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Should you tithe while paying off debt?

August 25, 2020 By Bob Lotich, CEPF®

(The following is a transcription from a video I recorded. Please excuse any typos or errors.)

One of the questions I get a lot is, Should I tithe while I'm paying off my debt?This is a great question that is not easy to answer. In help with answering this, I want to bring in some resources for us to help with making this decision.

One of the questions I get a lot is, “Should I tithe while I’m paying off my debt?”

This is a great question that is not easy to answer. In help with answering this, I want to bring in some resources for us to help with making this decision.

The book, Master Your Money, is a classic on biblical money management. It’s a great read.

Ron Blue, the author of the book, has something that I think is pretty good to say with regards to tithing.

But, before I get into what Ron has to say, if you’d rather join our YouTube SeedTime community and watch my discussion about this topic, you can do so here:

God Owns It All

I like the way he wrote it. He says:

“I’m often asked whether couples in a heavy debt situation should tithe or not, and I have two thoughts regarding this.

First of all, tithing is no more or less spiritual than debt repayment if you know that God owns it all. However, because God does own it all, the tithe, as a priority, is a statement of your recognition that God owns it all. In other words, I don’t believe it’s a yes, no question. Rather, it’s a question of what is best relative to the individual and the circumstances.

A person must, however, bear in mind two principles. Number one, God owns it all, and as a priority, giving is commanded in the Bible. The question of whether to use the tithe money to fund debt repayment is a very serious spiritual decision that can only be made with much prayer and godly counsel.

Remember, faith requires a first step without fully understanding and without seeing how it’s all going to work out. Getting out of debt requires elements very typical of the faith walk. In most cases for the Christian, it requires faith to even take the first step.”

Trusting God

One of the problems that many Christians make is they compartmentalize their money, and they think, “Well, I’ll give God 2%, or I’ll give God 10%, but the rest is mine.”

But in reality, if we come back to the Bible, we learn that all of it is God’s. Now that doesn’t mean that He’s going to have us give it all away. That’s not normally what He leads us to do.

The point is that if He did, we should be in a position where we’re willing. We’re that open-handed that we can trust Him that He’s going to provide for our needs if he did lead us down that path.

Obeying God

So with Linda and I, in our particular situation when we were paying off our debt, after praying about it, we not only felt like we were supposed to continue to tithe, but we actually felt like we were supposed to give more.

So for me personally, that was a pretty big challenge because I had run the numbers, and I had figured out how long it was going to take. An increase in our giving was just going to slow that down, or at least according to my estimation.

Looking back on it, I’m really glad that we obeyed and that we followed that leading where the Lord was leading us because we ended up paying that debt off way faster. Years faster than I had planned.

So, even though it was completely counterintuitive and didn’t make sense, God knew what He was doing, and that’s what He led and asked us to do.

My Advice To You

Summing all this up, my advice to you is to take this to the Lord in prayer, see what He’s leading you to do, and then obey.

Do what He says. He knows better than you.

Our Money Mastery Quiz

Hey, thanks so much for watching the video. If you haven’t yet taken our Money Mastery Quiz, be sure to do that.

It’s just a super quick two-minute quiz, and it’s going to help you understand how good you with your money.

And, it’s going to provide a custom report giving you specific suggestions on how you can reach your financial goals up to 10 times faster. Head over to seedtime.com/quiz to get started now.

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About Bob Lotich, CEPF®

Bob Lotich, CEPF® is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance and has over 15+ years experience writing about Biblical personal finance. He is the award-winning author of Simple Money, Rich Life and has been named a top 20 social influencer in personal finance.

Check out his on-demand Christian financial class for couples, small groups and churches called True Financial Freedom.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Gale L. says

    August 25, 2020 at 2:58 pm

    I think that the Lord will bless you if you do what he asks. He has asked us to pay tithe, and if we comply we will be blessed in so many ways.

    Thank you for such a great article, and for sharing a personal experience!

  2. Edmund Ayuk Bawak Egbe says

    August 26, 2020 at 8:06 am

    My opinion ispqy your tithe no matter how scary your depth stress may be. I have seen lots of great things happen as i was commited to this principle. Your debt might not disappear automatically because you stick to the principle , but i know you will enjoy who you become as you grow in the process.

  3. Natalie Quinn says

    August 31, 2020 at 8:11 am

    My opinion ispqy your tithe no matter how scary your depth stress may be. I have seen lots of great things happen as i was commited to this principle. Thanks for sharing

  4. kamran says

    August 31, 2020 at 9:06 am

    Thank you for sharing it.This study is extremely helpful.

  5. Simple Life Money Maters says

    December 4, 2021 at 8:53 am

    Prior to my own financial awakening, my tithing was paltry at best. I gave God the financial scraps left over or that fell to the floor. Sadly, many months we had negative balances and didn’t tithe. Once I got on track and starting climbing out of the pit, I put retirement and tithing on the back burner (temporarily). Once nose below water I started tweaking my approach and now I am giving more that I ever though possible. If on a path that is proving results, I think it is OK to temporarily suspend giving to help get head above water. However, don’t settle in this and have a plan to get back to tithing if it can be done with a happy heart. God loves a cheerful giver.

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