How to Tithe If You’re Self-Employed

As someone who’s self-employed, I’ll be the first to admit that tithing can be difficult. It’s easy to tithe when you’re paid hourly or receive a salary. But if work for yourself, you know firsthand that it’s feast or famine. There’s sporadic income and what seems like constant bills, so it can be hard to know how much to tithe on a regular basis.

How do you figure it all out and manage your finances in a godly way? Look no further than the businesswoman in Proverbs 31:

“She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard . . . She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle. She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy.” (Proverbs 31:16-20)

It’s unfathomable in the ancient world that a woman would be highlighted in an important text—let alone highlighted as a business owner who invests in real estate and other ventures to provide for her family! Yet this is just another example of the Bible elevating the status of women and honoring their contribution. What can we learn from her?

1. She’s Self-Employed

She buys a field. This should hit close to home! The self-employed buy diamonds in the rough because they know how to extract and create value that wasn’t there before—like the vineyard she adds to it. The passage later describes how she makes linen clothing and sells it. It’s clear that she runs a business that takes a lot of hustle and grinding late hours to be lucrative. I’m sure you can relate!

2. She’s Generous

Yet with these different profit streams coming in, she knows who they belong to. They belong to God for her to broadcast to those in need. It’s by design that immediately ‘t afraid after talking about her industry, the text describes her generosity: “She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy” (Proverbs 31:20).

Our hands are naturally closed. We live close fisted with our money because we don’t know if we might need it in the future. We don’t know what’s coming down the pike, so we don’t give. But the Proverbs 31 woman is reaching out her hands to the needy, not waiting for them to come to her.

You have to be proactive in generosity or it won’t happen.

This is why it’s biblical to tithe off your personal income from the business. Being self-employed, you’re likely taking a salary in addition to taking dividends and withdrawals from your business. A lot of people are just tithing on their salary, but I consider your gross income to be a combination of your dividends and your salary. Calculate your personal tithe based on what you’re earning from these combined, and let this be the foundation of your generosity.

3. She Trusts God

It’s all too easy to keep all our profits to ourselves. The alternative is trusting God through giving that he “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). The Proverbs 31 woman gives in faith because she trusts God with the uncertainty of the future. A few verses later, it says that she laughs at the future! She’s fearless, trusting God moment by moment.

This is where I encourage you to trust God by going a step beyond tithing from your salary and setting a generosity goal for your business. If you don’t plan to give, you won’t give. Set a goal or percentage each year of how much you plan to give back to the Lord out of your business profits.  Now 10% is the biblical tithe, so I’d encourage your minimum goal to be at least 10% of your net profits.

For example, the generosity goal for my business is 50% (10% of this goes to local churches, and 40% to gospel ministries and charities). Operating in this way ensures that my priorities are in line with Scripture—and I’ve seen God come through in unimaginable ways as a result.

For practical strategies on how to tithe on your net profits, see “How Do You Tithe as a Business Owner?”

Summary

What we can learn from the Proverbs 31 woman is that God didn’t give you your business acumen and ambition and skills for your benefit alone, but to bless others. See your business not as a catalyst to success and fortune, but as a pass through to help the least of these. Pray that the Lord would help you use it in multifaceted ways to be radically generous.

What amazing fruit would come if all Christian business owners focused on creating value in the marketplace and communities we operate within—and then on giving back to the Lord who gave us the grace to operate a business in the first place!