was speaking specifically to corrupt Jewish priests under the old Mosaic covenant, not to Gentile Christians under the new covenant of
28:00 grace. Other preachers promise massive and miraculous financial blessings if you faithfully tithe every month without 28:07 fail. God will open the windows of heaven and pour out blessing until it overflows, they confidently declare from
28:14expensive pulpit. But Jesus never promised that giving money to the church would make you financially rich and
28:21 prosperous. In fact, he repeatedly warned that faithfully following him could cost you absolutely everything,
28:29 including your physical life. The uncomfortable and politically incorrect truth is this. The modern 10% tithe is
28:37 infinitely easier to sell than total surrender.
28:42 Telling someone, "Give exactly 10% and you're completely right with God," is more comfortable and acceptable than
28:49 honestly telling them, "Deny yourself daily. Take up your cross each day and follow me regardless of the total cost
28:57 of your life." But biblically recognizing that Jesus never asked for the 10% tithe doesn't mean you shouldn't
29:04 give generously and sacrificially. In fact, it means exactly the opposite of stinginess. The standard that Jesus
29:10 established was infinitely higher, more costly, more radical than the calculated 10%. It was complete surrender of 29:18 everything you are and possess. It was absolutely trusting in God for each daily need. It was using every resource
29:26 you possess to actively advance his kingdom of justice. Paul summarizes it perfectly in his second passionate
29:34 letter to the Corinthian believers. He reminds them that Jesus being infinitely rich in heavenly glory voluntarily
29:42 became poor for love of them so that through his voluntary poverty they could be spiritually enriched with eternal salvation.
29:50 Then he tells them the transformative principle. Each one should give as he has decided in his heart not with
29:58 sadness or by external obligation because God loves a cheerful giver. Not with calculated sadness, not by imposed
30:06 legal obligation, not because an intimidating preacher quoted Malachi and threatened you with financial curse if
30:13 you don't give exactly 10%. But with genuine joy from the heart because you deeply understand what Christ
30:21 sacrificially did for you and you want to use everything you have to bless others and extend the transformative gospel.
For some Christians, in some specific seasons of life, cheerful generosity might mean giving much more
30:37 than 10%. For others, in situations of extreme poverty or crushing debt, it might mean giving less numerically. But
30:46 still, with genuine sacrifice, like the widow of the two coins that Jesus praised. The central point was never the
30:54 mathematical percentage calculated in your bank account. The point was always the condition of your heart before God
31:02 who sees in secret. Do you genuinely trust in God as your sovereign provider?
31:08 Do you use your resources to actively love your neighbor in need? Do you generously sustain those who work
31:15 faithfully in gospel ministry? These are the penetrating questions you should regularly ask yourself in prayer. Not
31:23 did I correctly calculate my 10% to the last penny. Jesus never asked for the 10% tithe because that simply wasn't the
31:32 revolutionary standard he established for his radical followers. His standard was infinitely higher. Love the Lord
31:39 your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And love your 31:47 neighbor as yourself with concrete actions. In that transformative framework of love, every dollar you earn working, every financial decision you
31:56 make daily, every purchase you make is an opportunity to publicly demonstrate where your heart and trust really are.
32:04 It's not dead legalism of coldly calculated 10%.
32:08 It's glorious freedom in Christ to be radically generous in ways that transform lives and glorify God. So the
32:16 next time you hear a preacher dogmatically declare that you must tithe 10% because it's a direct biblical commandment, remember these facts. Jesus had three complete years to establish that 10% rule and consciously never did.
Paul wrote thousands of inspired words about Christian finances and generosity and never mentioned tithing even once.
The first Christians in Jerusalem practiced something much more radical, costly, and transformative than a fixed and comfortable percentage.
Now you have to make a personal decision.
¹ Will you follow a medieval tradition created by institutional convenience and financial control?
² Or will you follow Jesus's radical call to sacrificial generosity motivated exclusively by genuine love and transformative grace, not by law and obligation?
The honest answer to that question will reveal infinitely more about the true condition of your heart than any percentage you meticulously calculate in your bank account.
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