Tithing
One-tenth of our increase, offered freely. Older than the law of Moses, restored by revelation, and the one commandment where God invites us to test Him.
Most Christians outside this Church have been taught one of two things about tithing. Either it belonged to the law of Moses and was fulfilled in Christ along with the burnt offerings, or it survives as a suggestion — give generously, give cheerfully, give what you feel moved to give. Both readings share an assumption: that a fixed tenth is an Old Testament arrangement that the gospel has left behind.
That assumption is worth examining rather than dismissing, because it is held sincerely and it is held by people who read their Bibles. It also does not survive the text. The tithe is older than the law of Moses, it is older than the Levites who collected it, and the Savior mentioned it approvingly in the middle of a rebuke.
It Began Long Before Moses
So where does the tithe first appear in scripture? Four centuries before Sinai, in the life of Abraham, who paid tithes to a priest of the Most High God.
“And it was this same Melchizedek to whom Abraham paid tithes; yea, even our father Abraham paid tithes of one-tenth part of all he possessed.”
Genesis records the same event, and Jacob covenanted to do the same at Bethel, promising the Lord a tenth of all that he should be given (Genesis 28:22). Both men lived generations before the law was given at Sinai. So the tithe did not begin with Moses, and it had no reason to end when his law was fulfilled.
The Savior mentioned it too, and He mentioned it while correcting men who had made a fetish of small observances. He told the Pharisees they had neglected judgment, mercy and faith, and then added that these they ought to have done — and NOT to leave the other undone (Matthew 23:23). He had every opening there to set the practice aside, with the subject already on the table and hostile listeners in front of Him. He did the opposite.
Why the Lord Gave It to This Church
The history here matters, because tithing was not the first thing asked of the Saints. It was the second.
The early Church attempted the law of consecration, in which members held all things in common and deeded their property to the Lord through the bishop. They could not live it. They were driven from their homes and robbed of their lands, and they were also proud and stubborn and weak in the way that people generally are, which is the harder half of the explanation. So the Lord gave a LESSER law in its place, one that a struggling and scattered people could actually keep. In July 1838, in answer to Joseph Smith’s plain question about how much the Lord required of the properties of His people, the answer came.
“And after that, those who have thus been tithed shall pay one-tenth of all their interest annually; and this shall be a standing law unto them forever, for my holy priesthood, saith the Lord.”
One-tenth of interest, annually, as a standing law. That is the whole of the requirement, and it has not been added to since. The revelation came in response to a prophet asking a direct question and receiving a direct answer.
The One Commandment God Says to Test
Malachi is where tithing gets its sharpest language, and also its most generous offer. Read what God actually invites His people to do.
“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings… Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
“Prove me now herewith.” Where else does God tell us to put Him to the test? Nowhere else in scripture does He stake His own credibility on an experiment a person can run in his own household, on his own income, over an ordinary year.
And note the shape of the promise before anyone oversells it. Is this a guarantee of wealth? It is not, and anybody who preaches it that way is preaching something Malachi never said. The windows of heaven open. What comes through them remains God’s to choose, and those who have kept this law across a lifetime almost always describe what came in terms that have nothing to do with money.
What the Tithe Actually Does
Tithing funds the work of the Church, and the work has a shape worth knowing.
Where It Goes
- Meetinghouses and temples — built and maintained, so that no congregation pays for its own building and no member is charged to worship.
- Proclaiming the gospel — the missionary effort, translation, and printing of scripture.
- Redeeming the dead — temple and family history work, so ordinances reach those who died without them.
- Education and welfare — alongside fast offerings, which are a separate contribution given directly to the needy.
Notice one thing about that list: no part of it pays a local clergy. Bishops, teachers and those who serve in the wards receive nothing for it. A man who gives a tenth is not paying anyone’s salary in his own congregation, which is not true of most churches on earth.
Why a Percentage, and Why It Is Fair
A tenth asks the same proportion of everyone. The widow and the wealthy man give the same share of what they have, and neither is asked for more than the other in the terms that matter to God.
Compare that to every alternative anyone has devised. A fixed pew rent, a membership fee, a required donation at the door — each of those falls hardest on the poorest person in the room. A PERCENTAGE cannot do that. It is the only arrangement that treats a labourer and a landowner alike.
And nobody is turned away from help for failing to pay it. A member who cannot make rent goes to his bishop and receives from the fast offerings of others. The person a critic worries about is the person the system was built to catch.
“But Christ Fulfilled the Law”
Here is the objection stated at its strongest. The law of Moses was fulfilled in Christ. The sacrifices ended, the dietary code ended, the Levitical priesthood that received tithes was superseded. So on what ground does a tenth survive when the system that collected it did not?
The answer is that the tithe never belonged to that system in the first place. Abraham paid it to Melchizedek centuries before Levi was born, and the writer of Hebrews makes that precedence his whole argument — Levi, still in the loins of his father, effectively paid tithes through Abraham to a greater priest (Hebrews 7:1–10). A New Testament author, writing to Christians about the priesthood that replaced Moses, treats the tithe as belonging to the HIGHER order rather than the one being set aside.
So what was fulfilled? The shedding of blood, the altar, the carnal commandments given because Israel could not bear more. Not the principle that a covenant people give back a portion of what God gave them. That principle predates Sinai, outlives it, and was renewed by revelation in 1838.
What It Is Really For
God does not need our money. He owns the earth and everything in it, and a tenth of a carpenter’s wages adds nothing to Him. So why ask for it at all?
Because of what holding money does to a man. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21). A commandment that regularly separates a person from a tenth of his income is aimed squarely at the one idol almost everybody keeps, and it works on the giver far more than it works on the ledger.
It also builds something rarer than a building. When a whole people give freely and in proportion, without compulsion and without ever being sent a bill, they slowly become the kind of people who could one day live the higher law that was set aside. Was consecration cancelled? No. It was postponed, and tithing is how a people get prepared for it.
If You Are Deciding Whether to Pay It
Start where Malachi says to start. Test it. Not as a wager on getting richer, but as an honest experiment in whether God keeps the word He gave.
You declare your own increase, and reasonable people settle that question differently. There is no schedule to consult and no inspector to satisfy. Decide before the Lord what your increase was, pay a tenth of it, and let that be sufficient.
For the objections raised against tithing — the widow’s mite, the Church’s reserves, the 2023 SEC settlement — see Tithing — Answering the Objections, which takes each one on the documents rather than the headlines.
See also Consecrated Oil, Priesthood, and Temples.