6. Malachi chapter 3 does not apply in the New Covenant

Most of the teaching nowadays to motivate people to ‘pay their tithes’ comes from Malachi 3:7-10. But it is important to realise that this passage was written in the Old Testament, to people under the Old Covenant. We cannot just lift a passage from the Old Testament and apply it directly to us today without considering the differences between the two covenants. Sure, God does not change (Mal 3:6); but his way of dealing with mankind altered drastically because of the cross. Christ’s coming allowed God’s grace to be manifested more fully – for the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17).

There are many different fundamental reasons why Malachi 3 cannot apply today; I will just focus on three here.

Reason #1: We are no longer under the curse of the law

Under the Old Covenant, blessing and cursing was indeed linked with obedience or disobedience to the Law – but not just tithing; every part of the Law. Most people are so focussed on verses 9-10 in Malachi chapter 3, that they fail to notice verse 8, which says that the people were robbing God in both tithes and offerings. And if we then take this passage in the context of the whole Old Covenant, we would realize that people were not just cursed for failing to obey in the giving of both tithes and offerings, but for failure to follow the whole law! But nowhere after the Law period does the Bible link our blessing or cursing with keeping any part of the Law, including our tithing. That is because Jesus has redeemed us from under the curse of the Law (Gal 3:13-14), in order that we could access all of Abraham’s blessings by faith, and faith alone. Christ has already suffered the curse on our behalf, so there is no longer any curse if we do not tithe. We don’t need to give God any ‘protection money’, as He has already rebuked the devourer on our behalf (Col 2:14-15), and commanded the blessing on us. Therefore we should never give out of fear that we’ll be robbed if we don’t tithe.

Reason #2: The windows of heaven are already open to us

We don’t need to do anything in order to open the windows of heaven over us – Jesus has already opened them up for us 2,000 years ago (Eph 1:3, Col 2:10). We should quit seeking after something we already have! How can we ‘pay’ God anything, when He has already paid everything on our behalf? How could we possibly put a monetary value on the blessings He’s freely bestowed on us through love, especially given that the price he paid was the price of the life of His own son? It’s an insult to think that we can ‘pay’ him anything for any aspect of His free gift to us – along with His Son, He’s already given everything freely to us (Rom 8:32) – why would we think he would hold back certain material things from us if He has already given us something so valuable as His Son?

Reason #3: Going back under any part of the law puts ourselves back under a curse

Some of today’s tithing proponents would have us believe that we can place ourselves under a curse if we do not tithe. On the contrary, the New Testament shows the opposite! It is clear that although Jesus Christ has removed the curse from us, we can put ourselves back under a curse, if we insist on living according to any part of the Law for our righteousness or our blessings. The New Testament is clear that if we want to go back to keeping just one part of the Law (i.e. for our right-standing with God, or for our blessings), we are obliged to obey all of it! (Gal 5:3, 6:13) If we break just one law we are guilty of breaking all of it (Jas 2:10). So if we are relying on keeping any part of the Law, we will automatically put ourselves back under a curse again because we cannot keep it in its entirety (Gal 3:10) – and this is understandable, considering that this was the original purpose of the Law – it was never intended as a means of gaining God’s salvation or acceptance; rather it was to show people their sin problem and their need of a Saviour. For this reason, Paul says we are not to rebuild what was destroyed (Gal 2:18-21) by going back to living by any part of the Law.


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© Julie Groves (2010), P O Box 1626, Shek Wu Hui, Hong Kong