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iQuestions Faculty, Ron Blue 
 
 
Question: 
 
How much should I give? 
 
Answer: 
 
You know, the question comes up all the time, “How much should I 
give?” 
 
As I have thought about this one over time, and as I worked with 
people, I break giving down into three categories: the “should-give” 
level; the “could-give” level; and the “would-give” level. 
 
The “should-give” level begins with, “I should give in proportion to my 
income.” In 1 Corinthians 16:1, Paul said, “Give as God as prospered 
you regularly on the first day of the week.” 
 
So, I should be able to look at somebody’s tax return, and look at their 
giving, and understand how God has prospered them. The more you 
make, the more you should give—and I would suggest that the tithe 
amount of 10% is just the beginning level of giving, on a proportionate 
basis. As your income goes up, so should that percentage go up. 
 
The second level of giving is the “could-give” level. This is above and 
beyond what I should give on a regular basis, but I could give. For 
example, there’s a missionary conference, or somebody expresses a 
need at church, and it’s not a part of my tithe, it wasn’t what I was 
planning on doing, it wasn’t a part of my proportionate giving—but I 
have a savings account. I can write a check out of my savings account.  
 
 
 
The only way that Americans typically can experience sacrificial giving, 
and not in a real sacrificial way, is to sacrifice something that they 
could have done in order to do what they could do. 
 
Let me give you a personal illustration of that. Judy and I had made a 
commitment of a significant amount of money to give to a ministry, 
and we had made that commitment in January, and it was a year later, 
and we still hadn’t fulfilled that commitment. We had been tithing, and 
giving proportionately throughout the year, but we had not fulfilled 
that commitment that we had made a year earlier. And Judy said, 
“What are we going to do about that?” 
 
Well, I went to 2 Corinthians 8:9, and began reading the giving 
chapters, and I came to this passage. It said, “Dear Ron: Remember 
what you were going to do a year ago? You need to do it now.” Now, 
I’m paraphrasing a bit, but it was almost exactly that, except for the 
“Dear Ron” part. It says, to the Macedonians, “Remember what you 
promised a year ago? Do it now out of what you have.” 
 
When I thought about that, I thought the only thing that I had that 
would allow me to do that giving right now was the vacation fund. We 
had, as a family of five—different ages, different sexes, and different 
interests—we had chosen to spend our vacation money to go into a 
guest ranch in Colorado, because everyone could kind of do their own 
thing, but we were still a family. We had our vacation fund all set 
aside, airplane tickets bought. We were ready to spend that money on 
that vacation. 
 
That was the only money that I had—so Judy and I agreed, we took 
the vacation fund, we wrote the check out of the vacation fund out of 
what we could do, because we had the money, and we gave up the 
vacation. I called the owner of the dude ranch, the guest ranch, and I 
said, “We’re not going to be able to come this year. We’re sorry, but 
some higher priorities have come up.” 
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He called me back within a day or two, and he said, “You know, I’ve 
been thinking about you not coming. I was kind of counting on having 
you speak to the staff. I’d like for you to speak to our guests.” He said, 
“Would you accept the plane tickets and a free vacation from us, in 
exchange for speaking to our staff and to our guests?” I said, “Well, let 
me pray about that. Yes.” 
 
This was a provision. He didn’t have to do that. 
 
You know, that year, I was asked to speak at a cruise, all expenses 
paid. I was asked to speak at the beach, bring my family, all expenses 
paid. We got either four or five vacations that year that were fully paid 
for when we made that decision. 
 
Now, we had to make that decision, and we gave out of the fund the 
money that we had—and God wasn’t obligated to do what He did, but 
He did it. It was probably another 10 or 12 years after that before we 
ever paid for another vacation.  
 
As I looked on that, it took, first of all, my step of obedience of going 
to God’s word, listening to what He had to say, and then doing it—and 
then that was the consequence. 
 
That’s the “could-give” level. It’s, “I could give, but I may have to 
make a sacrifice, or what seems to be a sacrifice.” 
 
The third level of giving is what I call the “would-give” level—and that 
is saying to God, “God, if in fact you give me an increased income, if 
you give me decreased expenses, I will give out of this.” Maybe it’s an 
unexpected bonus, maybe it’s an unexpected check of some sort. It’s a 
pre-committed amount of giving. It is as close as we can come to 
faith-promise giving. It says, “God, if you do this, then I will do this.” 
 
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But I think that’s the third level of giving. The first level is the “should-
give,” the second level is the “could-give,” and those two come before 
even the faith level, or the “would-give” level, that comes. 
 
I think if you follow those three principles in terms of your giving, 
you’re going to be blessed beyond what you can think, ask, or even 
imagine, as it says in Ephesians 3:20. Try it. 
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