Critical Questions on Tithing
Bishop Floyd Nelson Jr.
Part of I'm Blessed—Stewardship 2025
March 19, 2025

Malachi 3:10-12 ESV

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. 12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.

What is the Tithe?

  • Proverbs 3:9-10 NKJV
    Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your increase; 10 then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

  • Deuteronomy 26:2 ESV
    You shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there.

  • Romans 11:16
    If the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy.

  • Matthew 6:33
    Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Why Do We Tithe?

  1. .

    • Malachai 3:10
      Bring the full tithe into the storehouse…

  2. .

What is the Storehouse?

  • Nehemiah 10:38-39 ESV
    And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive the tithes. And the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouse. 39 For the people of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of grain, wine, and oil to the chambers, where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not neglect the house of our God.”

  • Numbers 18:21-28 ESV
    “To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting, 22 so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. 23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the people of Israel they shall have no inheritance. 24 For the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as a contribution to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel.”
    25 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 26 “Moreover, you shall speak and say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present a contribution from it to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe. 27 And your contribution shall be counted to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress. 28 So you shall also present a contribution to the Lord from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you shall give the Lord’s contribution to Aaron the priest.

  • Deuteronomy 14:28-29 ESV
    At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. 29 And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.

Is Tithing a New Testament Principle?

  • Genesis 14:17-20 ESV
    After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) 19 And he blessed him and said,
    “Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
    Possessor of heaven and earth;
    20 and blessed be God Most High,
    who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
    And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

  • Hebrews 6:20 ESV
    where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

  • Hebrews 7:1-4
    For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. 3 He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.
    4 See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils!

Is Tithing Money?

  • Deuteronomy 14:22-25 ESV
    “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. 23 And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. 24 And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the Lord your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the Lord your God chooses, to set his name there, 25 then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the Lord your God chooses

Do We Tithe From Our Net or From Our Gross?


- Proverbs 3:9-10 NKJV
Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your increase; 10 then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

What Does It Mean to Be Cursed?

  • Malachi 3:9-10 ESV
    Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.