What Christians Should Know exists to equip you to know what you believe and why you believe it. In this episode of our quest to encourage you to think and act biblically, we will talk about money and blessings. Specifically, I will answer the following questions: One, is there a link between tithing and getting blessed? That is, is there a biblically promised connection between giving money to the Church and reaping material rewards? Two, when it comes to giving and getting, does the prosperity gospel get anything right? And three, should Christians tithe now?
To develop answers to these questions, I will look at an Old Testament passage on tithes and offerings (Malachi 3:7–12). As always, I will begin with the text, explain it, and then develop answers and applications directly from the Scriptures. In the conclusion, I will explain that the modern so-called “prosperity gospel”—or the idea that God rewards strong faith and funding with health, wealth, and happiness—does in fact get one principle right. Yet, what the prosperity message does with that principle is another matter entirely.
Let us now go to the text. In Malachi 3:7–12, God says:
“From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test 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 a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the Lord of hosts. “All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the Lord of hosts.
In verse 7, the Lord says, “Return to Me, and I will return to you.” First, let us recognize that the reason the people are given an opportunity to return and repent is God’s grace. Grace animates a compassionate invitation to turn away from sin. God also demonstrates that He is patient and long-suffering because the people haven’t just rejected Him acutely. God says, “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them.” Meaning, God’s chosen people have forgotten about God for centuries, yet the Lord has not forgotten about His people. God’s ultimate goal is to restore a broken relationship, and thus He makes a way for the people to come back. Even more, God’s command to repent is coupled with a promise of His return. This highlights the excellence and beauty of the God of grace because merciless judgment would not offer a second chance.
You see, on the surface, some may think that these verses in Malachi revolve around material things. But the central problem isn’t material; it is spiritual in that the people’s sin separated them from God. They kept their tithes and offerings far away from the Lord because they were distanced from Him. Consequently, sin caused God to hide His face (see also Isaiah 59:2). Additionally, the people’s response reveals their spiritual detachment: When God tells them in verse 7, “Return to Me,” they insincerely ask, “How shall we return?” The question isn’t genuine because even at this point in biblical history, the people had access to the bulk of what we call the Old Testament. Meaning, God already revealed to them how to return. Furthermore, the question “How shall we return?” isn’t genuine because when the people heard Malachi call them back, instead of obeying, they began to argue with the prophet.
The unfortunate reality of human nature is that we are hard-wired to resist God. So, it is fitting that the people’s question reflects their firm resolve to go on in sin. How so? Because the idolater who is happy in his rebellion will perpetually make excuses or justifications to ignore the call to repentance. As Matthew Henry once wrote in his commentary on Malachi 3:
Many ruin their own souls by baffling the calls that are given them to repent of their sins.
In verse 8, God accuses the people of robbing Him by failing to bring two things: tithes and offerings. The theft God accuses the people of is robbery of the highest degree because it is sacrilege: The people were stealing that which was consecrated to the service of God. So, the people robbed God of a tithe, but what does that mean? The word tithe simply means a tenth, and even before tithing was codified into law, both Abraham and Jacob practiced it (see Genesis 14:20 and 28:22). Later on in the Mosaic Law, there was an annual requirement to bring one-tenth of agricultural produce as a sign of God’s ownership of the Promised Land (see Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:26; Deuteronomy 14:22–29). That’s an important point not to miss because tithing was less about produce and more about the One who made produce possible in the land in which God had placed His people.
The people were also robbing God by not bringing their offerings. Offerings were different than the tithe in that these were portions of animal sacrifices to which the priests were entitled (see Exodus 29:27–28; Leviticus 9:22).
Denial of material provisions had consequences beyond the material. In verse 9, God says, “You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you!” This should not have come as a surprise to the people: Since tithing was already a covenantal obligation, specific blessings and curses were attached to it. Consequently, the people thought they were gaining something by withholding tithes and offerings, but in essence they were robbing themselves. Their refusal to fulfill the covenant meant that God couldn’t fulfill His promise to bless them. This goes back to what I said before about the unrepentant making excuses for their rebellion. God’s curse was designed for the people to see the error of their ways and return in obedience, yet the aberrance of sin persuaded them instead to make their afflictions excuses for more disobedience.
Dr. Warren Wiersbe says it best in his Bible exposition commentary:
“Whenever we rob God, we always rob ourselves. To begin with, we rob ourselves of the spiritual blessings that always accompany obedience and faithful giving (II Corinthians 9:6–15). But even more, the money that rightfully belongs to God that we keep for ourselves never stays with us. It ends up going to the doctor, the auto body shop, or the tax collector. “You have sown much, and bring in little . . . and he who earns wages to put into a bag with holes” (Haggai 1:6, NKJV). If we don’t trust God to care for us, whatever we do trust will prove futile. People who lovingly give tithes and offerings to God find that whatever is left over goes much farther and brings much greater blessing.”
God next says, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house.” Notice here that God commands the people to bring the whole tithe, meaning they—like Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1–11—were holding back part for themselves. They fraudulently brought a partial tithe and retained what they wished. Accordingly, the tithe went into the storehouse, a place in the temple designed to hold gifts. From this supply, distributions were given to the priests, Levites, and the poor (see II Chronicles 31:11; Nehemiah 10:38–39, 12:44, 13:12). I think it is readily obvious that God doesn’t need tithes. But His servants do. Hence, the people were robbing God by robbing His servants.
Likely the most unexpected thing God says in verse 10 is, “‘and test Me now in this . . . if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.’” This is shocking because elsewhere in Scripture, God commands His servants not to test Him (see Deuteronomy 6:16 and Matthew 4:7). And this is a reversal of the normal biblical pattern in which God tests people (see Psalm 11:5, 26:2; Proverbs 17:3 and Jeremiah 17:10). Rarely does God invite people to test Him (for other examples, see Isaiah 7:11–12 and I Kings 18:22–46). Of course, when God makes the invitation to test Him, it’s not because there is uncertainty in God. It is because our faith is weak, and so the Lord allows said demonstrations to prove His claims and justify His commands.
Accordingly, a biblical principle is that God sometimes calls us to do the work and then trust Him for the reward. A fitting example of this is what the prophet Elijah tells the widow of Zarephath in I Kings 17:13. In essence, he tells her, “Even though you have only a handful of flour and oil, make me a cake first and then see if there is enough for you and your son.” What happens? I Kings 17:15–16 says:
So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke through Elijah.
Testing God operates on the principle of faith that if you venture nothing, you gain nothing. Hence, have faith and trust in God’s honor; it is then that you will find. If the ancient Israelites faithfully proceeded with the test, they would soon discover that God was not the cause of their emptiness; rather, it was their own sacrilege. Tests don’t teach; they reveal.
In our verses, divine testing also comes with a divine promise. Verses 10–12 say:
“[I]f I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the Lord of hosts. “All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the Lord of hosts.
Truly, rain descends naturally, but it is God who sends it. In promising to send rain, then, God is reminding the people of Who is the source of all things. And not only does God promise the provision of agriculture-sustaining rain, but He also promises protection from those things that seek to destroy crops. The result will be fruitful harvests, blessings, and favor in the eyes of those nations around Israel. You see, what the Scriptures reveal is that God always has blessings ready to bestow upon His people, but due to weak faith and narrow desires, they lack the capacity to receive them.
That was a brief explanation of the text. I will now proceed to answer the questions mentioned at the beginning. The first question is, “Is there a link between tithing and getting blessed? That is, is there a biblically promised connection between giving money to your local church or faith-based ministries and reaping material rewards?”
And the answer is yes and no. You see, if I were to summarize the Scriptures I read from Malachi, I would say, “If you deal bountifully with God, He will deal bountifully with you.” This aligns with the rest of the Scriptures, in which we see a repeating theme: that if you mind God’s things, He will mind your things. For example, Psalm 1 describes the person who is blessed or happy. And what does this person do? They avoid ungodly people, ideas, and things and constantly meditate on the Word. In Matthew 6:33, Jesus says, “But seek first [God’s] kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” What are the things Christ refers to? He tells us in the preceding verses. Things relate to everyday life worries like what to eat, what to drink, and what to wear. In other words, Jesus says, if you mind God’s things, He will mind your things.
You see, in every depiction of a believer who is wealthy in the Bible, the text never describes that person’s pursuit of wealth as a primary aim. What the text does describe is that person’s pursuit of God first. Hence, because they are mindful of God’s things, God is mindful of their things. For example, Solomon—the wealthiest man in the Bible—is asked by God, “What do you want?” (I Kings 3:5). He doesn’t ask for wealth but instead asks for “an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil” (I Kings 3:9). The text then says God is pleased that Solomon does not ask for long life or riches. Consequently, God ends up giving Solomon both. God creates the proper conditions for the gift in Solomon’s heart before he receives it.
So, is there a link between tithing and getting blessed? Yes, in the sense that tithing is a subset of the global principle of if you mind God’s things, He will mind yours. But God is not a vending machine where if you input this, you get to choose that.
This leads to the answer to the second question: “When it comes to giving and getting, does the prosperity gospel get anything right?”
The prosperity gospel and prosperity preachers do get one thing right: that if you are mindful of God’s things, then He will be mindful of your things. Yet, the prosperity gospel then turns away from God and the biblical gospel by twisting and perverting that principle to say, “God wants you to be rich, healthy, and happy and have your best material life now, here on earth.” Biblical faith is swapped out, and wish projection is swapped in, deluding you into thinking that you can use God to get what you desire. Nothing could be further from the truth. The prosperity message demands that you give because it pays. That’s selfish, not biblical. We give because we have received and love the Giver; therefore, whatever we do give pales in comparison to what God has already given us.
The prosperity gospel also assumes that you can define the terms of your blessings. And so, if you “Name it and claim it,” you get to project wishes and then wait for God to fulfill your desires. But did you notice what God says in Malachi 3:7–12? All the blessings happen according to God and on His terms. Also notice that the people don’t make any requests. Rather, God tells them to return to Him, and then He will decide what specific blessings to distribute. Again, in Malachi 3:10–11, God says:
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this . . . if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes.”
The prosperity gospel pollutes the actual gospel by turning you into the sovereign agent who decides what is best for you. And what that false gospel conveniently neglects to mention is that the obsession with wealth takes you away from God, not toward him. As it says in I Timothy 6:10:
For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
In other words, many seek wealth and use God to get it only to find grief. Of course, this does suggest that God is opposed to blessing His children financially. The record of saints in the Bible proves that. But God is all-knowing, and He will not give the gift of wealth merely so someone can destroy themselves. What many people fail to realize is that while wealth is helpful, it is also highly dangerous. Just ask the rich young ruler (Mark 10:17–27) or the rich man that knew the beggar Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31).
Another way in which the prosperity gospel pollutes authentic biblical teaching is its rejection of God’s logic that spiritual blessings trump material ones. Why? Because spiritual blessings last forever. Material ones end when you die. Hence, the blessed person of Psalm 1 is
like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers. (Psalm 1:3)
When the psalmist speaks of a tree that bears fruit, he’s not talking about apples and oranges. He is talking about spiritual fruit. As Jesus says in Matthew 7:16, you will know the children of God by their fruit. And when Paul speaks of those in Christ, he describes them as already blessed, “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). What are some examples of said blessings? The apostle will tell us in the next eleven verses: things such as election, adoption, redemption, forgiveness, and a heavenly inheritance. Beloved, let us not forget that God is not just a Father but the best Father possible. Hence, out of love, He always has our long-term spiritual benefit in mind. That may or may not involve material prosperity here on earth, but regardless of how life looks right now, for the Christian, this will never be our best life. Our best life is reserved for the age to come.
I am a father of two boys. How would it benefit them if I provided the best housing, the best clothing, the best education, and the most expensive, shiny new toys, but I was never around? If I never discipled them? If I never exemplified manliness? If I never taught the Word to them? If I never trained them up in the way they should go? If I never acted with their long-term spiritual benefit in mind? I think it is self-evident that the best thing a father can do for his children is to be a godly father, not give them things. If that makes sense for earthly children, does it not also make sense for heavenly ones?
The third and final question is, “Should Christians tithe now?”
As with the response to the first question, the answer is yes and no. In modernity, we Christians are not under a covenantal obligation to bring in one-tenth of the agricultural yield. I think it is obvious that said legal requirement applied to the theocratic nation of Israel thousands of years ago. There is no longer a temple or a legion of priests that need to be sustained. As the apostle Paul explains in Romans 7:6, we have been released from the Law and its demands. That includes the tithe. Furthermore, there is no explicit New Testament command to tithe.
On the other hand—and I must emphasize this as a guideline, not a rule—Christians today should absolutely tithe because we are members of a better covenant than Old Testament Israel. They did not have Christ; we do. It is because of Him that we have moved from death to life and are guaranteed every spiritual blessing, as Ephesians 1 details. Everything the Christian is and ever will be is because of Jesus. So, the way I have always thought about it is that the tithe is not primarily about money; it’s ultimately about gratitude and honor toward God. In ancient times, the people were not only supporting the ministry of the temple but also giving thanks to God for His bountiful provision for their own needs. Hence, in modern times, we not only tithe to support our local church, but also to give thanks for God’s provision. This aligns with multiple New Testament passages on giving. The apostle Paul calls us to excel in the grace of giving (II Corinthians 8:7) and give according to our means (II Corinthians 8:3), stating that he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully (II Corinthians 9:6, 10) and that God loves a cheerful giver (II Corinthians 9:7). Jesus tells us, “Give, and it will be given to you” (Luke 6:38). And Hebrews 13:16 says, “And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” All this taken together, let us be mindful that it’s not as if those who do tithe are first-class Christians and everyone else sits in the back. We are all saved by grace alone through faith in Christ alone. And of course, there are some situations in which a person is unable to give.
Again, we give because we have received and love the Giver; therefore, whatever we do give pales in comparison to what we have already received. As the saying goes, “God can do far more with 90 percent than you can do by yourself with 100 percent.”
What if a person wants to give but doesn’t know where to start, cognizant that we are set free from the Law? Well, in determining how much to give, one approach is to ask if there is a biblical precedent. The tithe (which, remember, was given by the patriarchs before the Law) is that precedent. Hence, I am fully persuaded that a Christian now—again, as a guideline, not a rule—may use 10 percent as a floor and then proceed upward when possible. When it comes to answering, “How much?” I think John Piper says it best when he writes:
The point is not that we be governed by percentages. [Tithes] are not mandated. Rather, we should be governed by lavish sacrificial generosity that overflows freely and joyfully. . . . The largeness of your heart, the biblical centrality of the local church, and the wonderful value of other ministries decide the question [of how much to give].
If a person neglects to tithe because they think their church leaders are shysters, then it’s time to find a new church. If a person is reluctant to give to their local church, the only question I have is, “What do you spend your money on?” Because whatever else those things are, your bank account testifies that they are important. After all, if God is not worthy of 10 percent of your gross income, then what is? Other than basic necessities, I can think of no better way to spend your money than on the kingdom of God.
I will close with biblical wisdom. Proverbs 11:24–25 says:
There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want. The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered.
Dr. C. H. E. Sadaphal