Did Jesus say in Matthew 23:23 that Christians should pay tithe?

One of the verses the advocates of tithing in Christianity use is Matthew 23:23. It reads, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.” (Matthew 23:23 NKJV).

Taken out of context, many pastors have erroneously taught their followers that Jesus Christ was teaching tithing to New Testament believers in the verse. But a proper examination of the immediate context, Matthew 23, has shown that our Lord Jesus Christ did not teach the payment of Tithe in this verse.

In Matthew 23, which the KJV captioned as the Great Denunciation, Jesus denounced the teachers of the Mosaic law (scribes) and the Pharisees in very strong terms. In the chapter, he pronounced “woe” on them seven times because of their hypocrisy and lawlessness. He told his disciples and the crowd who were around and listening to him not to be like them because they don’t practice what they teach (verse 3). In verses 13 to 35, he pronounced seven “woes,” one of which is in verse 23, on them. Six of the woes were pronounced on them for their hypocrisy and lawlessness.  The seventh was pronounced on them for how they truly were in God’s sight:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.  [28] Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside, you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matt. 23:27-28 NKJV).

In verse 23, Jesus was telling the scribes and the Pharisees the wrong thing they were doing. He told them them of how they were cherry-picking the law of God. They obeyed the Mosaic laws that were convenient or desirable to them, like tithing, but refused to obey the more important aspects of the law – justice, mercy, and faithfulness. He was not teaching Christians on tithing.

Were the scribes and the Pharisees Christians? No. Their religion was Judaism. They were Israelites, the people to whom God gave the law on tithing. But these religious hypocrites did not practice their religion with the truthfulness, obedience, and sincerity desired by God. See Matthew 15:3-9 (Mark 7:6-13).

The following points should be noted by the reader:

1 The word “tithe” is an old English word which means a tenth. In the Bible, the word is translated from the Hebrew word maaser or maasar or maasrah, and it is used 32 times in the Hebrew Bible, known as Old Testament by Christians. In the New Testament, the word is translated from the Greek dekatoo or dekate, which is used 8 times. Both the Hebrew and the Greek words also mean a tenth. Once a pastor begins to ask you to pay more than one-tenth (10%) as tithe, know that he has departed from the law of tithing.  Know that he is being driven by the love of money, which is the root of all evils. That makes him a modern-day Pharisee. Luke tells us that the Pharisees were lovers of money (Luke 16:14). Biblically, any giving that is more or less than 10% is not tithe.

2. Tithes were specifically meant to take care of the Levites. The reason God made the law was because He commanded that they should do no other work than to serve in the temple. And since they must eat, God commanded the other eleven tribes of Israel to give one-tenth of their produce to them as their wages for their service in the temple. The priests got 1%, while the Levites, who are more in number, got 9%. See Num. 18:20-21; Deut. 18:1-2; Neh. 10:37-38; 12:44.

3. In the New Testament church, giving was practised. But no one was mandated to give 10% (a.k.a tithe). People exercised their free will in deciding what to give. Paul defined the type of giving in these words:

“Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor. 9:7 NET).

What is given could be anything above zero per cent to any percentage, say 100%. Barnabas and some other people, for example, sold their lands and brought the proceeds to the church.  The funds were used to buy things that were shared among the brotherhood (Acts 2:45; 4:34-37). Nowhere is the giving of tithe practised in the New Testament church.

4. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross put an end to the Levitical (Aaronic) priesthood (Heb. 10:1-14). There is no longer the office of a Levitical priest or Levites in the New Testament church. What the New Testament church has are pastors whose work are to shepherd (or feed) the flock of God with the word of truth See John 21:15-17; Acts 20:28; Eph. 4:11; 1 Pet. 5:1-4; 2 Tim. 2:2, 15. The fact that there were no priests and Levites in the New Testament church is one of the reasons why tithes were not paid to anyone in the first century churches.

5. The New Testament did not start with the opening verses of either Mark or Matthew. The New Testament church started on the day of the first Pentecost, after Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven (Acts 2). It should, therefore, be understood that the Jewish festivals that were celebrated in the gospels were all under the law. The priests or high priests mentioned in the gospels were not Christians. Jesus Christ himself was not a Christian. He was born under the law and obeyed the law perfectly (Gal. 4:4-5; Matt. 5:17-18). The church he promised to build in Matt. 16:18 was born in Acts 2. That church was not a physical building, but a body of believers who placed their faith in him as the Messiah and became his followers.

6. In the New Testament, no one was forbidden from engaging in productive activities. Now, everyone must “work with your own hands” (1 Thes. 4:11). Now, anyone who is unwilling to engage in economic activities shall not eat (2 Thes. 3:10). Apostle Paul also said, “Now, we work wearily with our own hands” (1 Cor. 4:12). “But if someone does not provide for his own [by engaging in any economic activity], especially his own family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Tim. 5:8 NET).

Conclusion

No Christian is commanded by God not to engage in any productive activity to earn a living. This is because the perfect sacrifice has been made by Jesus Christ once and for all time. This brought to an end the Levitical order of worship in physical temples. That is why the work of priests who offer daily sacrifices as well as those of Levites did not find a place in the New Testament church. That also put an end to the payment of tithes to the tribe of Levi, who were commanded not to work in theocratic Israel.

Let the pastors who are still pushing the tithe debate stop displaying either their ignorance of the word of God or their belly-serving agenda. They should teach the truth on giving as it was done during the time of the apostles. Should they insist on collecting tithes from their followers, they should as well teach them to practise the three types of tithe commanded by God through Moses.

Finally, any pastor who teaches that tithes should be more than 10% has gone beyond what is commanded in the law. Those who use threats of hellfire or other forms of threat to extort money under the guise of collecting tithes are barefaced thieves and robbers. They are not serving our Lord Jesus Christ.