Tithe
The first 10% of your income, given back to God through your local church. The word literally means "a tenth."
Start Your Tithing Journey
The Tithe & the Seed.
Whether you grew up in church or you're just exploring faith, this is a plain-words guide to what the Bible teaches about giving. The heart of it is simple: when you put your finances in God's hands, you're positioned for blessing.
FirstThe tithe
ThenThe seed
AndThe harvest
Before We Start
Bible words about giving.
New to church, or new to giving? The Bible uses many words when it talks about giving. These are the ones you'll see on this page.
Offering
Anything you give above the tithe. When it's given in faith, the Bible calls it a seed.
Sowing
Planting seed. The Bible often pictures giving as a farmer planting a field.
Harvest
What God grows from what you've sown. It isn't always money.
Storehouse
The Bible's word for the place the tithe is brought. Today, that's your local church.
Part One
It starts with God.
Before we talk about our giving, we start with what God has given us. Everything we have comes from Him, and the greatest gift He ever gave was His Son.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son" (John 3:16). God is the first giver. We don't give to earn His love or to pay our way to heaven. We can't earn it, and we don't have to. Jesus already paid the price for our sins on the cross. We give because He gave first, and because we trust Him.
Jesus once told a story about a wealthy man who went on a long trip and left his money with his servants, "each according to his ability" (Matthew 25:14-30). The money was never theirs. It came from the master's hand, and their job was to take good care of it.
That story is a picture of us: everything we have belongs to God, and He trusts us to take good care of it. Very few people get money straight from the Master's hand. Most of us receive it through a job, a business or a paycheck. It's easy to confuse the way money reaches us with where it comes from.
Think of the modem in your house. When it stops working, we say "the internet is down," but the internet isn't down. The modem is. The modem connects you to the internet, but it isn't the internet. In the same way, your job connects you to God's provision, but your job isn't your source. God is.
Money doesn't come from your work. It comes through your work.Pastor Jason
That's freeing. If your job isn't your source, then changing jobs, losing a job or starting something new doesn't cut you off from God's provision. And it changes how giving feels. If it all came from God in the first place, giving isn't losing something. It's trusting God with what was always His. Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21). When we give to God, our hearts follow our money toward Him.
And God isn't against you doing well. The Bible says the Lord "has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant" (Psalm 35:27, NKJV). He cares about your finances, and He has a plan for them. Giving is a big part of that plan, but not all of it. Living on a budget, getting out of debt and growing your income matter too. Giving doesn't replace wise money decisions. It puts God first in them.
Part Two
The tithe.
The tithe is the first 10% of your income, given back to God through your local church. It isn't a fee or a membership due. It's an act of worship that says, "God, You come first." Every other kind of giving starts with the tithe.
Why 10%?
That's what the word means.
In the Bible, "tithe" literally means "a tenth." People brought a tenth of their crops and flocks because that was their income. Today our income comes as a paycheck, but the idea of giving God the first tenth hasn't changed.
Leviticus 27:30
Is it still for today?
Yes. It began as an act of faith.
Abraham, whom the Bible calls the father of faith, gave a tenth hundreds of years before God gave Moses the laws of the Old Testament. The tithe started as a response of faith, not a rule. Jesus spoke of it as something His followers should keep doing.
Genesis 14:18-20 · Matthew 23:23
Why first?
Because first is trust.
Giving God the first 10%, before the bills and before anything else, says you trust Him to take care of the rest. Giving whatever happens to be left over says God gets what's left after everything else.
Proverbs 3:9-10
Where does it go?
Your local church.
The Bible calls the place you bring the tithe "the storehouse." Today, that's the church where you worship, grow and are cared for. Your tithe keeps ministry going right where you live: kids learning about Jesus, neighbors getting groceries, and worship every Sunday.
Malachi 3:10
Whose is it?
It belongs to God.
When you tithe, you aren't paying the church or the pastor. You're giving back to God what is His and trusting Him with it. Trusting God is the whole point of the tithe.
Malachi 3:8
Positioned for Blessing
Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts.Malachi 3:10-12 ESV
In these verses, God invites us to test Him by tithing, and He makes three promises to the people who do.
He'll meet your needs.
God will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing "until there is no more need."
Malachi 3:10
He'll protect your stuff.
God will stop "the devourer" from destroying what you've worked for.
Malachi 3:11
He'll bless you in ways others can see.
God's blessing on your life will be so clear that other people will "call you blessed."
Malachi 3:12
The tithe isn't a way to get rich. It puts your finances under God's care, in the place where He can bless them. That's what we mean by positioned for blessing.
Part Three
The seed.
Once you're tithing, there's another kind of giving: the seed. A seed is an offering you give above your tithe, never in place of it.
Sowing is making an investment with the expectation of a return. A farmer doesn't plant seed and call it lost. He plants because he expects it to grow. Giving works the same way. When you sow, you trust God with something small and believe Him for what it can become.
Not all sowing is money. You sow your time, your gifts, your kindness and your choices. But every gift you give is a seed planted somewhere. And God is the one who makes it grow. He doesn't only give you what you need for today. He gives you seed to plant for tomorrow.
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing.2 Corinthians 9:10 ESV
Four Laws of Sowing and Reaping
Every farmer knows these four laws, and the Bible applies them to giving. "Reaping" simply means gathering the harvest.
You reap what you sow.
What you plant is what grows. Sow generosity and you'll see generosity grow. The harvest may not look exactly like the seed: you might give money and receive an open door or a new idea.
Galatians 6:7
You reap where you sow.
Where you plant your seed matters. Sow into what you want to see grow: your church, the ministry you believe in, the things that last forever.
Matthew 6:19-21
You reap more than you sow.
Not every seed sprouts, but the ones that do produce far more than was planted. So sow generously.
2 Corinthians 9:6
You reap after you sow.
Apple trees don't come before apple seeds. "When God blesses me, I'll start giving" gets the order backward. The sowing comes first.
Genesis 8:22
An Honest Word About Harvest
God's harvest isn't a math formula.
Be careful of anyone who promises that if you give a certain amount, God will hand back a set amount. Seeds don't work that way. Consider apple trees. You might sow twenty-five apple seeds and only get back one tree. You could look at that and get discouraged because you lost twenty-four seeds. Or you can realize that one tree will give you more than twenty-five apples, and each apple has an average of nine seeds. You still come out ahead of what you sowed.
25Seeds sown
Not all of them will grow.
1Tree
It can feel like a loss at first.
MoreHarvest
More than 25 apples, with about nine seeds in each one.
Everything you sow might not reap a return, but in time your return will be more than what you sowed.Pastor Jason
Don't be discouraged when it takes more time to reap than you were expecting. A better formula to follow: if you sow a lot of apple seeds, you'll get back a good number of apple trees.
Part Four
Start here.
Generosity isn't a personality type. It's a practice, and anyone can start. Here's how.
Start with prayer
Ask God to help you trust Him with your money. Giving starts in the heart before it ever shows up in a budget.
Find your number
Take 10% of your income before taxes. If you earn $1,000, your tithe is $100. If you can't give that much yet, start with 10% of your take-home pay, or a smaller percentage, and set a date to grow toward the full tithe.
Put it first
Give your tithe its own line in your budget, ahead of everything else. Tithe first, then plan the rest.
Set it up
Recurring online giving makes the tithe automatic, so it comes off the top every time, not out of whatever is left over.
Sow above the tithe
Once the tithe is in place, ask God where to sow. This December, our church is sowing together in the Miracle Offering.
Keep going
Faithfulness starts with what you have now, not with what you hope to have someday. Start now, and let God grow your giving.
Common Questions
What people ask most.
I'm new. Am I expected to give?
No. Giving isn't the price of belonging. If you're new, we're just glad you're here. The tithe is for people who call Citylight home and are ready to trust God with their finances. When you're ready, this page will be here.
Do I tithe on my net or my gross?
The gross, meaning your income before taxes. The tithe is the first 10% of what God has given you, before anything else comes out. If that's a stretch right now, it's okay to start with your net, your take-home pay, and work your way up.
Can I give less than 10%?
Yes, but it isn't a tithe. The tithe is 10%, and it's your baseline. It's completely understandable if you need to work your way up to it. Start where you can, set a goal, and grow toward the full 10%.
What's the difference between a tithe and an offering?
The tithe is the first 10%, and it belongs to God. An offering, or seed, is anything you give above the tithe. Keep them separate in your budget so the tithe always comes first.
If I give, will God give me back a certain amount?
No one can promise you a set return, and you should be careful of anyone who does. God's harvest isn't a math formula. What the Bible does promise is that whoever sows generously will also reap generously, and that the harvest comes after the seed.
Will giving fix my finances?
Giving is a big part of God's plan for your money, but it isn't the whole plan. Living on a budget, getting out of debt and growing your income matter too. Giving puts God first, and wisdom builds on that foundation.
Your Next Step
Positioned for blessing.
When you put your finances in God's hands, you aren't giving something up. You're placing it in the best hands there are. Start your tithing journey today.