# Tithes.App > Free online tithe calculator. Enter your paycheck and pay frequency to instantly calculate 10% — the biblical tithe. Source: https://www.tithes.app --- # Calculator The home page (https://www.tithes.app/) is an interactive tithe calculator. Enter the amount on your paycheck before taxes and select a pay frequency. The calculator multiplies the amount by 0.10 (10%) and displays the result formatted as USD. Supported frequencies: Every week, Every other week, Twice a month, Once a month, Annually. --- # Embed Widget Anyone can embed the tithe calculator on their own website for free. The builder at https://www.tithes.app/widget/ generates copy-paste HTML. Two styles are available — full and compact — with a configurable width. The embed is served from https://www.tithes.app/embed/ (use ?variant=compact for the compact style) and runs entirely client-side. Embeds include an attribution link reading "Free Tithes Calculator provided by Tithes.app" linking to https://www.tithes.app. --- # Pillar Pages ## What Is a Tithe? Meaning, Bible Verses, and How It Works URL: https://www.tithes.app/what-is-a-tithe/ Updated: 2026-05-25 A tithe is the first 10 percent of your income brought back to God as worship. Here is what Scripture teaches about tithing, why it matters, and how to start. A tithe is a tenth. The word itself, in Hebrew (*ma'aser*) and Greek (*dekatē*), means exactly that: one-tenth. In Scripture, God's people brought ten percent of what they grew, earned, and gained back to the Lord as an act of worship and trust. That is the short answer. The longer answer is worth your time, because tithing is one of the few places in the Bible where God invites His people to test Him (Malachi 3:10). If you have ever wondered whether the tithe still applies, where the practice came from, or how to actually do it, this page is for you. ## The Tithe Predates the Law Most people assume tithing began with Moses. It did not. The first tithe in Scripture happens in Genesis 14, hundreds of years before the law was given at Sinai. Abram (later Abraham) had just rescued his nephew Lot from a coalition of kings. On the way home, he met Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest of God Most High. Melchizedek blessed Abram. Abram gave him a tenth of everything (Genesis 14:18-20). No commandment forced him. No religious obligation hung over his head. Abram gave the tithe as a free response of worship, acknowledging that his victory belonged to God. A generation later, his grandson Jacob did the same. After his vision of the ladder reaching to heaven, Jacob made a vow: *"Of all that you give me I will give you a tenth"* (Genesis 28:22). Again, no law. Just a man with God's promise on his life, drawing a line in the sand: God gets the first ten percent. This is the part most teaching on tithing skips. Before tithing was ever commanded, faithful people were already doing it. The pattern was set by worship, not by rule. ## The Tithe Under the Law When God formally established Israel as His covenant people, He wrote the tithe into the law: > *"A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord."* (Leviticus 27:30) Tithes in the Old Testament were used for three purposes: - to support the priests and Levites, who had no land of their own (Numbers 18:21-24) - to fund worship gatherings and festivals (Deuteronomy 14:22-26) - to care for the poor, the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan (Deuteronomy 14:28-29) That is worth sitting with. The tithe was not a temple tax. It was the financial backbone of worship, community, and mercy ministry. When the people stopped tithing, the priests went hungry, the festivals collapsed, and the poor were forgotten. That is exactly what happened in Malachi. The people had let their tithes lapse. God called it robbery: > *"Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, 'How are we robbing you?' In tithes and offerings."* (Malachi 3:8) And then He invites them into something almost shocking: > *"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it."* (Malachi 3:10) Nowhere else in Scripture does God invite His people to test Him. Only here. ## What Jesus Said About Tithing Some Christians argue the tithe is an Old Testament practice that died at the cross. Jesus disagreed. In Matthew 23:23, He confronts the religious leaders for tithing on tiny garden herbs while neglecting justice, mercy, and faithfulness. His punch line is easy to miss: > *"You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former."* He did not abolish the tithe. He affirmed it, and then raised the bar. Tithe *and* live justly. Tithe *and* show mercy. Tithe *and* walk faithfully. The tithe was never meant to be the whole story. It was the floor, not the ceiling. Jesus also watched giving carefully. In Luke 21, He sat across from the temple treasury and observed people putting in their offerings. The widow with two small coins caught His attention, not because she gave the most, but because she gave from what she had. Jesus measured giving by sacrifice, not by amount. ## What the New Testament Adds The New Testament does not retract the tithe. It expands the principle. Paul tells the Corinthian believers: > *"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."* (2 Corinthians 9:7) He is not lowering the standard. He is internalizing it. Under the law, the tithe was a rule. Under grace, it is a starting point for hearts that have been changed. Ten percent was the floor for Israel. It is still a faithful floor for Christians today. Many believers go beyond it. Few who follow Jesus seriously give less. ## Why the Tithe Matters If God owns everything (Psalm 50:10-12, Haggai 2:8), He does not need our ten percent. He never did. The tithe is for us, not for Him. Tithing matters because: **It puts God first.** The first ten percent says God comes before bills, before savings, before the next thing you want. The first share, not the leftover share. **It guards your heart from greed.** Jesus warned more about money than almost any other topic. The tithe is one of the most practical ways to keep money in its place. *"You cannot serve both God and money"* (Matthew 6:24). Tithing is a weekly vote against the wrong master. **It funds the church.** Local churches run on the generosity of their people. Pastors, ministry, worship, missions, mercy work, building maintenance, all of it. When believers tithe, the church can do what God called it to do. When believers do not, the church suffers. **It trains your faith.** Tithing is an act of trust. You are saying, with your bank account, *I believe God will provide on ninety percent more reliably than I can on a hundred*. That is not a small thing. It is how faith grows muscles. **It joins you to a long line of saints.** Abraham, Jacob, the priests, the prophets, the early church, your grandparents. Tithing is not a fringe idea. It is a centuries-old habit of God's people. ## Gross or Net? The most common practical question about tithing is whether to give on gross income or net income. The biblical principle is *firstfruits*. The first share, not the leftover share. When Israel harvested grain, they did not pay the king, the merchants, and the storehouse first and then bring God whatever was left. They brought the first basket. Applied to a paycheck, firstfruits points to the gross amount, before taxes. Tithe on what you earned, not on what the government left you with. That said, some Christians tithe on net. They are not in sin. The heart that gives faithfully matters more than the math. If you are starting from zero and ten percent of gross feels impossible, start with ten percent of net. Then grow. The [calculator](/) handles either number. Enter what you want to tithe on. The result is ten percent of that. For a deeper treatment of this question, see [Gross vs Net Tithing](/gross-vs-net-tithing/). ## How to Start If you have never tithed before, here is the simplest possible start. 1. Decide on your number. Take your gross paycheck and multiply by 0.10. That is your tithe. 2. Decide where it goes. The biblical pattern is the local church you are a part of. Not a podcast preacher, not a parachurch ministry first, the local body of believers where you worship. 3. Set it up. Most churches let you give online. Set up an automatic transfer aligned with your pay schedule so the tithe leaves your account before you can spend it. 4. Pray over it. The tithe is not a transaction. It is worship. Tell God what you are doing and why. 5. Trust Him. Watch Him provide. Tell someone about what He does. ## Common Objections **"I cannot afford to tithe."** Most people who tithe will tell you the same thing: they could not afford it before they started, and somehow ninety percent goes further than a hundred ever did. That is the test Malachi 3:10 invites you to run. **"I have debt."** Tithe anyway. The tithe is the first ten percent, not the spare ten percent. Debt is a serious problem, but it is not solved by withholding worship from God. Talk to your pastor. Cut other spending. Keep the tithe. **"My church is not perfect."** No church is. Tithe to the imperfect local body God has placed you in. If you genuinely cannot in good conscience give to your current church, find one you can. **"Is not the New Testament about giving generally, not the tithe specifically?"** Yes, and the tithe is the most faithful starting point for generous giving. It is the floor, not the ceiling. See [Is Tithing Biblical?](/is-tithing-biblical/) for the longer answer. ## What Next - Try the [Tithe Calculator](/) on the homepage to see your number. - Read [How to Calculate Your Tithe](/how-to-calculate-tithe/) for step-by-step guidance on different pay schedules. - If gross vs net is your question, go straight to [Gross vs Net Tithing](/gross-vs-net-tithing/). - For the biblical case, see [Is Tithing Biblical for Christians Today?](/is-tithing-biblical/). The tithe is a tenth. It is also a posture, a practice, and an invitation. Bring the first ten percent. See what God does with the rest. --- ## Should I Tithe on Gross or Net Income? URL: https://www.tithes.app/gross-vs-net-tithing/ Updated: 2026-05-25 Should Christians tithe on gross income or net income? Here is what Scripture teaches about firstfruits, what most pastors recommend, and how to decide. Should you tithe on your gross income or your net income? It is one of the most common questions Christians ask about giving. It is also one of the questions Scripture answers more clearly than people often realize. The short version: the biblical model points to gross. The grace-filled version: a heart that gives faithfully matters more than the spreadsheet. The honest version: most people who tithe on net eventually move to gross, because once you have tasted the joy of firstfruits giving, settling for leftovers feels wrong. Here is the longer answer. ## What Gross vs Net Actually Means A quick definition, because not everyone reading this has spent time in payroll. **Gross income** is what you earned before anything is taken out. Total pay before taxes, before insurance, before retirement contributions, before anything. **Net income** is what hits your bank account. Gross minus federal tax, state tax, Social Security, Medicare, health insurance, retirement, and any other deductions. For a typical American household, net is roughly 70 to 80 percent of gross. The difference between tithing on gross and tithing on net is real money. If you would rather just calculate the number than read the rest of this page, the [Tithe Calculator](/) on the homepage handles either input. Enter gross, get ten percent of gross. Enter net, get ten percent of net. But the math is not really the question. The question is which one is faithful. ## The Biblical Principle: Firstfruits The Bible has a word for what tithing is supposed to look like. It is *firstfruits*. > *"Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops."* (Proverbs 3:9) > *"Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God."* (Exodus 23:19) When ancient Israel harvested grain, olives, or grapes, they did not pay their bills, their merchants, and their household needs first, then bring God whatever was left over. They brought the first basket. The earliest pick. Before they knew if the rest of the harvest would even come in. That is not a math choice. It is a theology choice. Firstfruits says God comes first. Not first after taxes. Not first after rent. First. Period. Applied to a paycheck in the modern world, firstfruits points to gross income. ## Why Gross Is the More Biblical Answer Three reasons most pastors and teachers point to gross. **1. Gross is what you actually earned.** The taxes and deductions taken out of your paycheck are still your income. The government takes its share. Your insurance takes its share. Your retirement plan takes its share. But you earned all of it. Tithing on gross says, *Lord, I am giving you ten percent of what you provided, not ten percent of what is left after everyone else takes their cut.* **2. Net puts the government before God.** When you tithe on net, you are giving God ten percent of what is left after the government has taken its share first. That is not firstfruits. That is leftover-fruits. The government got the firstfruits. God got the rest. **3. Ancient Israel did not have payroll taxes, and they still gave from the top.** Israelite farmers had real costs: seed, labor, animals, storehouse fees, occasional tribute. They did not deduct any of that before bringing the tithe. They brought from the top. The biblical pattern is consistent: give first, trust God with the rest. If you want a one-line rule of thumb: *tithe on what you earned, not on what was left after the government took its cut*. ## The Case Some Make for Net To be fair, here are the arguments for tithing on net. **"I never see that money. It is taxed before it ever reaches me."** True. You also never see the part that goes into your 401(k) automatically, but that does not mean it is not yours. The fact that money is withheld for taxes does not make it not income. Tax-withheld dollars are dollars you earned. **"I do not have a choice about the taxes. They are taken automatically."** Also true. But that is a question about what is taken from you, not about what you should give. The point of the tithe is not to give what feels easy. It is to bring the first share back to God in trust. **"Ten percent of gross is more than I can do right now."** This is a real reason, and it is worth saying clearly: God is not going to reject your worship because you tithed on net. He sees the widow's two coins (Luke 21:1-4) and the cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7) long before He sees the percentage point. If net is your starting place, start there. But aim for gross. Most Christians who keep growing in generosity end up there. **"My church teaches net."** Few do, in my experience, but some do. If your pastor has taught net specifically, ask him why. Then read Malachi 3, Proverbs 3, and Matthew 23:23 and decide for yourself. ## Self-Employed, Side-Hustle, and Unusual Pay Things get more complicated when your income does not come on a clean W-2 with a clear gross. **Self-employed.** Your business has real expenses. You buy materials, pay for software, drive for client meetings. The biblical principle is firstfruits on your *income*, not your *revenue*. Tithe on what you earned (revenue minus legitimate business expenses), before personal taxes, before health insurance, before retirement. Many self-employed Christians do this quarterly when they reconcile their books. **Side income.** If you mow lawns on Saturdays or sell prints on Etsy, tithe on the income from that work. Same rule as a paycheck. Gross of personal taxes. **Bonuses, tax refunds, and windfalls.** Tithe on bonuses (they are part of your gross income for the year). For tax refunds, see [Should I Tithe on My Tax Return?](/articles/should-i-tithe-on-my-tax-return/) — most pastors say no, because you already tithed on that money when you earned it. **Investment income.** Tithe on the gains. If your portfolio grew by $5,000, tithe on $5,000, not on the full balance. **Rental income.** Tithe on net rental income (rent collected minus legitimate property expenses like mortgage interest, repairs, and insurance). Same logic as self-employed. ## Practical Examples Let us run a couple of real numbers. **Example 1: Single, $60,000 salary, no other income.** - Gross annual: $60,000 - Federal + state + FICA + insurance + 401(k): roughly $18,000 - Net: $42,000 - Tithe on gross: $6,000/year ($500/month) - Tithe on net: $4,200/year ($350/month) - Difference: $1,800/year. Real money. **Example 2: Married couple, $120,000 household, two kids.** - Gross annual: $120,000 - All deductions: roughly $30,000 - Net: $90,000 - Tithe on gross: $12,000/year ($1,000/month) - Tithe on net: $9,000/year ($750/month) - Difference: $3,000/year. The cost of about one decent family vacation. Numbers will vary based on your state, your benefits, and your situation. The [Tithe Calculator](/) lets you run yours. ## What If You Cannot Afford Gross Yet? This is the honest tension. For some households, ten percent of gross is hard. Ten percent of net feels barely doable. Twelve percent feels impossible. Two things to hold together. First, the tithe is a starting point of obedience, not a performance benchmark. God is not grading you against a denomination-wide rubric. He sees your heart. Second, the test in Malachi 3:10 is real. *"Test me in this," says the Lord*. People who start tithing routinely report that the math should not have worked, and somehow it did. That is not a prosperity-gospel pitch. It is the testimony of God's people across centuries. Ninety percent really does, somehow, go further than a hundred. If gross is too big a leap right now, start with net. Pray. Trust. See what God does. Then revisit in six months and consider moving up. ## The Bottom Line - The biblical principle is firstfruits. - Firstfruits points to gross income, before taxes. - Most pastors and teachers recommend gross. - Tithing on net is not sin, but it is not the biblical ceiling. - Start where you can. Aim for gross. Keep going. ## Run the Numbers Use the [Tithe Calculator](/) to figure your tithe on either gross or net. It works for any pay frequency: weekly, biweekly, twice a month, monthly, or annually. If you are still working through whether tithing applies to Christians at all, see [Is Tithing Biblical for Christians Today?](/is-tithing-biblical/). If you want a step-by-step on how to set it up, see [How to Calculate Your Tithe](/how-to-calculate-tithe/). And for the foundational case, start with [What Is a Tithe?](/what-is-a-tithe/). The first ten percent says God comes first. Bring it from the top. --- ## How to Calculate Your Tithe URL: https://www.tithes.app/how-to-calculate-tithe/ Updated: 2026-08-02 Step-by-step guide to calculating your tithe from your salary or any pay frequency. Weekly, biweekly, monthly, bonus, or self-employed. Free Tithe Calculator. Calculating your tithe is simple math: multiply your income by 0.10. The harder part is figuring out *what* to multiply by, especially if you get paid in irregular ways. This page walks through every common scenario, with examples. If you just want the number right now, use the [Tithe Calculator](/) on the homepage. Enter your paycheck and pay frequency, and you have your answer in two seconds. If you want to understand what you are doing and why, read on. ## The Formula The tithe is the first ten percent of your income. The formula is the same regardless of how you get paid: > **Tithe = income × 0.10** That is it. There is no hidden multiplier, no special church rate, no denominational adjustment. A tenth is a tenth. The questions worth thinking about are: 1. What counts as income? 2. Should it be gross or net? 3. How do I apply it to my actual paycheck? ## Step 1: Decide Gross or Net This is the biggest decision and the most-asked question. **Gross** is what you earned before taxes and deductions. **Net** is what hits your bank account. The biblical model is firstfruits, which points to gross. Most pastors recommend gross. Some believers tithe on net, especially when they are starting out. For the full case, see [Gross vs Net Tithing](/gross-vs-net-tithing/). For purposes of this page: pick one, be consistent, and aim for gross over time. ## Step 2: Identify Your Pay Frequency Pay frequency is just how often the money shows up. Common patterns: - **Weekly:** Paid every week. 52 paychecks per year. - **Every other week (biweekly):** Paid every two weeks. 26 paychecks per year. - **Twice a month (semi-monthly):** Paid on set dates, usually the 1st and 15th, or 15th and last day. 24 paychecks per year. - **Once a month:** Paid once per month. 12 paychecks per year. - **Annually:** Paid once a year, like an annual contract or some bonus structures. Biweekly and semi-monthly are not the same thing. Biweekly gives you 26 paychecks. Semi-monthly gives you 24. Two months a year, biweekly employees get three paychecks. That is real money, and tithing on the third paycheck is the same as tithing on the first. ## Step 3: Multiply Take the amount you are tithing on and multiply by 0.10. Move the decimal one place to the left, and you have it. A few worked examples. **Weekly, $1,250 gross paycheck:** - $1,250 × 0.10 = **$125 per week** - Annual tithe: $125 × 52 = $6,500 **Biweekly, $2,500 gross paycheck:** - $2,500 × 0.10 = **$250 per paycheck** - Annual tithe: $250 × 26 = $6,500 **Semi-monthly, $2,708 gross paycheck:** - $2,708 × 0.10 ≈ **$271 per paycheck** - Annual tithe: $271 × 24 = $6,504 **Monthly, $5,417 gross paycheck:** - $5,417 × 0.10 ≈ **$542 per paycheck** - Annual tithe: $542 × 12 = $6,504 **Annually, $65,000 salary:** - $65,000 × 0.10 = **$6,500 per year** Notice these all land around the same annual number. They should. The pay schedule changes the rhythm. It does not change the tithe. If math is not your love language, that is what the [calculator](/) is for. Enter the paycheck, pick the frequency, get the number. ## Calculating Your Tithe from Salary The most common version of this question is: *how do I calculate my tithe from my salary?* Same formula, one extra step. A salary is stated annually, but you get paid in pieces, so first figure out what one paycheck actually is. **If you know your annual salary:** 1. Divide the salary by your number of paychecks per year (52 weekly, 26 biweekly, 24 semi-monthly, 12 monthly). 2. Multiply that paycheck by 0.10. A $50,000 salary paid monthly is $4,166.67 per paycheck. The tithe is **$416.67 per month**, or $5,000 per year. A $75,000 salary paid biweekly is $2,884.62 per paycheck. The tithe is **$288.46 per paycheck**, or $7,500 per year. Or skip the division entirely: tithe on the salary once a year, or take ten percent of the annual number and split it however you like. Ten percent of the salary is the tithe no matter how you slice the calendar. One clarification, since "salary" means different things in different places. Your stated salary is gross pay, before taxes and deductions. If you are paid a monthly salary and want to tithe on what you actually earned, use the gross figure on your payslip, not the amount that lands in your account. The [gross vs net question](/gross-vs-net-tithing/) is covered in full on its own page. ## Step 4: Set It Up The hardest part of tithing is not the math. It is the consistency. Almost every church now accepts online giving. Most let you set up recurring transfers. Here is the order I recommend: 1. **Log into your bank** and look at when your paycheck typically posts. 2. **Schedule the tithe to leave the same day or the next morning.** The tithe is the *first* ten percent. Make it leave your account before you can decide whether to spend it. 3. **Match the frequency.** If you get paid biweekly, set the tithe to give biweekly. Same paycheck, same tithe. 4. **Use the church's giving platform** rather than a third-party donor advisor. The money flows directly to the local body. If you would rather give a paper check on Sunday, that works too. Just be honest with yourself about whether you actually do it. ## What Counts as Income The cleanest case is a W-2 paycheck. Gross income is on the stub. Multiply, done. A few other scenarios. **Salaried with bonuses.** Tithe on the bonus when it comes. Bonuses are part of your gross income for the year. **Commission, tips, and irregular pay.** Tithe on what shows up. Some people prefer to total it monthly and tithe at month's end. **Self-employed.** Tithe on income, not on revenue. Income is what is left after legitimate business expenses but before personal taxes. Many self-employed Christians tithe monthly or quarterly when they reconcile their books. **Tax refunds.** Most pastors say no, because you already tithed on that money when you earned it. The refund is your money coming back, not new income. See [Should I Tithe on My Tax Return?](/articles/should-i-tithe-on-my-tax-return/). **Investment gains.** Tithe on realized gains, not on the entire portfolio balance. If you sold stock and made $3,000 in profit, tithe on $3,000. **Inheritance.** This one varies. Many treat large inheritances as a one-time gain and tithe on the full amount. Others tithe on the income generated from the inheritance going forward. Pray and decide. **Gifts.** A gift from another person is generally not income (the giver already tithed on it). A gift from a company or as compensation typically is. **Government benefits, scholarships, grants.** Most Christians do not tithe on benefits like unemployment or food assistance, because they are designed to cover a specific shortfall. Scholarships and education grants are generally not tithed on either. Income earned from a paid scholarship work program would be. These are guidelines, not commandments. The biblical principle is firstfruits on what you earn. Apply it honestly. ## Special Cases **Two-income households.** Total both spouses' gross income for the period, multiply by 0.10. Or each spouse can tithe on their own paycheck. Either works; pick whatever is simpler for your household to manage. **Pay schedule changes.** If your job switches from biweekly to semi-monthly, just adjust the recurring giving to match. The annual tithe is still ten percent of annual income. **Debt.** Tithe anyway. The tithe is the first ten percent, not the spare ten percent. See [Should You Tithe While in Debt?](/articles/should-you-tithe-while-in-debt/) for the longer answer. **Tight months.** Tithe anyway. The point of tithing is trust. Tight months are exactly when the trust muscle gets used. **Lump-sum payments (severance, retirement payouts).** Tithe on the full lump sum. ## A Note on Apps and Tools The [Tithe Calculator](/) on this site is free, requires no signup, and works on any device. Enter your paycheck and frequency. The calculator does the multiplication and shows your tithe instantly. Use it before payday to plan ahead. Use it after to confirm the number. If you are looking for a way to automate giving and tracking, your church's giving platform is usually the right tool. Most major church-management systems (Tithe.ly, Pushpay, Subsplash, Realm, etc.) offer recurring giving with email receipts you can use at tax time. ## The Heart Behind the Math The math is not the hard part. The hard part is what tithing represents. Every time you click "give," you are saying, with your bank account, that God comes first. Not first after the bills. Not first after the savings. First. Period. That order matters more than the math. But the math is also worth getting right, which is why pages like this exist. Open the [calculator](/). Get your number. Set up the recurring gift. Then live the rest of the month on ninety percent and watch what God does. ## Keep Going - [What Is a Tithe?](/what-is-a-tithe/) — meaning, biblical case, and where the tithe comes from - [Gross vs Net Tithing](/gross-vs-net-tithing/) — the case for tithing on gross - [Is Tithing Biblical for Christians?](/is-tithing-biblical/) — the New Testament case - [Should You Tithe While in Debt?](/articles/should-you-tithe-while-in-debt/) — the practical question The tithe is a tenth. Calculate it honestly. Give it consistently. Trust God with the rest. --- ## Is Tithing Biblical for Christians Today? URL: https://www.tithes.app/is-tithing-biblical/ Updated: 2026-05-25 Is the tithe still binding under the new covenant? A look at what the Old Testament commanded, what Jesus affirmed, and what Paul taught about Christian giving. Is tithing still biblical for Christians? You will hear two confident answers. Some say *yes, ten percent is the minimum, the New Testament never repeals it*. Others say *no, the tithe was an Old Testament ceremonial law that died at the cross, and Christians give freely from the heart*. Both camps have verses. Both camps have pastors. So how do you decide? The honest answer is that the New Testament does not repeal the tithe and does not lower the bar. It expands the principle and internalizes it. The Christian who gives generously *and* uses the tithe as a faithful starting point is on solid ground. The Christian who skips the tithe because "we are not under the law" is usually skipping the generosity, too. Here is the case. ## Tithing Before the Law The first thing to notice is that tithing did not start with Moses. It started with Abraham. In Genesis 14, Abram defeats a coalition of kings to rescue his nephew Lot. On the way home, he meets Melchizedek, a priest of God Most High. Melchizedek blesses him. Abram gives him *"a tenth of everything"* (Genesis 14:20). No law existed yet. No covenant required it. Abram gave a tithe as an act of worship. A generation later, his grandson Jacob made the same move. After his vision at Bethel, Jacob vowed: *"Of all that you give me I will give you a tenth"* (Genesis 28:22). Again, before the law. This matters because it puts tithing in a different category than ceremonial laws like animal sacrifice or kosher food rules. Those began with Moses. The tithe began with the patriarchs. It is older than the law it was later written into. When the New Testament says Christians are *"not under law but under grace"* (Romans 6:14), it is not erasing patterns of worship that predated the law and run all the way through Scripture. It is freeing us from the law's condemnation, not its wisdom. ## Tithing Under the Law When Moses wrote the law, the tithe was codified: > *"A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord."* (Leviticus 27:30) Israel's tithes funded three things: - **The priests and Levites.** They had no land of their own. The tithe was their livelihood (Numbers 18:21). - **Worship and festivals.** Tithes paid for the gatherings where the nation worshiped together (Deuteronomy 14:22-26). - **Mercy ministry.** Every third year, the tithe went to *"the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow"* (Deuteronomy 14:28-29). The tithe was not a temple tax. It was the financial structure that kept worship, community, and mercy alive in Israel. The prophets took the tithe seriously. When Israel stopped tithing, the priests went hungry, the festivals collapsed, and the poor were forgotten. Malachi's confrontation is the strongest: > *"Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, 'How are we robbing you?' In tithes and offerings."* (Malachi 3:8) And then God invites them to test Him: > *"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it."* (Malachi 3:10) Nowhere else does God invite His people to test Him. Only with the tithe. ## What Jesus Said This is where the question gets sharper. Jesus came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17). Some teachers argue He fulfilled the tithe out of existence. The text says otherwise. > *"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices, mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former."* (Matthew 23:23) Read that last sentence carefully. *You should have practiced the latter* (justice, mercy, faithfulness) *without neglecting the former* (the tithe). Jesus does not abolish the tithe. He affirms it. Then He raises the bar. The tithe was never meant to be the whole story. It was the floor. Walk in justice. Show mercy. Live faithfully. *And* tithe. The Pharisees' problem was not that they tithed. It was that they tithed and forgot the heart. In Luke 21, Jesus watches people give at the temple treasury. He sees a widow drop in two small copper coins, *"all she had to live on"* (Luke 21:4). He calls her giving greater than the rich, who gave large amounts from their abundance. Jesus measures giving by sacrifice and trust, not by amount. Neither passage suggests the tithe is finished. Both suggest the heart behind the tithe matters most. ## What Paul Taught The clearest New Testament teaching on Christian giving is in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. Paul is raising money for famine relief in Jerusalem. He writes: > *"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."* (2 Corinthians 9:7) Some read this and conclude the New Testament has no standard, just *give what you feel like giving*. That is not what Paul is doing. Paul is writing to people whose context already assumed the tithe. He is not lowering the bar to "whatever you feel." He is internalizing it. Under the law, the tithe was a duty. Under grace, it is a starting point for hearts that have been changed. A few verses earlier, Paul holds up the Macedonian church: > *"In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability."* (2 Corinthians 8:2-3) That is not "give a small amount because we are under grace now." That is *give beyond your ability*. The New Testament direction is more, not less. Paul also writes: > *"On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income."* (1 Corinthians 16:2) Regular, consistent, proportional. That is exactly the pattern of the tithe. ## The Argument That Tithing Was Only Ceremonial The strongest case for "tithing is not for Christians today" usually runs like this: 1. The tithe was part of the Mosaic law. 2. Christians are not under the Mosaic law. 3. Therefore, Christians are not bound to tithe. There is truth in step one and step two. The problem is step three. The Mosaic law has three traditional categories: moral law (e.g., do not murder, do not steal), ceremonial law (e.g., sacrificial system, dietary rules, festival regulations), and civil law (e.g., property disputes, governance of Israel as a nation). Christians widely agree the ceremonial and civil law are not binding on the church. The moral law continues, because it reflects God's unchanging character. Where does the tithe fit? If the tithe began with Moses, it would be reasonable to call it ceremonial. But the tithe started with Abraham and Jacob, before Moses. It is woven into worship from Genesis forward. And Jesus affirmed it in the gospels. Tithing functions less like a ceremonial law and more like the Sabbath: a pre-law worship pattern that the law codified, that Jesus affirmed and reframed, and that grace does not abolish but rather deepens. That is why the historic church, from the earliest centuries through the Reformation, treated the tithe as a continuing expectation for believers, even when the legal forms varied. ## A Continuing Pattern, Not a Legal Code Here is the way I would put it. Christians today are not under the Mosaic law. We do not bring grain offerings to a temple. We do not stone Sabbath-breakers. We do not give every third-year tithe to the Levite at the city gate. The legal structure is gone. But the principle underneath the tithe is everywhere in Scripture, before the law and after it: - God is the owner of everything (Psalm 24:1). - We worship Him with the first share, not the leftover share (Proverbs 3:9). - Generous, regular, proportional giving is a mark of faith (1 Corinthians 16:2, 2 Corinthians 9:7). - Money is a master we must dethrone (Matthew 6:24). - God invites His people to test His faithfulness in giving (Malachi 3:10). If the principle remains, the question is just how to live it out today. Ten percent is the most faithful and historic answer. It is the starting point Abraham used, the floor Moses commanded, the practice Jesus affirmed, and the rhythm Paul assumed. A New Testament Christian who tithes is not stuck in the old covenant. A New Testament Christian who refuses to tithe is usually not giving beyond it either. ## What This Means in Practice If you have walked through Scripture and concluded the tithe is not binding, you should still be giving generously, regularly, and proportionally. *"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart"* (2 Corinthians 9:7) is not a permission slip to give little. It is a charge to give thoughtfully and consistently. If you have walked through Scripture and concluded the tithe is a faithful starting point, go and do it. Set up automatic giving. Multiply your paycheck by 0.10. Bring it to your local church. Watch what God does. For most Christians, ten percent is exactly the right floor, with offerings on top. That is the historical norm. It is the pattern Scripture sets. And it does not slip a foot under either covenant. ## Run the Numbers If you are ready to take a next step, use the [Tithe Calculator](/) on the homepage to find your number. Enter your paycheck, pick a frequency, and you have your tithe in two seconds. If you want to keep reading: - [What Is a Tithe?](/what-is-a-tithe/) — meaning, history, and how to start - [Gross vs Net Tithing](/gross-vs-net-tithing/) — which number to multiply by 0.10 - [How to Calculate Your Tithe](/how-to-calculate-tithe/) — step-by-step for any pay structure The tithe predates the law, was commanded under the law, was affirmed by Jesus, and was assumed by Paul. The pattern holds. Bring the first ten percent. --- ## How Much Should I Tithe? URL: https://www.tithes.app/how-much-should-i-tithe/ Updated: 2026-08-02 The biblical tithe is 10% of your income. Here is where that number comes from, what it looks like in real dollars, and what to do if you cannot afford it yet. Ten percent. That is the answer Scripture keeps giving, from Abraham in Genesis to Malachi's temple warning to Jesus in the Gospels. The word itself tells you as much: tithe comes from the Hebrew *maaser*, which just means "a tenth." Not a suggestion, not a range, not "give what feels right." A tenth. That does not mean the question stops there. People asking "how much should I tithe" usually want to know something more specific: gross or net, before or after tax, what that looks like against their actual paycheck, and what to do when 10% feels out of reach. This page works through all of it. ## Where the 10% Comes From The tithe percentage is not a modern church tradition someone invented to fund a building fund. It shows up early, and it shows up consistently. **Abraham and Melchizedek (Genesis 14:20).** The first tithe in Scripture happens before the Law existed. Abraham returns from rescuing Lot, meets Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, and gives him a tenth of everything he had recovered. No command told him to. He just did it, and the writer of Hebrews later treats this as foundational (Hebrews 7:2). **The Law formalizes it (Leviticus 27:30).** Once Israel is a nation with land and harvests, the tithe becomes structured. *"A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord."* Not 5%, not "whatever you can spare." A tenth, set apart as holy before it is spent on anything else. **Malachi's confrontation (Malachi 3:10).** Centuries later, Israel had drifted from this. Malachi calls it out directly: > *"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it."* (Malachi 3:10) The word "whole" matters. God was not accusing Israel of giving nothing. He was accusing them of giving part of the tithe and keeping the rest. Malachi 3:8 calls this robbery. **Jesus affirms it without loosening it (Matthew 23:23).** Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for tithing down to their spice rack, mint, dill, and cumin, while ignoring justice, mercy, and faithfulness. But look at what he does not say. He does not tell them to stop tithing the spices. *"You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former."* The tithe stands. It was never meant to replace justice and mercy, but it was never dismissed either. **Paul reframes the posture, not the principle (2 Corinthians 9:7).** The New Testament does not repeat "give a tenth" as a line-item command the way Leviticus does. Instead Paul writes, *"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."* This is often read as loosening the number. It is better read as addressing the heart behind the number. The tenth remains the historical, consistent pattern; cheerful and willing is the posture it is supposed to come from. ## Was There More Than One Tithe in Israel? Old Testament scholars point out that Israel's law actually describes more than one tithe, which is worth knowing even though it does not change the answer for a Christian today. Leviticus 27:30 and Numbers 18:21 describe the tithe given to support the Levites, who had no land inheritance of their own. Deuteronomy 14:22-27 describes a second tithe, brought to Jerusalem and eaten there as part of a festival meal before the Lord, a kind of sacred family feast funded by the tithe itself. And every third year, Deuteronomy 14:28-29 describes a tithe set aside for the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, essentially a welfare tithe. Some scholars read these as three separate 10% obligations across a rotation of years, which would put Israel's total giving well above 10% in some years. Others read them as overlapping descriptions of the same basic tithe used for different purposes. Either way, the takeaway for a Christian asking "how much should I tithe" is not that you owe multiple layered tithes. It is that the Old Testament pattern of giving was never stingy, and the tenth was the floor of a much larger culture of provision for worship, feasting, and the poor. ## What Percent Is Tithe: The Short Answer If you just need the number: 10%. Not 10% of your gross minus your rent minus your car payment minus what you have left after Netflix. Ten percent of your income, calculated before you start subtracting your life from it. The exact base, gross or net, is its own question, and it deserves its own answer. See [Gross vs Net Tithing](/gross-vs-net-tithing) for the full case. Short version here: gross is the more consistent biblical pattern, because firstfruits means first, not "first after the government and the insurance company take theirs." ## How Much to Tithe in Real Dollars Percentages are easy to say and hard to feel. Here is what 10% looks like at three common income levels, broken into weekly and monthly numbers so you can see it against a real budget. | Annual Income | Monthly Tithe (10%) | Weekly Tithe (10%) | |---|---|---| | $40,000 | $333 | $77 | | $60,000 | $500 | $115 | | $100,000 | $833 | $192 | A household making $40,000 a year giving 10% is setting aside about $77 a week. A household at $100,000 is looking at $192 a week, or roughly $833 a month. These are gross-income numbers. If you tithe on net instead, expect the figure to run 15-25% lower depending on your tax bracket and deductions. None of this accounts for your specific pay schedule, filing status, or whether you are salaried, hourly, or self-employed. Rather than doing this math by hand every pay period, use the [Tithe Calculator](/) on the homepage. Enter your income and pay frequency, and it gives you the exact number, weekly, biweekly, monthly, or annually. For a biweekly paycheck, the math shifts slightly because you are working with 26 pay periods a year instead of 12 months. On a $60,000 salary, a biweekly check is roughly $2,308, and 10% of that is about $231 per paycheck. On $100,000, a biweekly tithe lands around $385. If your income varies month to month, a commission job, tips, or seasonal freelance work, calculate the tithe on each check or each deposit rather than trying to estimate an annual average up front. It is easier to stay consistent that way, and it keeps the tithe tied to what you actually earned that period. ## Gross or Net: A Quick Word This deserves more than a paragraph, which is why it has its own page, but the short version matters here too. Gross income is everything you earned before taxes and deductions. Net income is what actually lands in your bank account. The Bible's firstfruits language (Exodus 23:19, Proverbs 3:9) points toward giving from the top, before anything else is subtracted, which is the argument for gross. Tithing on net is not condemned anywhere in Scripture, and plenty of faithful Christians do it, especially when they are just starting the practice. If you want the full reasoning on both sides, along with dollar examples showing exactly how much the choice affects your annual giving, read [Should I Tithe on Gross or Net Income?](/gross-vs-net-tithing). And once you have decided, [How to Calculate Your Tithe](/how-to-calculate-tithe) walks through the step-by-step process for irregular pay, self-employment income, and bonuses. ## What If You Cannot Afford 10%? This is the question underneath the question for a lot of people. They are not asking "what percent is tithe" out of curiosity. They are asking because 10% feels impossible against their current budget, and they want to know if there is grace for less. There is grace, and there is also a real answer worth being honest about. The tithe was never meant to be a number you hit only once you have margin. It was meant to be the first commitment, made in faith, before you know how the rest of the month works out. That is uncomfortable to hear when money is tight. It is also the actual pattern in Malachi 3:10: bring it first, then watch what happens. If 10% genuinely is not possible right now, because of debt, a job loss, or a season where the math does not work, start with what you can give and hold it as a direction, not a finish line. A family giving 3% faithfully and growing toward 10% over two years is living out the tithe more than a family that decided 10% was too hard and gave up on giving altogether. If debt specifically is what makes 10% feel out of reach, that question gets a full treatment in [Should You Tithe While in Debt?](/articles/should-you-tithe-while-in-debt). Short version: yes, keep tithing, but the article walks through how to think about it without ignoring your obligations to creditors. ## Giving Beyond the Tithe The tithe is the floor, not the ceiling. Scripture distinguishes between the tithe, which was structured and expected, and offerings, which were voluntary and additional. Israel's calendar included freewill offerings on top of the tithe (Deuteronomy 16:10), and the New Testament pattern of generosity, the widow's two coins (Luke 21:1-4), the Macedonian churches giving beyond their ability (2 Corinthians 8:1-5), points past 10% as a ceiling. Ten percent is where obedience starts. Where it ends is between you and God, and for a lot of generous people, it does not end at 10%. Practically, this is where a church budget line gets split. The tithe usually goes to your local church, the body that feeds you spiritually week to week. Offerings can go anywhere: a missionary you support, a benevolence fund, a family in your church going through a hard season, a ministry outside your denomination entirely. Keeping that distinction in mind, tithe to the local church, offerings wherever conviction leads, tends to simplify the question of how much and where. ## What Most Christians Actually Give Here is an uncomfortable number. Research on American church giving has put the average at roughly 2 to 3 percent of income for decades, not 10. That gap between the biblical standard and the practiced average is wide, and it has stayed wide for decades regardless of how many sermons get preached on Malachi 3. Knowing that gap exists does not change what the tithe is. It just means that giving a full 10% puts you in a smaller group than you might expect, and that starting the practice at all is already a meaningful step past where most people land. ## Common Variations on the Question **How much tithe should Catholics give?** The Catholic Church does not enforce a strict 10% requirement the way some Protestant traditions teach it, but tithing as a spiritual discipline is encouraged, and many Catholic parishes and dioceses still teach the biblical tenth as the guiding standard alongside broader stewardship of time and talent. **How much should Christians tithe compared to other faiths?** The 10% figure is specific to the biblical tradition, rooted in Abraham, the Law, and Malachi. Whatever other traditions teach about giving, the Christian tithe traces back to those same texts and lands on the same number every time. **Is tithe based on income before or after retirement contributions?** Retirement contributions come out of gross pay, so if you tithe on gross, you tithe before that deduction too. It is still money you earned, even if you never touch it directly. ## Run Your Number You do not need to keep doing this math in your head every payday. Use the [Tithe Calculator](/) to enter your income, gross or net, and your pay frequency, and get your exact tithe amount in seconds. If you are still working out the basics, start with [What Is a Tithe?](/what-is-a-tithe) for the foundational case, then move to [How to Calculate Your Tithe](/how-to-calculate-tithe) once you know your number and want to build the habit. --- # Articles ## What Are Tithes Used For? Where the Money Actually Goes URL: https://www.tithes.app/articles/what-are-tithes-used-for/ Date: 2026-08-17 Author: Tithes.App Editorial Team What are tithes used for, biblically and today? The Levites, the temple, the poor in Scripture. Staff, buildings, and missions in a modern church budget. Someone puts a check in the plate or taps their card on the giving kiosk, and it disappears into the church's general fund. Fair question: where does it actually go? Scripture answers this directly, and the answer has not changed much in three thousand years. The tithe funded people, a place, and the vulnerable. It still does. ## What the Tithe Funded in the Bible ### The Levites, Because They Owned No Land When Israel divided up the promised land, eleven tribes got territory. The tribe of Levi got none. *"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"* (Numbers 18:21). The Levites ran the tabernacle, later the temple. That was their full-time work, and it left no time to farm or raise livestock the way the other tribes did. God's solution was not a special offering plate. It was the tithe, redirected from the other eleven tribes to the one tribe that served everybody else. Numbers 18:24 makes the logic explicit: the tithe stood in place of the inheritance the Levites never received. Verses 25-28 add a wrinkle worth noting - the Levites themselves tithed on what they received, giving a tenth of the tenth to the priests. Nobody was exempt, not even the people running the system. ### The Temple and the Worship Happening There Malachi 3:10 is the verse everyone quotes: *"Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house."* The storehouse was a literal room in the temple complex where the tithe was collected and stored, then distributed to the Levites and priests for their support and for temple upkeep. Centuries later, Nehemiah found that storehouse empty. The Levites had gone back to farming because nobody was bringing the tithe, and temple worship had stalled out for lack of funding. Nehemiah 13:12 records the fix: *"Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses."* Restore the funding, restore the worship. The connection between the two was not incidental. It was the whole point of the system. ### The Festival Tithe, Eaten Before the Lord Not every tithe in the Old Testament left the giver's hands. Deuteronomy 14:22-27 describes a tithe the family brought to Jerusalem and ate themselves, in God's presence, as a feast. *"And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose... the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil"* (14:23). If you lived too far to carry the actual grain and wine, you converted it to silver, traveled to Jerusalem, and spent that silver on whatever your appetite wanted - herd or flock, wine or strong drink (14:26) - and ate it as a family celebration before God. This one gets skipped in most tithing sermons because it complicates a simple "give it away" message. But it is in the text. Part of what the tithe funded was joyful worship, a family celebrating God's provision together, not just institutional upkeep. ### The Third-Year Tithe, for the Poor Among You Every third year, the destination changed again. *"At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe... and you shall give it to the Levite... and to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow"* (Deuteronomy 14:28-29). This was not a suggestion tacked onto the main system. It was a scheduled, built-in redistribution to the people with no land, no inheritance, and often no advocate: the foreigner working someone else's field, the child who lost his father, the widow with no husband to provide. Put the layers together and a clear picture forms. The tithe was never one thing. It was worship infrastructure (the temple), income for the people who ran that infrastructure (the Levites), a family's own act of celebration (the festival tithe), and a safety net for the people society tends to forget (the poor, the widow, the orphan, the foreigner). ## What Churches Do With It Today Walk into a healthy church's finance committee meeting and you will find the same four categories, wearing modern names. **Staff salaries.** This is usually the largest single line item, and it should not surprise anyone. Pastors, worship leaders, children's ministry staff, administrators - they work for the church the way the Levites worked for the tabernacle. Paul draws the line straight from Numbers 18 to the New Testament church: *"The laborer deserves his wages"* (1 Timothy 5:18), applied specifically to elders who "labor in preaching and teaching" (5:17). A pastor drawing a salary from tithes is not a compromise of the system. It is the system, doing what it was built to do. **Building and operations.** Utilities, mortgage or rent, maintenance, insurance, the unglamorous cost of having a physical place to gather. This is the modern equivalent of temple upkeep - less dramatic than Nehemiah's storehouse repairs, same basic function. A building is not the church, but the church needs somewhere to be the church. **Ministries.** Kids' programs, youth group, small groups, counseling, worship production. This is where a lot of the discipleship and community actually happens week to week, funded the same way the festival tithe funded worship: so people can gather, eat, celebrate, and grow together. **Missions and benevolence.** Support for missionaries, church plants, and local benevolence funds for members hitting a genuine crisis. This is the clearest modern echo of the third-year tithe - money set aside on purpose for people with real need, inside the church and beyond it. Budgets vary by church size, denomination, and region, and that is fine. What should not vary is transparency. A healthy church publishes its budget, or makes it available to anyone who asks. If a church won't tell you where the money goes, that is worth paying attention to before you keep giving. ## Where Should You Give Your Tithe? Malachi calls the local church "the storehouse." That is where the tithe goes first - the church that feeds you, teaches you, and walks with you. If you want to read the fuller case for why the tithe belongs to the local church specifically, see [What Is a Tithe?](/what-is-a-tithe/) Giving beyond that, to a missions organization, a parachurch ministry, a friend planting a church in another city, is good and biblical. Scripture just frames it differently. That is offering, layered on top of the tithe, not a substitute for it. If you're unsure how the two categories differ in practice, [Tithes vs Offerings](/articles/tithes-vs-offerings/) works through it. And if you have not landed on a number yet, [How Much Should I Tithe?](/how-much-should-i-tithe/) walks through gross versus net and what ten percent actually looks like on a real paycheck. You can run your own numbers with the [tithe calculator](/) in under a minute. ## The Short Version The tithe was never a blank check into a void. In the Old Testament it paid the people who served full time at the tabernacle, kept the temple running, funded a family's own worship, and fed the poor on a fixed schedule. Today it pays your pastor, keeps the lights on, runs the ministries that disciple your kids, and reaches people your church may never meet. Same four categories. Same reasoning. Ask your church where the money goes. A good one will be glad to tell you. --- ## Tithing in the New Testament: What Did Jesus Actually Say? URL: https://www.tithes.app/articles/tithing-in-the-new-testament/ Date: 2026-08-12 Author: Tithes.App Editorial Team Is the tithe in the New Testament? Yes, a few times. Here is every passage, what Jesus told the Pharisees about tithing, and what it means for you today. Search "tithe in the new testament" and you'll find the word barely shows up. A handful of verses, most of them Jesus talking to Pharisees, one of them a writer in Hebrews looking centuries back at Abraham. No epistle says "thou shalt tithe ten percent." So what do you do with that? Some people take the silence as an exit. If the New Testament barely mentions it, the tithe must have died with the old covenant. Others point to the verses that are there and say Jesus settled it. Both readings skip past what's actually on the page. Let's look at every New Testament passage that uses the word, then ask what the New Testament pattern of giving actually looks like once you widen the lens past that one word. If you haven't read the fuller case for whether tithing carries into the new covenant, [Is Tithing Biblical for Christians Today?](/is-tithing-biblical/) walks through the Old Testament foundation this article builds on. Read that first if you want the whole arc. This one stays inside the New Testament. ## Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42: Jesus Rebukes the Pharisees, Not the Tithe The two clearest New Testament tithing verses come from the same rebuke, recorded twice. > "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices, mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former." (Matthew 23:23) Luke records the same confrontation almost word for word: > "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone." (Luke 11:42) People quote the first half of this verse and stop. Jesus calls out the Pharisees, so tithing must be the problem, right? Read the whole sentence. Jesus names two things: the tithe, and justice, mercy, faithfulness. He doesn't say drop the tithe and pick up justice. He says do both. "Without neglecting the former" is Jesus explicitly telling them to keep tithing while they fix what they'd let die. This is the single clearest word Jesus ever gave on tithing, and it's an affirmation wrapped inside a rebuke. The sin wasn't the ten percent. It was tithing down to the herb garden while ignoring the poor person at the gate. ## Luke 18:12: The Pharisee's Boast The other place the word shows up in the gospels is a parable, and it's a warning, not an endorsement of the speaker. > "I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get." (Luke 18:12) This is the Pharisee praying in the temple, comparing himself favorably to the tax collector nearby. Jesus isn't holding up his tithing as the model. He's holding up the tax collector, who won't even lift his eyes to heaven and prays "God, have mercy on me, a sinner" (Luke 18:13). Jesus says that man, not the tither, went home justified. Does this mean tithing is worthless? No more than fasting is worthless because a hypocrite also fasts. The parable isn't rating the practice. It's rating the heart behind the practice. A tithe offered as proof of your own righteousness accomplishes nothing. That's true of a tithe, a fast, a Bible reading plan, or a mission trip. The problem was never the ten percent. ## Hebrews 7:1-10: Tithing Predates the Law by Centuries The most theologically loaded New Testament tithing passage isn't in the gospels at all. It's the writer of Hebrews making an argument about Jesus' priesthood, and the argument only works if the tithe means something specific. Hebrews 7 retells Genesis 14: Abraham, returning from battle, meets Melchizedek, a priest-king with no recorded genealogy. Abraham gives him a tenth of everything. > "This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything." (Hebrews 7:1-2) The writer's whole point is that Melchizedek's priesthood outranks the Levitical priesthood that came later, because Abraham, the father of the Levites, paid tithes to Melchizedek generations before Levi existed. "One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham" (Hebrews 7:9). That's a strange sentence unless the tithe already carried real weight as an act of worship, not a Mosaic invention. This is the passage that matters most for the "is tithe in the New Testament" question, because it's the New Testament's own commentary on where the tithe came from. Not Sinai. Genesis. Abraham gave a tenth to Melchizedek in Genesis 14:20, and his grandson Jacob independently vowed the same thing at Bethel: "Of all that you give me I will give you a tenth" (Genesis 28:22). Both moments happen centuries before Moses receives the Law. Hebrews doesn't quietly assume this. It builds an entire argument on it. ## So Is Tithing Old Covenant Law? Here's the honest version of the objection, because it deserves a real answer, not a strawman: the tithe was codified in the Mosaic law (Leviticus 27:30, Numbers 18:21), Christians aren't under the Mosaic law (Romans 6:14, Galatians 3:25), so the tithe ended with the law. The first two claims are true. The conclusion doesn't follow, and Hebrews 7 is exactly why. If the tithe started at Sinai, that argument would hold up fine. It didn't. Abraham tithed before there was a law to keep. Jacob tithed before there was a law to keep. The Law took an existing act of worship and gave it structure, funding priests, festivals, and the poor (Deuteronomy 14:22-29). When the Law's ceremonial and civil structures fell away at the cross, the worship pattern underneath them didn't automatically fall with it, any more than prayer or gathering to worship did, and neither of those started at Sinai either. Then Jesus, centuries after Malachi and centuries before the church existed, tells the Pharisees to keep tithing. That's a strange thing to say if the practice was about to expire. We'll say plainly what we think: tithing is not an Old Covenant relic that Jesus tolerated on his way to something better. It's a worship pattern older than the Law that Jesus affirmed and the New Testament's giving instructions build on top of. We hold that with conviction. We also think the Christian who says "we're not under law, so I give whatever I feel like" and then gives less than ten percent has usually talked themselves out of generosity, not into freedom. ## What the Rest of the New Testament Says About Giving Once you step past the word "tithe" itself, the New Testament has plenty to say about money, and none of it points toward less. Paul's fullest teaching on Christian giving is 2 Corinthians 8-9, where he's raising relief funds for famine-stricken believers in Jerusalem. He praises the Macedonian churches, who gave "in the midst of a very severe trial" and "as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability" (2 Corinthians 8:2-3). Then comes the verse people lean on to argue the tithe is gone: > "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." (2 Corinthians 9:7) Read in context, that isn't Paul lowering the bar to spare change. He's writing to churches that already understood tithing as the baseline. He's addressing the attitude, not inventing a new, lower number. Cheerful and decided in your heart describes how you give, not a license to give less. Paul gives one more instruction, this one procedural: "On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income" (1 Corinthians 16:2). Regular. Proportional. Planned in advance. That's the tithe's rhythm even where the word doesn't appear. And the early church in Jerusalem went further still. "All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need" (Acts 2:44-45). Nobody in Acts 2 is calculating ten percent. They're pooling everything. If you're looking for New Testament evidence that giving got easier after the cross, Acts 2 says the opposite. Put those together and a pattern emerges. Nowhere does the New Testament tell believers to give less than the tithe. Every instruction, cheerful giving beyond your ability, weekly proportional saving, communal generosity that erases the concept of "mine", assumes more, not less. The floor doesn't move. The ceiling disappears. ## Where This Leaves You The New Testament doesn't hand you a tithing statute the way Leviticus does. What it hands you is better: Jesus affirming the practice to the Pharisees' faces, Hebrews tracing it back past Moses to Abraham, and Paul pushing giving past ten percent rather than under it. If you came looking for a verse that cancels the tithe, it isn't there. If you came looking for permission to give less than generously, that isn't there either. Ten percent is still the most honest starting point Scripture gives you. For more on how it fits with the whole of Scripture, read [Is Tithing Biblical for Christians Today?](/is-tithing-biblical/). If you want the plain definition and history first, start with [What Is a Tithe?](/what-is-a-tithe/) For help landing on your actual number, [How Much Should I Tithe?](/how-much-should-i-tithe/) walks through gross versus net and what to do with irregular income. Or skip straight to the math. Run your paycheck through the [tithe calculator](/) and see what the first ten percent looks like this week. --- ## Do You Tithe on Bonuses, Business Income, and Other Irregular Money? URL: https://www.tithes.app/articles/tithing-on-bonuses/ Date: 2026-08-10 Author: Tithes.App Editorial Team Yes on bonuses, business profit, gifts, and side income. No on loans. Here is how to tithe on every kind of irregular money, with the reasoning behind it. A bonus lands in your account and the first question is not "how much do I owe the IRS." It's "do I owe God ten percent of this." Here's the rule, and it covers every kind of irregular money you'll ever ask about: the tithe applies to increase. Increase means new income that comes to you and becomes yours to keep. If it's increase, tithe it. If it isn't, don't. A bonus is increase. Tithe it. A loan is not increase. You owe it back, so don't tithe it. Everything else in this article is that same test applied to a different situation. ## Bonuses and Windfalls A bonus is the easiest case in this whole article. It's money your employer gave you, on top of your regular pay, because of performance or profit or a good year. It's yours now. It's increase. Tithe on the full bonus, the same percentage you tithe on your regular paycheck. If you tithe ten percent of gross, tithe ten percent of the gross bonus before taxes come out. The same logic covers a work bonus, a signing bonus, a commission spike, a year-end profit share, or a one-time award. None of it is different in kind from your salary. It's just less predictable in timing. Some people treat irregular income differently than regular income, like the tithe only applies to the "real" paycheck. Scripture doesn't make that distinction. Proverbs 3:9 says to honor the Lord "with the firstfruits of all your crops" - all your increase, not just the predictable kind. ## Business Owners and the Self-Employed This is where we get the most questions, and it's the one worth slowing down on. If you own a business, you do not tithe on gross revenue. You tithe on profit - your draw, your distribution, whatever you actually take home as your own money. Here's why that matters. Say your business brings in $40,000 in a month. Out of that, $15,000 goes to inventory, $12,000 goes to payroll, $5,000 goes to rent and overhead, and you take home $8,000. Your revenue was $40,000. Your increase was $8,000. The $32,000 that went to suppliers and employees and your landlord was never yours. It passed through your hands on its way to someone else. You can't tithe on money you never owned. This is the same principle Proverbs 3:9 is describing when it says firstfruits of your "crops." A farmer doesn't tithe on the whole field. He tithes on the harvest - what the field actually produced after the seed and the labor and the cost of getting it to market. Your business is your field. Your profit is your harvest. Tithe on the harvest. Practically, that means: Track your draw or distribution, not your invoices. If you pay yourself a regular salary from the business, tithe on that salary as it hits your personal account. If you take irregular distributions, tithe on each distribution when you take it, or settle up on your total draw at the end of the year if your cash flow is uneven month to month. Don't tithe twice on the same dollar. If you already tithed on a distribution when you took it, don't tithe on it again when it shows up on your K-1 or your year-end profit statement. Pick one point in the cycle and be consistent. One question we'll leave open: whether you subtract self-employment tax and retirement contributions before you tithe. That's the [gross vs net question](/gross-vs-net-tithing/) wearing a business owner's clothes, and the same principle applies. Firstfruits points to tithing before taxes come out. Decide once, be consistent, and don't let the accounting become an excuse to shrink the number. ## Side Hustles Same rule, smaller scale. If you drive for a rideshare app on weekends, sell things you make, freelance on the side, or run any kind of side income alongside a regular job, tithe on what you actually keep after the direct costs of doing the work. Gas, materials, platform fees, and the tools you had to buy to do the job aren't your increase. What's left after those costs is. If your side hustle nets you $400 in a month after expenses, that $400 is what you tithe on, not the $600 you grossed before costs. ## Social Security This one deserves an honest answer, not a tidy one. If you tithed on your gross income throughout your working life, you already tithed on the money that funded your Social Security benefit. In that sense, the principal isn't new income. You gave on it once already, years ago, before it ever went into the system. But your benefit isn't just your own contributions coming back to you. It includes growth, and in most cases it includes more than you and your employer put in, funded through the wider system rather than a dollar-for-dollar return of your money. That growth portion looks a lot like increase. The common teaching we'd point you to: tithe on the growth, or give as conviction leads once you're receiving benefits, rather than either ignoring the check entirely or tithing on the full amount as if it were brand new income. There's no verse that settles this precisely, and we'd rather tell you that than pretend there is. Sit with your pastor and your own conscience on the exact number. What matters more than the math is that you don't quietly stop giving once the paycheck becomes a benefit check. ## Gifts and Inheritance Yes, tithe on these. A gift someone hands you, or money you receive from an inheritance, is increase. It came to you and it's now yours. The source doesn't change what it is. We know this one feels different, especially with an inheritance that carries grief along with it. But the test hasn't changed - is this new money that's now yours? Then bring the firstfruits of it, the same as you would any other increase. ## Loans No. A loan is not increase, and you should not tithe on it. When you take out a loan, whether it's a mortgage, a car loan, a business line of credit, or money borrowed from a family member, that money isn't yours. You owe it back, usually with interest. It passes through your hands and it's already spoken for. There's no increase to tithe on, because nothing was added to what belongs to you. You took on debt, not income. This is worth stating plainly because we've had people ask, half-joking, whether a big loan "counts" as a blessing they should tithe on. It doesn't. Save your giving for the money that's actually yours. ## Tax Refunds, Briefly A tax refund isn't new income either, in most cases. It's your own paycheck money that the government withheld and is returning to you, and if you tithed on gross income through the year, you already tithed on it. We've written a full breakdown, including the real exceptions, in [Should I Tithe on My Tax Return?](/articles/should-i-tithe-on-my-tax-return/). ## Investment Gains Worth a short word here too. If you sell an investment for more than you put into it, the gain is increase. The principal you originally invested isn't - you likely already tithed on that money when you first earned it - but the growth on top of it is new. Tithe on the gain when you realize it. ## The Test That Covers All of It Every category above reduces to the same question: did this become new money that's mine to keep, or did it pass through me on its way somewhere else, or come back to me as something I already owned? New and mine: tithe it. A bonus, business profit, a side hustle's net, a gift, an inheritance, investment gains, the growth portion of Social Security. Not new, or not mine: don't tithe it. A loan, the principal you already tithed on, money moving through your business to suppliers and staff. If you're still working out the mechanics of gross versus net, or want the foundational case for tithing before applying it to a specific paycheck, start with [How to Calculate Your Tithe](/how-to-calculate-tithe/) and [Gross vs Net Tithing](/gross-vs-net-tithing/). And if you want a full breakdown of how much of your income the tithe actually covers, read [How Much Should I Tithe?](/how-much-should-i-tithe/). Use the [Tithe Calculator](/) to run the numbers on any bonus, distribution, or irregular payment you've received. Firstfruits, on whatever the increase is. Trust God with the rest. --- ## How Often Should You Tithe? Weekly, Monthly, or Per Paycheck URL: https://www.tithes.app/articles/how-often-should-you-tithe/ Date: 2026-08-05 Author: Tithes.App Editorial Team How often should you tithe? Give when you're paid, not on a fixed calendar. The biblical case, plus worked examples for weekly, biweekly, and monthly giving. People ask this like there is a rulebook hiding somewhere with a specific day circled. There is not. The Bible commands the *proportion*, not the frequency. A tenth is a tenth, whether you give it every Friday or once a year. The practical answer, though, is simpler than most people expect: tithe when you get paid. Paul gives us the closest thing to a schedule in 1 Corinthians 16:2, writing to a church collecting relief funds: *"On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income."* Notice what he ties the giving to. Not the calendar. Not the church budget cycle. Income. Whatever rhythm your income arrives on, that is the rhythm your giving should follow. ## The Old Testament Pattern Points the Same Direction Long before Paul wrote to Corinth, the firstfruits principle already worked this way. *"Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops"* (Proverbs 3:9). A farmer did not bring firstfruits on a fixed date picked off a calendar. He brought them when the harvest came in. Barley ripened in spring, wheat later, grapes and olives in fall. The offering followed the harvest, not the other way around. Your paycheck is your harvest. It shows up on its own schedule, and your tithe follows it there. ## Weekly, Biweekly, Monthly, or Annual: Pick the One That Matches Your Paycheck The honest answer to "how often should I tithe" is not weekly or monthly in the abstract. It is whatever matches how you get paid. A few common setups: **Weekly.** If you get a paycheck every Friday, tithe every Friday. This is the closest match to Paul's "first day of every week" language, and it keeps the habit tight, since there is never more than seven days between one tithe and the next. **Every other week (biweekly).** Most salaried workers in the U.S. get paid this way, 26 times a year. Tithe on payday. Two months a year you will get a third check; tithe on that one too. **Twice a month (semi-monthly).** Common for salaried staff paid on, say, the 15th and the last day of the month. Same principle: tithe each check as it lands. **Monthly.** Some salaries, most self-employed income, and a lot of small-business owners settle income once a month. Tithe once a month, on the same day the income clears. **Annually.** Rare, but valid. Farmers, some commission-based workers, and people with irregular windfalls sometimes give once a year. It works, but it is the hardest pattern to sustain, for reasons below. None of these is more spiritual than the others. What matters is that the tithe comes off the top of the check, every time a check comes, rather than out of whatever is left after the month's spending is done. ## A Worked Example: $60,000 a Year The math does not change based on frequency. Only how often you do it changes. Take a $60,000 gross salary: - **Weekly:** $60,000 ÷ 52 = $1,153.85 per paycheck. Tithe: **$115/week**. - **Biweekly:** $60,000 ÷ 26 = $2,307.69 per paycheck. Tithe: **$231/paycheck**. - **Monthly:** $60,000 ÷ 12 = $5,000 per month. Tithe: **$500/month**. Add it up across a year and every one of those lands at the same $6,000. Frequency does not change the total. It only changes how the total gets broken into pieces, and how often you practice the discipline of giving first. The same math scales down or up with your income. On $48,000 paid monthly, that is $400/month. On $36,000 paid weekly, that is $69/week. The frequency you choose does not change what you owe. It only changes how many times a year you practice writing that check. Run your own numbers with the [Tithe Calculator](/) on the homepage. It has a frequency toggle for weekly, biweekly, twice-monthly, monthly, and annual pay, so you can plug in your actual paycheck and get the exact figure instead of doing the division by hand. ## Irregular Income: Tithe When It Lands Not everyone has a clean paycheck. Freelancers, commission-based salespeople, business owners, and gig workers often get paid in lumps that do not follow a weekly or monthly rhythm at all. The principle holds anyway: tithe when the income lands. A freelance invoice clears, tithe on it before it disappears into the checking account. A commission check comes in, tithe on it that week. Do not wait for some imaginary "average month" to arrive, because it never quite does. For a full breakdown of how to handle bonuses, self-employment income, and other non-standard pay, see [How to Calculate Your Tithe](/how-to-calculate-tithe/). ## Automate It Like a Bill, First Not Last The single biggest reason people drift off tithing is not theology. It is order of operations. If the tithe is the last thing paid, after rent, groceries, subscriptions, and everything else, it competes with an already-spent paycheck and usually loses. Set it up as a recurring transfer or a recurring gift to your church, scheduled for the same day your paycheck lands. Treat it like a bill that is due before any other bill, because that is exactly what firstfruits means. Automating it removes the monthly decision entirely. You are not deciding whether to tithe each pay period. You already decided, once, and the system carries it out. ## Can You Tithe Annually? Yes. Nothing in Scripture forbids it. But an annual tithe asks more of you than a per-paycheck tithe does, for a simple reason: twelve months of spending happens between the income and the giving. By the time the year is up, a large annual gift competes with a year's worth of other plans for that money, and the temptation to shrink it, delay it, or quietly skip it is much stronger than it is week to week. Matching your giving to your pay schedule keeps the habit honest. It is harder to rationalize skipping a $115 tithe on Friday than it is to talk yourself out of a $6,000 check in December. If you currently give annually and it works, keep going. If it does not, moving to per-paycheck giving is usually the fix. ## The Short Version Tithe when you are paid. Weekly paycheck, weekly tithe. Monthly salary, monthly tithe. Irregular income, tithe on each deposit as it comes. The Bible's concern is the proportion, a tenth, given first. The frequency is just whatever gets that tenth out the door consistently, on the same rhythm God is already using to provide for you. For the "what counts as income and gross versus net" questions, read [Gross vs Net Tithing](/gross-vs-net-tithing/) and [How Much Should I Tithe?](/how-much-should-i-tithe/). For the step-by-step math on any pay schedule, see [How to Calculate Your Tithe](/how-to-calculate-tithe/). Or skip straight to the [Tithe Calculator](/) and get your number now. --- ## Tithes vs Offerings: What's the Difference? URL: https://www.tithes.app/articles/tithes-vs-offerings/ Date: 2026-08-03 Author: Tithes.App Editorial Team A tithe is the first ten percent, commanded and defined in Scripture. An offering is anything given beyond it, freewill, in whatever amount you're led to give. A tithe is the first ten percent of your income. It's not a suggestion or a guideline, it's the portion Scripture defines and calls you to bring. An offering is everything you give beyond that. There's no set percentage on an offering. You give it as you're led, for a specific need or cause, on top of the tithe rather than instead of it. That's the whole distinction. The tithe is fixed and commanded. The offering is voluntary and open-ended. Most of the confusion around these two words comes from churches using "tithes and offerings" as a single phrase for the collection plate, which blurs a line the Bible actually draws pretty clearly. Get the order right and the rest of this is simple. Tithe first, off the top. Offering after, whatever you're moved to give beyond it. Confuse the order and you'll end up treating both like the same optional category, which is exactly the mistake this article is here to prevent. ## What the Bible Means by "Tithe" The tithe shows up early and stays consistent. "And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD's: it is holy unto the LORD" (Leviticus 27:30). That's a tenth, set apart, called holy. Not a tenth of what's left over after expenses. A tenth off the top. Malachi 3:8 is the verse most people know without realizing it's the one they know: "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings." This is the verse that pairs the two words, and it's worth noticing what it does. God names them as two separate things in the same sentence. Tithes. And offerings. If they meant the same thing, He wouldn't need both words. The tithe is the baseline. It's not up for negotiation based on how the month went. If you want the full case for why, [What Is a Tithe?](/what-is-a-tithe/) walks through it in depth, and [How Much Should I Tithe?](/how-much-should-i-tithe/) covers the gross-versus-net question people ask right after. ## What Counts as an Offering An offering is different in kind, not just in size. Exodus 35:29 describes the people building the tabernacle: "The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the LORD, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing." Willing is the operative word. Nobody was told how much. They gave because they wanted to. Paul makes the same point to the Corinthians about a relief offering for the church in Jerusalem: "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7). Notice there's no percentage attached. Paul doesn't say ten percent, or five percent on top of the tithe. He says give what you've decided in your own heart, and give it cheerfully. That's the offering in a sentence. It's not commanded the way the tithe is. It's a response, prompted by something specific, given at an amount you set. You can see the same pattern earlier in Exodus. Moses had to tell the people to stop bringing materials for the tabernacle because they'd already given more than the work required (Exodus 36:6-7). Nobody sets a quota and has that problem. That's what a freewill offering looks like when it's working the way it's supposed to. ## How Much Should Each One Be The tithe is ten percent. That part isn't ambiguous, and it's the same across every honest reading of the text. Use the [tithe calculator](/) to get the exact number for your income and pay schedule if you haven't already. The offering doesn't have a number attached to it, and that's by design. It's sized to the need in front of you and what you're able to give beyond your tithe. Some months that's nothing extra. Some months it's significant, because a missionary is raising support or a family in your church just lost a parent. The tithe is the same every paycheck. The offering moves. People sometimes ask if there's a floor or ceiling on offerings, some minimum percentage on top of the tithe that makes you "generous enough." There isn't one. Scripture is oddly quiet on offering percentages precisely because it's not that kind of gift. A widow's two mites and a wealthy man's large check can both be exactly right, because the measure isn't the amount, it's the willingness behind it (Mark 12:41-44). ## What Offerings Look Like in a Modern Church Most churches take offerings for things that fall outside the general fund the tithe supports. A few common categories: **Missions.** A special collection to send or support missionaries, often tied to a missions Sunday or a specific trip. **Benevolence.** Money set aside to help a family in the congregation with rent, medical bills, or a sudden loss of income. **Building funds.** A capital campaign for a new building, a renovation, or paying down a mortgage on the property. **Love offerings.** A gift given to bless a specific person, often a guest speaker, a retiring pastor, or a missionary home on furlough. It's called a love offering because that's exactly what it is, not owed, given out of affection and gratitude. Every one of these is optional. You can be a fully tithing member of a church and never give to a single one of them, and you haven't failed to give what's required. You've simply chosen where your extra giving goes, or chosen not to give extra that month. ## The Confusion at the Offering Plate Here's where most people get tangled up. Sunday morning, the usher passes a plate, and someone announces it's time to collect "tithes and offerings." One basket, one moment, two different obligations rolled into a single phrase. People walk away thinking the words are interchangeable, and we understand why. The church itself uses them that way from the pulpit. But collecting them together doesn't make them the same thing. It just means the offering plate is convenient for gathering both kinds of giving at once. Your ten percent is still the tithe, still commanded, still due regardless of your mood or your month. Anything past that, whatever you drop in beyond the ten percent, is the offering, and it's yours to decide. If your church only ever says "tithes and offerings," it's worth knowing which part of your giving is which, if only so you're not confused about what's required and what's a gift. ## Order Matters Bring the tithe first. Not what's left after the offering, not whatever feels comfortable after everything else is paid. The tithe comes off the top, the same way firstfruits came off the top of the harvest in Israel. Then, if you're able and led to give more, the offering comes on top of that. Reverse the order and you'll usually end up shortchanging the tithe. People who try to figure out their giving as one lump sum ("I'll give what I can this month") tend to give less overall than people who separate the two: ten percent, non-negotiable, then whatever else on top. Treat the tithe like a bill that's already spoken for, and let the offering be what it actually is, a response instead of an obligation. If you're weighing why any of this matters in the first place, [Why Should I Tithe?](/articles/why-should-i-tithe/) makes the case from the ground up. And if you haven't run your own numbers yet, the [tithe calculator](/) takes less than a minute. --- ## 6 Common Questions About Tithing, Answered URL: https://www.tithes.app/articles/6-questions-about-tithing-answered/ Date: 2026-05-25 Author: Tithes.App Editorial Team Short, biblical answers to the six questions about tithing we hear most often. Gross or net? What about debt? Can I designate my tithe? Honest answers, with verses. The first tithe check is usually the hardest one. You sit down, look at the numbers, and your stomach tightens. There are bills you have not paid yet, expenses you have not planned for, and a balance that feels too thin already. You pray something honest, like *"God, please let there be enough at the end of the month."* That is normal. Tithing is an act of trust, and trust takes practice. Here are the six questions we get asked most often, with the shortest faithful answers we can give. ## 1. What is a tithe? A tithe is a tenth. The Hebrew and Greek words behind it mean exactly that, one-tenth. In Scripture, God's people bring ten percent of their income back to the Lord through the local church, as an act of worship. For the longer answer, see [What Is a Tithe?](/what-is-a-tithe/). ## 2. Why tithe at all? Because money is the most common substitute god, and the tithe is one of the most practical ways to keep it in its place. Jesus said it plainly: *"You cannot serve both God and money"* (Matthew 6:24). Tithing is a weekly vote against the wrong master. It also, frankly, works. When God invites His people to tithe, He also invites them to test Him: > *"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse... test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it."* (Malachi 3:10) People who actually start tithing tend to say the same thing afterward: somehow, ninety percent goes further than a hundred ever did. ## 3. Gross or net? The biblical principle is firstfruits, which points to gross. Proverbs 3:9 says, *"Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops."* Israel did not pay the merchants and tax collectors first and then bring God whatever was left. They brought the first basket. Applied to a paycheck, that points to gross income, before taxes. If gross feels impossible right now, start with net. But aim for gross over time. For the full case, see [Gross vs Net Tithing](/gross-vs-net-tithing/). ## 4. Should I tithe on gifts, scholarships, or windfalls? Most pastors say yes on gifts that function as income, and yes on windfalls (lottery winnings, inheritances treated as a one-time gain). Scholarships and grants are usually not tithed on, because they are tied to a specific purpose (tuition) rather than free income. Tax refunds are the most-asked exception. Most pastors say no, because you already tithed on that money when you earned it. The refund is your own money coming back. See [Should I Tithe on My Tax Return?](/articles/should-i-tithe-on-my-tax-return/) for the longer answer. The principle to apply is straightforward: tithe on what God provides as income, not on money you have already tithed on. ## 5. What if I am in debt? Tithe anyway. The tithe is the first ten percent, not the spare ten percent. Debt is real. It is also not solved by withholding worship from God. The path forward is to bring the tithe and then aggressively reorganize the rest of your spending to pay debt down. Talk to your pastor. Get on a written plan. Cut the things that need to be cut. But do not cut the tithe. If you are wrestling with this honestly, see [Should You Tithe While in Debt?](/articles/should-you-tithe-while-in-debt/). ## 6. Can I designate my tithe? Generally, no. The tithe goes to the local church for the church to deploy. The whole point of the tithe is trusting God, through the local body, to do more with that money than you could. Designated giving is what *offerings* are for. Offerings are over and above the tithe, and they can be directed wherever God prompts you, including the church's specific funds, missionaries, or mercy ministries you support. The simple rule: the tithe goes to the church for the church's discretion. Offerings can go where God leads. ## A Word About the Heart The most common mistake with tithing is to focus on the dollar amount instead of the heart. The number matters. Ten percent is the biblical baseline, and it is worth getting right. But the number is not the point. The point is that every paycheck, you stop and say with your bank account, *God, You come first. Before the bills, before the savings, before the next thing I want. You. Period.* The math is a tool. The posture is the worship. ## What Next - Try the [Tithe Calculator](/) to figure your number for your next paycheck. - For the foundational case, see [What Is a Tithe?](/what-is-a-tithe/). - For the New Testament case, see [Is Tithing Biblical for Christians Today?](/is-tithing-biblical/). - For the gross-vs-net question, see [Gross vs Net Tithing](/gross-vs-net-tithing/). Bring the first ten percent. Trust God with the rest. --- ## Should I Tithe on My Tax Refund? URL: https://www.tithes.app/articles/should-i-tithe-on-my-tax-return/ Date: 2026-05-25 Author: Tithes.App Editorial Team Should you tithe on a tax refund? Short answer - no, in most cases, because you already tithed on that money when you earned it. Here is the reasoning, with a few exceptions. Short answer: in most cases, no. You already tithed on that money when you earned it. A tax refund is not new income. It is your own money coming back to you. The longer answer is worth thinking through, because tithing on a refund is one of the most common questions we get from Christians who tithe on gross income. ## What a Tax Refund Actually Is A tax refund is the difference between what your employer withheld from your paychecks during the year and what you actually owed in taxes. If too much was withheld, the government returns the difference. That is what a refund is. It is not a gift. It is not a bonus. It is your own paycheck money, held by the government for a year, returned to you in the spring. Here is the timeline that matters: 1. You earned $X in gross income last year. 2. You tithed on that gross income through the year. Ten percent of $X went to your church. 3. The government withheld more than it needed. 4. In April, they return some of that money. That refund is part of the $X you already tithed on. Tithing on it again would be tithing on the same dollars twice. ## Why People Get Confused The confusion usually starts because the refund *feels* like new money. It hits your bank account in a lump sum, often at a time when you have not been thinking about it. It feels like a windfall. People feel guilty keeping all of it. The feeling is honest. The math is just wrong. The money was already yours, and you already brought God His ten percent of it when you earned it. ## When You *Should* Tithe on Tax-Related Money There are a few real exceptions. **If you tithed on net all year.** If you only tithed on take-home pay, then yes, the refund is income you did not yet tithe on. Tithe on it. **If you got a tax credit you did not earn.** Some credits (like the earned income tax credit, or certain stimulus payments) put money in your pocket beyond what you withheld. That portion functions as new income, not a refund of your own money. Tithe on it. **If you are self-employed and the refund is from quarterly overpayments.** Same principle. You already tithed on the income, so the refunded portion of the quarterly payments is yours again. Do not tithe twice. **If you are not sure.** Tithe on the refund. You will not break anything by giving a little extra to your church. God never accuses anyone of being too generous. ## The Practical Rule Here is the cleanest way to think about it: - Tithe on income when it comes in, not when it comes back. - If you tithe on gross, you have already covered tax refunds. - If you tithe on net, the refund is new income to tithe on. - When in doubt, tithe. Generosity is never wasted. ## A Note on Offerings There is a separate category worth naming. *Offerings* are above and beyond the tithe. They can be given any time, any amount, to anywhere God prompts. If your refund hits and you feel God leading you to give some of it as an offering, do it. That is different from tithing on it as required obedience. It is generosity flowing out of an already-obedient heart. That is the New Testament pattern Paul describes: > *"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."* (2 Corinthians 9:7) Tithe on the income when you earn it. Then, with the rest, listen to God about what offerings He wants you to give. ## The Bigger Point You cannot outgive God. That is not a slogan. It is the testimony of God's people through centuries. *"The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it"* (Psalm 24:1). The dollars in your bank account are not yours to begin with. They are entrusted to you for a season. The tithe is just the first ten percent acknowledgment of that. Everything else is up to you and the Lord. ## Keep Reading - [What Is a Tithe?](/what-is-a-tithe/) — the foundational case - [Gross vs Net Tithing](/gross-vs-net-tithing/) — why gross is the firstfruits model - [6 Common Questions About Tithing](/articles/6-questions-about-tithing-answered/) — quick answers to the most common questions Use the [Tithe Calculator](/) to figure your tithe for any income or pay frequency. Multiply, give, and trust God with the rest. --- ## Should You Tithe While in Debt? URL: https://www.tithes.app/articles/should-you-tithe-while-in-debt/ Date: 2026-05-25 Author: Tithes.App Editorial Team Should you tithe while paying off debt? Short answer - yes. The tithe is the first ten percent, not the spare ten percent. Here is how to think about it biblically and practically. This is one of the most common reasons people delay starting to tithe: *"I will tithe once my debt is paid off."* It sounds reasonable. It is also, almost always, a mistake. The tithe is the first ten percent, not the spare ten percent. If you wait until you can comfortably afford to tithe, you will probably never start, because life will always find a way to fill the margin. Here is the case for tithing even while you are in debt, with a few practical guardrails. ## The Tithe Is Not the Problem If you are honest about your situation, the tithe is probably not what is keeping you in debt. A typical American household with $5,000 in monthly take-home pay would tithe roughly $700 a month on gross. That is real money. But for most people in debt, the monthly cost of the debt itself (car payments, credit cards, student loans, lifestyle creep) is multiples larger than the tithe would be. The problem is rarely the tithe. The problem is usually spending. Cutting the tithe to pay down debt is treating a symptom while leaving the disease alone. ## What Scripture Says The Bible does not give a specific text on tithing-while-in-debt. It does give us a few principles that point clearly in one direction. **Firstfruits, not leftover-fruits.** *"Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops"* (Proverbs 3:9). The principle of firstfruits says God comes first, before bills, before the next thing you want, before paying down what you owe. The whole point of firstfruits is that you bring it *before* you know how the rest of the math is going to work out. **The widow's two coins.** Jesus highlights a widow who gives all she has (Luke 21:1-4). She was, by any reasonable measure, in a worse financial position than most people reading this. Jesus praises her giving as greater than the rich. **The test in Malachi 3:10.** God invites His people to test Him on the tithe. Not when they feel comfortable. Not when their balance sheets line up. Specifically when they had been neglecting it because of (in their case) drought and economic pressure. None of these are about debt directly. All of them point to the same posture: God first, even when the math is tight. ## The Practical Path Here is the honest path we would recommend for someone in debt. **1. Bring the tithe back to the front of the line.** If you are not currently tithing, start. Ten percent of gross, automatic, on the same cadence as your paycheck. Yes, even with the debt. Especially with the debt. This is the firstfruits move. It says, with your bank account, that God is first and you trust Him to provide for the rest. You will not pay off debt faster by withholding worship from God. You will pay it off faster by getting the rest of your spending in order. **2. Get the rest of your spending honest.** Pull up your bank statements. Look at every category. Most households in debt are leaking money on things that have nothing to do with the tithe: eating out, subscriptions, lifestyle creep, impulse purchases, financing things they could not afford in cash. Cut hard. The tithe is not where the cut goes. The cut goes everywhere else. **3. Get on a written debt-payoff plan.** Pick a method (debt snowball, debt avalanche, whatever works for your psychology) and follow it. Throw every dollar you free up at the smallest or highest-interest debt until it is gone. Then roll that payment into the next debt. Repeat. This is the boring, grinding part of getting out of debt. The tithe is not slowing it down. The lack of a plan is. **4. Talk to your pastor.** If you genuinely cannot make the math work, talk to your pastor. Most churches have people who do this kind of counseling for free. Many have benevolence funds for real financial crises. Your pastor would almost certainly rather walk through your situation with you than have you skip the tithe out of fear. ## A Real Caveat There is a small category of situations where we would say differently. If you are in a genuine financial crisis (job loss, medical emergency, divorce, unsafe living situation) and you cannot put food on the table, you and your pastor should pray and decide together. God is not interested in you starving. He is also generally not in the business of canceling worship over a temporary crisis. For ninety-five percent of "I have debt" situations, though, the answer is the same: tithe. The debt is not the problem. The lack of a plan is. ## What the Test Looks Like Here is what often happens when someone in debt starts tithing. The first month, it feels impossible. You watch the balance. You worry. Something has to give, and you do not know what. The second month, you find the cuts. You realize you have been spending money on things you would not miss. The debt does not magically disappear, but the bleeding slows. By month three or four, you have a plan. You are tithing. You are paying down debt faster than you expected. And you have started to believe, somewhere in your gut, that God really does provide. That is the testimony of God's people. Not magic. Not prosperity gospel. Just the slow, ordinary work of obedience producing trust, and trust producing better stewardship. ## A Closing Word If you are reading this looking for permission to skip the tithe until your debt is gone, we are not going to give it to you. Not because we are harsh, but because we would not be doing you any favors if we did. The tithe is the first ten percent. It comes first. It says God is first. The debt is a problem to solve, not a reason to stop worshiping God with your money. Start the tithe today. Get on a debt plan tomorrow. Trust God to do what He has done for His people for thousands of years. ## What Next - Use the [Tithe Calculator](/) to figure your tithe for any pay schedule. - See [What Is a Tithe?](/what-is-a-tithe/) for the foundational case. - See [Gross vs Net Tithing](/gross-vs-net-tithing/) for the firstfruits principle in detail. - See [6 Common Questions About Tithing](/articles/6-questions-about-tithing-answered/) for quick answers to other questions. Tithe first. Pay down debt second. Trust God with the rest. --- ## Why Should I Tithe? URL: https://www.tithes.app/articles/why-should-i-tithe/ Date: 2026-05-25 Author: Tithes.App Editorial Team Why do Christians tithe? Four reasons rooted in Scripture - obedience, partnership with God, the right place for money in your heart, and the slow transformation of becoming generous. A tithe is a tenth. In Scripture, God commands His people to bring ten percent of their income back to Him through the local church (Malachi 3:10). When you say that out loud, the usual responses are honest ones: *"What? I cannot afford that."* *"Is not that an Old Testament thing?"* *"People do not actually do that anymore, do they?"* *"The Bible says it, so I do it."* Each of those reactions is worth taking seriously. But the question underneath all of them is the same: *why tithe at all?* Here are four reasons, each one rooted in Scripture, that the historic church has held to. None of them are about money. All of them are about who God is and who you are becoming. ## Where the Tithe Comes From Before the reasons, a brief on the history. The tithe did not start with Moses. The first tithe in Scripture is Abraham giving a tenth of the spoils of war to Melchizedek, a priest of God (Genesis 14:18-20). That is centuries before the law. Abraham was not commanded. He gave the tithe as worship. A generation later, Jacob made the same vow at Bethel: *"Of all that you give me I will give you a tenth"* (Genesis 28:22). Again, before the law. When God formally codified Israel as His covenant people, He wrote the tithe into the law: > *"A tithe of everything from the land... belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord."* (Leviticus 27:30) Tithes funded the priesthood, the festivals, and care for the poor (Numbers 18:21, Deuteronomy 14:22-29). When the people stopped tithing, the priests went hungry and the poor were forgotten. That is the backdrop for Malachi's confrontation. When Jesus came, He did not abolish the tithe. He affirmed it and raised the bar. To the religious leaders who tithed on tiny garden herbs while neglecting justice and mercy, He said: *"You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former"* (Matthew 23:23). Tithe *and* live justly. Tithe *and* show mercy. The tithe is the floor, not the ceiling. The early church kept giving regularly, generously, and proportionally (1 Corinthians 16:2, 2 Corinthians 9:7). The historic church has held the tithe as a faithful baseline ever since. For the longer biblical case, see [Is Tithing Biblical for Christians Today?](/is-tithing-biblical/). Now the four reasons. ## 1. Obedience, and God Always Blesses Obedience God wants your obedience more than your words about Him. Jesus said it directly: *"If you love me, keep my commands"* (John 14:15). God specifically promises to reward obedience in tithing. Malachi 3 is the strongest text on this. God rebukes His people for neglecting the tithe, calling it robbery. Then He issues a challenge unlike anywhere else in Scripture: > *"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it."* (Malachi 3:10) Nowhere else does God invite His people to test Him. Only here. This is not the prosperity gospel. God is not a vending machine. He does not promise material wealth as a return on tithed dollars. He promises blessing, which is a much bigger and slower thing than money. But He does promise it, and the testimony of God's people across centuries is that He keeps the promise. When you are obedient with what you have, you show God that you love Him and that He can trust you with more (Luke 16:10). ## 2. You Get to Partner With God in Ministry God does not need your money. He owns everything and can do anything. In Psalm 50:9-12, God reminds Israel: > *"I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it."* God could feed His own ministry without you. He chooses not to. When God commands you to bring the tithe to the local church, He is inviting you into His work. Not because He needs the money, but because He wants you in the work. The pastor preaching this Sunday, the kids' ministry leader teaching a five-year-old that Jesus loves her, the mercy ministry buying groceries for a struggling family, the missionaries on the other side of the world, the building that keeps the lights on for worship — your tithe funds all of it. God does not have to work through you. He chooses to (1 Corinthians 16:2). That is a privilege, not a tax. ## 3. You Put Money in Its Place Bringing the tithe is a tangible reminder that everything you have is on loan from God. He is your provider and your protector (Hebrews 13:5). Every person has the same choice: put your hope in money, or put your hope in the Lord. You cannot do both. Jesus said it bluntly: > *"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."* (Matthew 6:24) Money is not evil. Wealth is not sin. The Bible has plenty of wealthy faithful people. But money is a *master*. It wants your devotion. It promises security it cannot deliver. It will rule your life if you let it. Tithing is one of the most practical ways to keep money in its place. Every paycheck, you stop and say with your bank account: *My hope, my trust, and my security are in You, not in this account balance. Here is the first ten percent to prove it.* That posture matters more than the amount. ## 4. You Are Transformed Jesus taught that *"where your treasure is, there your heart will be also"* (Matthew 6:21). Tithing is a way to let your treasure train your heart. This is the reason that is hardest to explain to someone who has never tithed. Tithing is an act of the will, not a response to a feeling. You decide to be generous before you feel generous. You set up the automatic giving when the math feels tight. You give when you do not want to. And something happens. The first month, you watch the balance. The second month, you watch it less. By the fifth or sixth month, you barely think about the tithe. The act of obedience produces a kind of trust you did not have before. The act of giving produces a kind of joy you did not have before. The fear of scarcity loses some of its grip. That is not a marketing pitch. It is the slow, ordinary work of obedience reshaping a heart over time. If you wait until you feel generous to give, you will never start. If you start giving anyway, you will eventually feel something you have never felt before: a quiet confidence that God has been worth trusting, all along. ## What Next - Use the [Tithe Calculator](/) on the homepage to figure your number. - Read [What Is a Tithe?](/what-is-a-tithe/) for the foundational meaning. - Read [How to Calculate Your Tithe](/how-to-calculate-tithe/) for step-by-step on any pay schedule. - If you are tithing for the first time, set up automatic giving today. The tithe is a tenth. It is also a habit, a posture, and a slow training of the heart. Bring the first ten percent. See what God does with the rest. ---