What Does First Fruits Mean? Putting God First With Your Paycheck

For more than 30 years I have given business owners the same advice. Pay the tax first, then pay yourself. When a deposit hits a small business bank account, it feels like all of it is yours to spend. It isn't. Part of it already belongs to the government, and you just haven't sent it yet.

The owner who says he will set the tax money aside at the end of the quarter usually ends up across my desk the next spring, saying, "Ralph, I don't know where the money went." So in my practice we fix the order. Tax first, then you, then everything else. It works almost every time.

Lately a question has been bothering me, and I never learned it in accounting school. If the tax comes first and I come second, where does God come in? Does He come before either one, or does He get whatever is left?

Where the paycheck really goes

I am not talking about the Sunday school version of where money should go. I am talking about where it really goes. It goes to rent or the mortgage, the car, the electric bill, the phone bill, groceries, gas, and everything the kids need. Then something breaks, because something is always breaking. If anything is left after all that, maybe God gets a little.

I am not saying that to shame anybody. I have spent 30 years looking at people's bank statements, and the order is the same over and over. These are not people who don't love the Lord. They love Him. Leftovers is just where God lands when nobody decides the order ahead of time.

Leftovers are a myth

In my humble opinion, leftovers don't actually exist. What you plan to do with them, you almost never do. When we have dinner at our house, my wife will ask if we are going to eat the rest of it again. I always say yes, it was really good, put it in the refrigerator. By the end of the week it gets dumped out, because we never had a plan for it.

Money works the same way. People tell me they will set money aside for taxes once things settle down, and then April comes and they cannot pay the bill. People mean to save whatever is left, and five years later there is nothing in savings. People say they will give once they are in a better spot, and they are still waiting on that spot. Something is always ready to eat the leftovers.

Why God gets put on the side

We put first what has consequences we can see. If you don't pay the IRS, they will levy your bank account and put a lien on your home. If you don't pay your landlord, you get evicted. If you don't pay the car company, they repossess the car and you have no way to get to work.

God doesn't send a letter. He doesn't write to ask when you were last in church. Because we don't see the consequences in front of us, He ends up in the waiting room. What we put last isn't what matters least, but it is what we trust will still be there.

I want to be clear about one thing. Jesus said to give Caesar what is Caesar's, and Scripture says a person who won't provide for his household is worse than an unbeliever. Paying your bills and caring for your family does not make you unspiritual. I am not telling you to skip the IRS for the offering plate. If you do, you will come see me, and I will be cleaning up a mess.

What first fruits actually meant

Proverbs 3:9-10 says, "Honor Yahweh with your substance, with the first fruits of all your increase. So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine."

The people hearing that were farmers. They understood first fruits in their bones. Exodus 23:19 says, "You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of Yahweh, your God." Picture the months of work behind that: tilling the ground, praying for rain, watching the sky for storms. Then God commands the very first grain that ripens, before anyone knows how the harvest will turn out.

That is the whole point. If you wait until it is counted, you are giving out of what you can see. When you give the first, you are giving out of what you believe. First fruits is faith with a date on it. The word in the verse is honor. It is not pay, and it is not a tip.

Proverbs is not a vending machine

I have to be careful here, because "your barns will be filled" is one of the most misused verses in the Bible. You will hear TV preachers say to give your first and God will fill your barns, with a phone number on the screen. That is not what the verse is doing. Proverbs is wisdom literature. It describes how life generally works under God. It is not a contract.

Look at Agur's prayer in Proverbs 30:8-9: "Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me." That is in the same book. After 30 years of watching people, here is what I can tell you honestly. People who give first worry less. They plan better. They hold things loosely.

Then somebody asks, what about the faithful people who still have empty barns? The business that failed anyway, the diagnosis nobody expected? Friend, faithfulness is not wasted. God did not break a promise. He never made the TV one in the first place.

What Jesus does promise

In Matthew 6 Jesus was talking to fishermen and farmers. They cast nets and planted seed and hoped. They did not know where next week's food was coming from. Not one time does He tell them to put God first and get rich. He tells them not to be anxious, because their heavenly Father knows they need these things.

Notice the word needs. It is not the lake house or the brand-new truck. And notice He says seek first, not seek only. He knows you have rent due. God is not a celestial third bill, and He is not competing with the IRS or the landlord. When you put Him first, you are telling the truth about who owns the whole statement.

What I have is not mine. What you have is not yours. God gave you the ability to earn it. You are the manager and He is the owner, and managers don't pay the owner last.

Decide the order before the money shows up

Here is how this looks on a Tuesday with real bills. The tax advice works because the decision is made ahead of time. You open a separate account and move the money the day the deposit hits, so you never wrestle with it again. Do the same with giving. If you give online, set it for payday, not the 30th. If you write a check, write it on payday. If you own a business, set aside the taxes and the giving the same day, as one habit.

And you can start exactly where you are. A lot of people have heard their whole lives that they have to give 10 percent, or 20, and it scares them off. If 10 percent is impossible, make it 2 percent or 1 percent. Put it first. A small first is more honest than any big leftover.

First fruits of your time and attention

This is not only about money. Where do the first five minutes of your day go, before the phone, the news, and the email? What is the first word at dinner? My son was over this past weekend, and he asked if he could pray first. My eyes lit up as a dad. It didn't cost a dime.

Who do you call first when bad news comes, and who is the last resort in the car? What does the first hour of your work week sound like? Something as simple as, "Lord, this business is yours. Guide me in this." Your calendar, your attention, and your first reactions are all first fruits too.

When there is nothing left

Maybe you are reading this and thinking there is no first. The money is gone before it hits. There are medical bills, or a layoff, or a single mom doing everything she can, or a fixed income while prices keep climbing. I have sat across the desk from people in exactly that spot.

Remember the widow with two tiny coins. The rich gave out of their extra, and it didn't touch them. She gave out of what she had, and Jesus said she gave more than all of them. Second Corinthians 8:12 says, "For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what you have, not according to what you don't have."

God is not asking you for money you don't have, and He is not disappointed when your barn is small. If anyone has shamed you for what you couldn't give, I am truly sorry. That was not God's voice.

Picture four tables. A young couple on a Sunday night writes God at the top of the budget and laughs a little. A business owner lands a big contract and moves the tax and the giving first. A single mom with 40 dollars left folds her hands and says, "Lord, you are first." A retired couple on a fixed income has given for 50 years. Four very different amounts, and the same order.

The truth to carry into this week

Whatever gets paid first is whatever you trust most. Before God ever asked you to put Him first, He put you first. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He did not wait to see if you would be worth it.

This week, pick one thing: your money, your time, or your attention. Move God to the front of the line. When worry comes back, and it will, remember that your Father already knows what you need.