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How to Honor God with Your Money

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Tilemahos Efthimiadis (2006), Creative Commons
Tilemahos Efthimiadis (2006), Creative Commons

For the last few weeks, we’ve been studying what Proverbs says about easy money.

Believe it or not, trusting in Jesus will actually improve your money management. When you’re not so concerned about wealth, you can treat it rightly. If it’s not your hope and security, you can use it as a tool. You can afford to lose it. You can risk giving it away or sharing it with others. You can put it to work to gain more so you can give more. Here are some ways you can serve God and love others with your money.

  1. Make a budget. (See Prov 27:23-27.) In a time of sanity and thoughtfulness, plan out how you think God would want you to use your money. A budget helps set bounds on greed by defining reasonable guidelines for spending.
  2. Get counsel on your budget. (See Prov 15:22.) Find a wise person whom you trust. Ask him or her to look at your plan and give you fresh insight on the wisdom of it. Few sins are as blinding as greed (Matt 6:19-23), so an unbiased set of eyes can help reflect reality.
  3. Track your budget. Your plan does you no good unless you daily keep track of whether you’re following it or not. Keep all your receipts. Develop a system for recording them and measuring whether your spending is within the bounds of your plan.
  4. Consider setting a minimum percentage of your income for giving. That way, as your income increases, your giving will increase as well. As income increases, it’s likely you can also increase the percentage you give away.
  5. Save for your children. (See Prov 13:22.) Even if you don’t have any yet, it can help you take your eyes off yourself if you set aside money designated for future generations.
  6. Save to give. You can’t predict the future, so you won’t be able to anticipate many needs. Consider regularly setting money aside with the intention of giving it away as God brings unforeseen needs to your attention.
  7. Claim all your tax credits and deductions. It might sound strange, but many people don’t do it! For example, did you know that, in the U.S., you might not have to pay tax on money you donated to qualified charitable organizations, including your church? Check out the IRS Guidelines or talk to a financial adviser for more information. If the governing authorities are willing to exempt you from some taxes, why not take them up on it so you have more with which to serve others?

As Bruce Waltke puts it, “Sinners love wealth and use people; saints love people and use wealth to help others.”[1] The latter is what Jesus did for us. His Spirit is now in us, empowering us to do the same to the glory of God.

What ideas do you have about how reject easy money and honor God with your resources?

[1] Proverbs 1-15, p.193. (affiliate link)

This post was first published in 2012.

Easy Money is Self-Destructive

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Easy money will keep you from being wise because it turns you from the Lord to focus on yourself. And self-focus is ultimately self-destructive: Easy money “takes away the life of its possessors.”

Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain;
It takes away the life of its possessors (Prov 1:19, ESV).

Remember how to get started on the path of wisdom? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov 1:7). If we desire to be wise, we begin by focusing on the Lord, continue by focusing on the Lord, and end with focusing on the Lord. We must admit our weakness, own our failure, and trust in Jesus for life and security. He rewards us with wisdom, instruction, righteousness, discretion, and attractiveness.

We forfeit all these gains when we turn inward. We begin to doubt God’s Word. We think that Jesus is neat and all, but he can’t really help us in the trenches of life. What we really need is a more diversified portfolio to protect us from a recession. Then we get proud in our choices, confident with the future, and less needy for a Rescuer. We lose the trust of those we care about the most, and we never really obtain stable lives.

“Uranium” (2008) Marcin Wichary, shared under Creative Commons Attribution License

Solomon’s conclusion is that easy money “takes away the life of its possessors.” It is like a bar of uranium that looks so shiny and pretty. It has a lovely glow about it, and might be nice to touch. But the closer I get to it, the more it harms me.

That’s why Jesus came to break the cycle of sin and misery and lead us to God. Our greatest financial need is not for better money management, but for rescue. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9). Our hearts constantly entice us to find our community and security in wealth, so Jesus gave up all his wealth to bring us lasting security and community with him.

Don’t buy it.  It’s not worth it.  Next week, I’ll give some practical tips on how you can reject easy money and pursue wisdom instead.

This post was first published in 2012.

Easy Money Can’t Deliver on its Promises

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Last week, we saw that easy money promises community and security. Don’t fall for it.

My son, do not walk in the way with them;
Hold back your foot from their paths,
For their feet run to evil,
And they make haste to shed blood.
For in vain is a net spread
In the sight of any bird,
But these men lie in wait for their own blood;
They set an ambush for their own lives. (Prov 1:15-18)

abandoned pink piano in a derelict building
Photo by Mike Norris on Pexels.com

Security

Where is the promised security? “But these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives.” All the promises of an easier life with fewer worries are simply lies. If we murder an old lady for her credit cards, we’re likely to be imprisoned or executed. The authorities are not very forgiving with tax evaders. Buying more stuff puts us in more debt, which costs us more in the long run.

Even winning the lottery can be more trouble than it’s worth. For example, consider Canadian Gerald Muswagon who won $10 million in the lottery, spent it all in seven years, and then hanged himself in 2005. Or William “Bud” Post, who in 1988 pawned a ring to buy some lottery tickets, won $16.2 million, racked up $500,000 in debt within three months, and had to declare bankruptcy. He ended up with numerous homes full of unused junk and declared, “I was much happier when I was broke” (Source: Maclean’s Magazine).

Please note that Proverbs is not condemning all wealth. The warning is against the unjust acquisition of wealth (what I’m calling “easy money”), which happens whenever we trample on others to gain it. Proverbs expects that wise people will gain wealth: “Honor the Lord…[and] your barns will be filled with plenty” (Pro 3:9-10). However, the methods for acquiring wealth make all the difference:

  • Diligence in gainful employment: “Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty” (Prov 28:19).
  • Inheritance from wise forebears: “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous” (Prov 13:22).
  • Patient endurance over time: “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it” (Prov 13:11).

In addition, the motivation for gaining wealth ought to be to serve others and not ourselves. God provides money and possessions to those who will share it with others: “Whoever multiplies his wealth by interest and profit gathers it for him who is generous to the poor” (Prov 28:8).

From Prov 13:22 and Prov 28:8, quoted above, we see that you can’t keep your wealth; either you plan to give it away, or you have it taken from you. Is that your perspective on money? The critical point is that the wise person never finds his security in his wealth, but rather in the Lord. “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe. A rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his imagination” (18:10-11).

Community 

Not only does easy money fail to keep its promise of security; it also can’t deliver on community.

One hint of this failure to provide community comes in Prov 1:15: “My son, do not walk in the way with them.” When I trample on others to gain wealth, they’ll eventually withdraw to avoid my folly.

People will catch on to my selfishness and run away: “for in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird” (Prov 1:17). If I come to you with a proposition for easy money, and you have the wisdom to see through the empty promises, you will fly like a sparrow. I can lay the net out to catch you, but—unless you are blind to reality—I’ll never gain your confidence.

That last fact gets at the heart of the matter. How often am I willfully blind to reality? I hear the promises of easy money, and I want to believe them! Gaining wealth, by hard work over a long time, in order to serve others, doesn’t sound like much fun. It sure doesn’t give me much hope that my stress will go away. So I spend more money, get nicer things, go further into debt, and leave it to my next of kin to pick up the pieces. This plan of action does not build community with those I love the most!

Now, not only does easy money fail to deliver on its promises; it also is highly self-destructive (Prov 1:19). More on that next week.

This post was first published in 2012.

Easy Money Makes Promises

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Why is it the case that pursuing a quick buck, as the cost of serving others, will always keep us from being wise and ought to be rejected?

If they say, ‘Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;
Let us ambush the innocent without reason;
Like Sheol let us swallow them alive,
And whole, like those who go down to the pit;
We shall find all precious goods,
We shall fill our houses with plunder;
Throw in your lot among us;
We will all have one purse’ (Prov 1:11-14).

These verses are morbidly comical. When was the last time you ever had a total stranger approach you on the street and ask, “Hey, whadd’ya say we go find a defenseless old lady, beat her to death, and take her credit cards? We can share them; I promise.” It just doesn’t happen like that, and Solomon knows it. It’s not like the ancients were so much dumber than we are that they’d fall for such a thing.

man wearing sunglasses and leather jacket at the party
Photo by Wolrider YURTSEVEN on Pexels.com

Rather, Solomon is taking what is usually implicit, and he’s making it explicit by telling a story. He’s bringing to light what is really going on every time we give in to our desire for more stuff. We’re not innocent victims (Prov 1:10 implies that we consent to it), and we’re not making life any easier for ourselves. Instead, we love ourselves and ignore reality. We believe the world’s promises.

The first promise is that easy money will give me community. “Come with us… Throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse.” Easy money promises me that I can be just like everyone else. I won’t be left behind, and I can’t be the butt of people’s jokes. I won’t be one of those weirdoes who is out of touch with his own generation. I will be normal, acceptable, informed, and relevant. I might even be envied and pursued by others who are normal, acceptable, informed, and relevant. I will have the community I’ve always longed for.

The second promise is that easy money will give me security. “We shall find all precious goods; we shall fill our houses with plunder.” Once I get all the precious stuff that normal people are supposed to have, my life will be easier. Communication will be easier. Managing my life will be easier. I’ll finally be able to relax on that ideal vacation. My clothes will be more comfortable, my work will be more productive, and my stress level will drop drastically. I can pay for the car, the house, college tuition, and weddings. I’ll be set up for retirement. Problems will disappear, and nothing will shake me. I will have security.

In the poem’s next stanza, we’ll see that easy money can’t keep such promises.

This post was first published in 2012.

Reject Easy Money

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Financial impropriety will ruin your influence. Therefore, Solomon commands us straight-out to reject the enticement to easy money.

“My son, if sinners entice you,
Do not consent” (Prov 1:10)

It’s not all that complicated. “If sinners entice you, do not consent.” Just say no. Turn away from evil. Don’t even consider it.

Sinners entice us, and they entice us constantly. They entice us from within, and they entice us from without. In other words, sometimes the enticement comes from “out there” (peer pressure, advertisements, and cultural expectations), and sometimes it comes from “in here” (our own sinful nature that says “I want”). We can’t avoid the enticement. We can’t prevent it. Sweet promises of monetary delights are all around us. All we can do is either accept or reject it, so Solomon cuts through the deception and excuses with a simple command: “Do not consent.”

close up photography two brown cards
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Sometimes the enticement comes in the form of another credit card application. Sometimes it happens when a neighbor gets a new vehicle, and you want one, too. At other times, you look at the bills piling up, or at the out-of-date sound system, and you wish for something more. Perhaps you slack off on your job search because the unemployment compensation is both sufficient and convenient. Maybe you spend too much time at work, to the neglect of your family or spiritual development. Or, you‘d like to give money to your church, but so many other things just keep coming up. Whatever shape the enticement takes, do you consent to it? Are you a willing participant?

You might wonder why I’m focusing on money and possessions, when it’s obvious that there are all kinds of enticements to sin in our fallen world. Why not focus on alcoholism, cheating, illicit sex, or violence? The reason is that Solomon clearly explains what sort of enticement he is referring to when he concludes the current section in Prov 1:19: “Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain.” He is concerned with the unjust acquisition of wealth. In other words, the pursuit of a quick buck, at the cost of serving others, will always keep us from being wise.

This post was first published in 2012.

Easy Money Will Keep You from Being Wise

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In season one of the TV show 24, federal agent Jack Bauer suspects his supervisor George Mason to be withholding vital information from a criminal investigation. So Bauer shoots him with a tranquilizer gun. While Mason lies unconscious on the couch, Bauer sets his cronies to dig up anything that will give Bauer bargaining leverage with Mason. They discover that just a few years earlier, a substantial sum of money disappeared from government coffers and landed in an offshore account owned by none other than Supervisor Mason. Bauer gets his bargaining chip, and when Mason regains consciousness Bauer is able to extort the required information by revealing his newfound knowledge of Mason’s dark secret.

Even if you haven’t seen 24, you’ve probably heard the same story line played out a zillion times in television dramas, political campaigns, and news headlines. Money issues are often at the center when someone’s character is defamed by scandal. It could be theft, tax evasion, questionable accounting practices, or simply poor management. But whatever the specific instance, it is clear that a failure to handle money with integrity has the potential to disqualify a person from receiving our trust.

This fact was no less true in ancient Israel than it is today. As we’ll see in the next few Proverbs posts, Solomon warns his people of the dangers of money issues. First, he commands the one seeking wisdom to reject the enticement to easy money (Prov 1:10). Then he explains why: easy money makes promises (Prov 1:11-14), but it can’t keep them (Prov 1:15-18) and is ultimately self-destructive (Prov 1:19).

man in black t shirt sitting on chair
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

This post was first published in 2012.

The End of Wisdom

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Teti-Tots (2010), Creative Commons

Teti-Tots (2010), Creative Commons

This is my last post about Proverbs 1-9, and I end where Solomon ends—with a warning. Though folly looks a lot like wisdom, don’t let it deceive you. It will flatter you, trick you, and end you.

The woman Folly is loud;
she is seductive and knows nothing.
She sits at the door of her house;
she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,
calling to those who pass by,
who are going straight on their way.
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
And to him who lacks sense she says,
“Stolen water is sweet,
and bread eaten in secret in pleasant.”
But he does not know that the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of Sheol. (Prov 9:13-18, ESV)

I’ve listed extensive comparisons and contrasts between the feasts of wisdom and folly. In this post, I simply want to warn you of 4 things that look like wisdom but are not. They have ensnared many in our day.

Materialism

Some find their life and security in their abundance of possessions. Others react and find their life and security in their lack of possessions. Both are fools, though they often think themselves wise. Money is neither a god to be worshiped nor a demon to be exorcised. It is a tool useful for building God’s kingdom. It makes friends; it persuades kings. But God can give it or take it away as he pleases, and the wise will bow to him alone.

Sensuality

Some think sex will make them happy. Others react and treat it as something unfit to be discussed in Bible study. Both are fools, though they often think themselves wise. Sex is neither the chief end of man nor the fruit of the fall. The wise won’t ignore the temptation common to man, to abuse this gift. And the wise won’t wield the subject like a taser, merely for its shock value. But…what can I say? The wise husband loves his wife’s breasts (Prov 5:19). And the wise wife will find things about her husband that are equally intoxicating (Song 1:2).

Autonomy

“If you are wise, you are wise for yourself” (Prov 9:12). But that doesn’t mean you can be wise by yourself. Nor that you get to decide what is wise (Gen 3:6). Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord, and it ends when instruction goes despised and unheeded. Those who have their act together may have an appearance of wisdom, but they deny wisdom’s true power to change and guide anyone (Prov 1:5).

Authoritarianism

Some fools believe their role or authority gives them value and power over people. Those who support such folly are fools themselves. A sanitized version of this folly exists in our churches when leaders are willing to tell their people what to do without being expected to show their people how to do it.

Now I’m not without guilt here. I drink these four poisons, and a thousand more, daily. The point of Proverbs is not to consign us to our folly but to expose the counterfeits so we might crave something more sumptuous.

Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:1-2)

Fool #1: The Savior

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Proverbs 6:1-19 describes three kinds of fool.

The first fool is the Savior. This person really, really loves people. Especially needy people. Especially needy people who keep having needs. This person will bend over backwards to meet a need. The Savior will joyfully sacrifice time, money, and energy to help people with their problems. But…the problems never go away. And the people with problems multiply. The Savior attracts them and feels really good about it.

I am this fool. If you’re honest, you probably are, too.

My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
Have given your pledge for a stranger,
If you are snared in the words of your mouth,
Caught in the words of your mouth,
Then do this, my son, and save yourself,
For you have come into the hand of your neighbor:
Go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor.
Give your eyes no sleep
And your eyelids no slumber;
Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
Like a bird from the hand of the fowler (Prov 6:1-5, ESV).

The ancient world had no banks, no wire transfers, and no lines of credit. If you had no cash (in the form of coins), you had no net worth. You might be able to buy some life essentials with livestock, cloth, or labor, but otherwise you were likely to need a loan of some sort.

Tilemahos Efthimiadis (2006), Creative Commons

Tilemahos Efthimiadis (2006), Creative Commons

Another institution unfamiliar to the ancient world was the credit bureau. If you wanted to borrow money from me, I couldn’t run a credit check to prove your ability to repay the loan. So to lower risk, I could only get a sense of your character by talking to your family and friends. But to be really safe, I would require two signatures on the loan papers – one from you and one from your surety. Your surety was the person who promised to pay me back if somehow you found yourself unable to do so.

In Prov 6:1, Solomon writes to the person who has become the surety for another. He addresses the one who “put up security” and gave a pledge to repay someone else’s loan in case of default.

What’s at stake for this person? As a surety, you have “come into the hand of your neighbor” (Prov 6:3). If the borrower defaults, you become obligated to pay the debt. You have become a slave to someone else’s circumstances, and you ought not rest until you free yourself (Prov 6:4). You’re road kill unless you find a way out (Prov 6:5). You should not make such pledges. If you already have, nullify them at all costs.

This sort of Savior wasn’t limited to ancient Israel. Next week I’ll show how he’s still thriving and saving today.

Question: Where do you see the “Savior” in our generation?