Should You Tithe on a Small Income?
This is a discussion, not a lecture. I am going to lay out both sides honestly, and then I am going to ask you a question. I am not trying to convince you of anything. I am trying to hear what you actually think, especially if you are the person this question is about.
I have paid a full ten percent of my income to the church for most of my adult life.
I was taught to do it. I was taught that it was a command. I was taught that God blesses the person who gives and withholds from the person who does not. I heard the Malachi passage about robbing God more times than I can count. I was convinced.
For the first several years of doing it, it was easy. My income was small but manageable, and ten percent did not change anything about my life. I gave because I believed I was supposed to, and I did not think about it much after that.
Then the recession hit, and my income dropped by about forty percent, and all of a sudden the ten percent was not manageable anymore. It was the difference between paying the electricity bill and not. It was the difference between fixing the car and walking to work. It was the difference between three meals a day and two.
Here is the case that you should still tithe, no matter what.
The Bible does not say to tithe when it is convenient. It says to tithe. The Malachi passage is clear. The Proverbs about honoring the Lord with the firstfruits are clear. The widow who gave her last two coins in Mark 12 is held up by Jesus as the example, not the exception. She did not give ten percent. She gave everything. And He said she had given more than all the wealthy people in the room.
If you can only give ten percent of a small income when it is easy, then you are not really trusting God. You are trusting your budget. The whole point is that you give first and trust God to provide the rest. If the giving is not a stretch, it is not faith.
There is also a practical argument. The church has bills. The pastor has a family. The building has a mortgage. If every person in the church decided to stop tithing when the economy was bad, the church would close. The people who keep giving through hard seasons are the people who keep the church alive for everyone else.
And there is a third argument, which is harder to say. Many people who stop tithing when it gets hard do not start again when it gets easy. It is not a temporary adjustment. It is a slow exit. The tithe was the thing holding them connected to the church, and when the tithe goes, the connection goes with it.
That is Side A.
Here is the case that you should reduce or pause the tithe when you cannot cover your needs.
The first thing to say is that the modern tithe is not the same thing as the biblical tithe. The Old Testament tithe was agricultural. It was about crops and livestock. It was part of a system where the Levites had no land inheritance and needed to be supported by the rest of the tribes. It was not a percentage of a paycheck. When people quote Malachi, they are quoting a prophet speaking to farmers about grain, not a passage about salaried workers in a modern economy.
The second thing is that the Bible is full of warnings about neglecting your own household. First Timothy says that a person who does not provide for their own family has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. That is a strong statement. If paying ten percent means your children eat less, you are not being faithful. You are being irresponsible, and the same Bible that tells you to tithe tells you not to.
The third thing is about the widow in Mark 12. She gave everything she had. Jesus honored her. But He did not say “go and do likewise.” He told the crowd that she had given more than the wealthy. He was making a point about the heart. He was not establishing a policy that everybody should give their last coins and then go hungry. Turning her story into a mandatory practice for everyone is a misreading.
And there is a fourth argument that almost nobody says out loud. Sometimes the church is not a good steward of the money. Sometimes the pastor is living well while the members are struggling. Sometimes the building is elaborate while the food pantry is empty. Giving ten percent to a church that is spending it badly is not a spiritual act. It is enabling a problem.
That is Side B.
I do not know which side I land on.
I have done both. I have given the full ten percent when I did not have it, and I have paused the tithe entirely for six months when I could not cover the bills. I do not feel that one was clearly right and the other clearly wrong. Both felt like the best I could do at the time.
Here is what I actually want to know.
If you have a small or irregular income, what do you do about tithing, and why?
Not the answer you would give from the pulpit. Not the answer that sounds most spiritual. The one you actually live by. Do you give ten percent no matter what? Do you give a smaller percentage? Do you give what you can when you can? Do you give to specific needs instead of to the general fund? Do you give to people directly instead of to the church?
And if you have made a change - either way - what made you change? Was it a passage, a conversation, a crisis, something else?
Tell me honestly. I am asking because I still do not know what I think, and I would like to hear from people who have lived it longer than I have.