Are Christians Required to Tithe?

Are Christians required to tithe? The short answer is no, tithing is not required to be saved. Salvation can’t be bought. Salvation through Christ is free; it doesn’t cost us anything.

But sanctification is costly.

Deitrich Bonhoeffer said in The Cost of Discipleship, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Bonhoeffer is referring to Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:24: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

But when I first read this, my flesh says, “Is there a fine print?” Jesus’ words to deny yourself are so striking because our culture tells us to do the opposite. Thousands of messages are coming at us every day from social media, popular music, TV, and advertisements, saying it’s all about you: You do you. Find what makes you feel good. Spend money on yourself. Follow your heart.

But the Gospel is counter-cultural. It bids us come and die. At first that sounds morbid, even offensive. But what is Jesus really saying? He means it’s no longer your agenda, you calling the shots. He means dying to your sinful nature and giving God control of your life—including your finances.

He means it’s not about you. That’s a miserable way to live anyway—with everything being all about you. Our culture preaches the mantra that self is god, but it’s only made everyone more miserable. It hasn’t made people happier. That’s because we weren’t created to live for ourselves. We were created to live for God, and we will find ultimate satisfaction only in loving him and obeying his commands.

Tithing: Dying to Self Financially

This all translates to our finances. Your salvation doesn’t depend on tithing—but generosity is part of our sanctification as we become more like Jesus.

The Bible tells us to tithe (Lev. 27:30). Jesus reinforced tithing in his earthly ministry (Matt. 23:23). The New Testament says to give radically (2 Cor. 9:6). Now, God didn’t come up with these commands to put constraints on us or limit us—but to free us.

If you haven’t noticed, our lives revolve around money, making money and spending money and having enough money for the future. It consumes our time, our schedule, our focus. But that’s what makes tithing so powerful. It’s one way to show that money doesn’t have a hold on you. It puts God first in your finances to show that he’s first in your life.

You could say that tithing is dying to yourself financially. When you come to Christ, you don’t ask, “What can I afford to give?” But a Christian asks, “What can I afford to keep?”

The Paradox: Lose Your Life to Save It

Let’s circle back where we started—where Christ says to deny yourself. Because he also gives us a promise.

Right after he says, “take up your cross and follow me,” he says, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). The Bible is full of paradoxes, and this is no exception. Christ tells us that to live, we have to die. To save our life, we have to lose it.

What does it mean to save your life? It means building a comfortable life here. It means trying to find life, satisfaction, and meaning by the world’s formula. But that only leads to us being thirstier. We race after security only to feel more insecure. We race after opulence and satisfaction only to compare ourselves to others who have more and then feel more unsatisfied because we strike out again.

J.P. Pokluda said in his study on Ecclesiastes that Solomon had all forms of excess yet was still unfulfilled. The dumbest thing we could do is try to retest the experiment in a smaller capacity and expect a different outcome. That’s why Christ says the only way to actually save your live is to lose it for him (Matt. 16:25). This means letting go of sin and selfishness. It means seeking him daily and obeying his commands, including tithing. There you’ll find true joy, true purpose and peace. Not in living for self and spending 100% of your money on yourself, but in loving and treasuring Christ and giving generously the way he did.