Do you ever have questions about managing your money? You’re certainly not alone if you do. This abundance of questions has given rise a whole industry designed to handle money matters. We have self-help books to give you general principles. We have courses to help you establish good habits (including Financial Peace University that we offer here every year). If you need something more hands-on, you can set an appointment with a professional financial planner and get personalized answers. Whether it’s setting a budget, saving for college, or planning for retirement, don’t we all wonder how to best put our money to work?
It shouldn’t surprise us then that the Bible has something to say about money. You’ll find verses throughout the Bible that talk specifically about money or more generally about wealth. That’s WAY more than one blog post can contain, so how about we stick with just one book this week? What does the Book of Proverbs have to say about money? Here’s three things that come up over and over:
1. Be Generous (Prov. 11:24-25; 14:21; 14:31; 19:7; 28:7) – The best thing we can do with our money is worship God with it. In fact, that’s the best thing we can do with anything! God is the source of every good thing we’ve ever received and, when we’re generous with others, we worship God for his goodness. Proverbs even goes so far as to say that if we’re generous with the poor, we’re actually giving money to God himself. Proverbs promises that generosity comes with greater returns than greed, though those returns might not take the form of more money. They might take the form of a more godly character, which is more precious than gold.
2. Poverty is Complex (Prov. 14:24; 21:17; 21:25-26; 22:16; 22:22-23; 22:26-27) – The causes of poverty depend on who you ask. If you ask someone on the political right, they’ll probably tell you that it’s a result of individual choices. On the other hand, if you ask someone on the political left, they’ll probably tell you that it has to do with oppressive systems or exploitation. What does the Bible say? Both. Proverbs warns us how laziness and debt can lead us into greater and greater poverty and how sinful people can take advantage of others and make them poor. This should caution us from drinking too deeply from the well of any one political ideology or from assuming too much about someone because they’re poor. Proverbs recognizes that poverty is complex – and so should we.
3. You Can’t Take It With You (Prov. 10:2; 11:4; 11:28; 15:16; 16:8; 22:1-2; 28:6) – Life is more than money and materialism. As a twist on the old cliché goes, “Whoever dies with the most toys still dies.” Our financial status is worth nothing in the age to come. No one will ever lack in heaven; no one will ever be satisfied in hell. A godly life is worth eternally more than whatever material things we might accrue in this life. The wise person prioritizes what lasts and cherishes the righteousness that comes through Christ.
I get it. Very few of us ever want to talk about money. It seems like such a private thing, doesn’t it? That’s because it reveals so much about where our hearts are. We don’t want to talk about how we spend our money because we don’t want to talk about what we really love. If I had to guess, that’s exactly why the Bible talks about money! God wants to talk about what we love most until all that’s left is God himself and our love for everything else flows from him.
As we reflect on Proverbs, what does your relationship with money say about your relationship with God?