Lower your tithe during debt reduction?

Dear Dave,

My wife and I are currently on Baby Step 2 of your plan. We attend church regularly, and we’ve always made sure we tithed 10% to 15% in the past. Do you think it would be OK to lower our tithe while we’re getting out of debt and working through our debt snowball?

Karl

Dear Karl,

When you look up the Hebrew word “tithe,” it means tenth. Not 10 to 15% – a tenth. I’ve studied Scripture on this subject for about 25 years and taught in Christian settings. But please keep in mind you shouldn’t do this because I gave you a “rule.” I’m not the final authority on this. What we’re about to get into comes from God.

In Proverbs, it refers to the tithe as first fruits, off the top, before anything else. The book of Deuteronomy says to give a tenth of your net increase. Centuries of Protestant Christian teaching has focused on the idea that the tithe goes to the local church, because it’s the New Testament representation of the Old Testament storehouse. The storehouse took care of the Levites, which were the priests – or pastors – and the orphans and widows. Today, the New Testament church is supposed to use it for the same kinds of things: pastor’s salaries and helping people who are struggling.

Before we go any further, I want you to remember one thing. Tithing isn’t a salvation issue. God doesn’t love you more just because you tithe a larger amount than the person sitting next to you in church. God loves you. Period. You’re His child, and He’s going to love you even if you don’t tithe. But He knows what tithing does for us. It makes us focus on something other than ourselves. Doing it makes us less selfish, and more selfless. It makes us a little more Christlike. And he wants us to be giving and loving to the people around us.

Do you see what I’m saying, Karl? God doesn’t need your money. He doesn’t need my money. It was my choice decades ago when I hit bottom financially to continue tithing all the way into bankruptcy court and all the way out. But if someone literally can’t afford to tithe for some reason – or can’t hit 10% and still wants to attend and support a church – I’m pretty sure God understands.

Dave