By far the most famous passage in the Gospels about tithing is the account of the widow’s mites.

The account is found in Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21:1-4. Jesus and His disciples are in the temple, observing people bring their tithes and offerings. They observed the rich giving large amounts of money, and then saw a poor widow giving two mites.

Mites were very small copper coins, which today, would be equivalent to a few pennies. She did not give much at all. And yet, Jesus says that she gave more than all the rich, for they gave out of their wealth, but out of her poverty, she gave her last few coins.

This is a popular passage in sermons and teachings on tithing, and is often taught with two main points. First, we are told that this passage teaches that Jesus is not so concerned with the amount a person gives, but with the percentage. It is likely that the rich people in the temple were tithing a full 10% of their income, and as a result, were giving huge sums of money to the temple. However, they still owned 90% of their wealth. The poor widow, on the other hand, though she only gave two mites, gave 100% of what she had, and left with nothing. So, we are told that the amount we give to God is not as important as the percentage.

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Matthew 22:21 is sometimes used to defend the practice of tithing. In response to a question about whether the Jews should pay taxes or not, Jesus says, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” It is sometimes taught that since in the first part of this verse Jesus affirms the responsibility to pay taxes to Caesar, the second part of the verse affirms the responsibility to pay “taxes” to God in the form of tithes.

This application, however, is not the best way of understanding what Jesus says.

Jesus is Faced with a Dilemma

The passage begins with the Pharisees wanting to tangle and entrap Jesus (Matt 22:15). So they send some of their disciples and some Herodians to ask Jesus a trick question (Matt 22:16).

These two groups represent two of the many factions within Israel at this time. The Pharisees were often sympathetic to the segment of Jewish people who wanted the Roman occupation of Israel to cease, and thought that no law should rule in Israel except God’s law as found in the Torah. The Herodians, however, were supporters of King Herod, who was a vassal king of the Roman Emperor. King Herod was placed into power by the Emperor, and was given numerous privileges in Israel as long as he upheld the peace and worked to maintain Roman governance over the region. As supporters of King Herod, the Herodians also received some of these privileges.

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Jesus didn’t talk a lot about tithing, and when He did, it was usually in a negative context.

For example, in Matthew 23:23 (and Luke 11:42), Jesus indicated that the Pharisees and religious leaders were overly concerned with giving an exact 10% of everything, even down to measuring 10% of the spices of mint, anise, and cumin. Jesus goes on to encourage the leaders to continue giving, but tells them to focus more of their devotion and energy to things that matter more, like justice, mercy, and faith.

The only other time that Jesus specifically mentioned tithing was when He contrasted a self-righteous and legalistic religious leader with a humble and repentant tax-collector (Luke 18:11-12).  It was the religious Pharisee who was concerned with giving the exact 10% of his income to God who was criticized by Jesus, while the repentant tax-collector received the praise of Jesus. It is unknown what actions this repentant tax-collector performed as a result of his repentance, but if he was anything like Zacchaeus, he may have given away 50% of his fortune to the poor, and returned 400% of any money he had taken from people through extortion (Luke 19:8). Notice that Zacchaeus doesn’t give the money to the temple, but to the people who needed it and to the people he had stolen from.

Jesus Isn’t Concerned about Tithing Ten Percent

From these passages, it appears that Jesus is not so concerned about people giving to the temple, or how much they give, but with the more important matters of justice for the oppressed, mercy to the repentant, and faith toward God in all things. When religious groups and leaders focus on making sure everybody tithes 10%, they are showing signs of legalism and self-righteousness, and are often guilty of things God really is concerned about, such as justice, mercy, love, and faith.
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Malachi 3 is a popular passage that pastors and churches use to defend the practice of the 10% tithe. But when we study the passage in context, a completely different picture emerges.

We looked yesterday at the historical context of Malachi 3, where we saw that the priest Eliashib was stealing the tithes from the temple storehouse. Let us now look at Malachi 3 in the context of the book itself.

The Audience of Malachi

When studying a book of the Bible, one of the primary things to look for is who the book is addressed to. That is, who is written to? Who is the audience? Who did the author have in mind when he wrote?

With Malachi, this question is easily answered, for Malachi refers to them directly several times. In several places, Malachi reveals that he is addressing the priests of Israel (1:6; 2:1), and the sons of Levi (3:3).

And what is it these priests are doing? They sneer at the commands of God, saying such things are “weariness” (1:13). They bring contemptible offerings to God, animals that are stolen, sick, and lame (1:13). They exploit wage earners, widows, and orphans (3:5). And they are robbing God of the tithes and offerings that belong to Him (3:8-10).

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Malachi 3:8-10 is by far the most preached-upon passage on tithing in the entire Bible. It is a popular passage because it seems to announce a curse upon those who fail to tithe the full amount to God. Using this passage, pastors and preachers tell people that if they want to be blessed financially, they must bring in the full tithe. If they fail in this, they are robbing God and will be cursed.

Malachi 3:8-10 says this

Will a man rob God?
Yet you have robbed me.
But you say,
“In what way have we robbed You?”
In tithes and offerings.

You are cursed with a curse,
For you have robbed Me,
Even the whole nation.

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house.
And try Me now in this,
Says the Lord of hosts,
If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it.

The text seems pretty clear. If we do not tithe the full amount we are supposed to, and bring it to God’s house, we are robbing God and will be cursed. But if we bring the full tithe, then God will make us rich, so rich, we cannot even hold it all. And this is how the passage is usually taught. The pastor admonishes the people to give their full tithe, and bring their full offerings so that they can be blessed by God, and not cursed.

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