Money & Finances
I am in debt and giving ten percent feels impossible. Am I sinning by paying my creditors first, or should I give anyway and trust God with the rest?
“Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.”
Moses is giving instructions for Israel's pilgrimage festivals, and this line governs what a worshipper was to bring. The gift was proportional, measured against what a household actually had rather than a fixed sum every family owed regardless. Israel's festivals were designed so that a poor farmer and a wealthy one could both arrive without humiliation. The measure was never the amount; it was the honest proportion.
“For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.”
Paul is asking Corinth to contribute to famine relief in Jerusalem, and he is careful with people already under pressure. He has just praised churches in Macedonia who gave out of deep poverty, then immediately adds this qualifier so nobody reads it as a demand. God receives what you have, he says, not what you do not have. Willingness is the currency, and Paul refuses to weaponise the collection.
A path forward
Set a proportion you can genuinely sustain this month, even one or two percent, and give it consistently rather than giving nothing at all until you can give ten.
Write out a repayment plan with real dates, because paying what you owe is itself an act of obedience rather than a delay of it.
Talk to your church leadership honestly about your situation. Any church worth belonging to would rather know you are struggling than receive money you do not have, and many have funds set aside for exactly this.
Closing verse
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
- Micah 6:8
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