Faces on Faith: All that glitters
What does the Bible teach about money? A lot, actually. Money plays a massive role in our families, our plans, our work, and our communities. So God gives abundant guidance about wealth in the Scriptures.
The Bible’s teaching on money gravitates toward three major themes. First, God’s Word portrays money as a blessing from the Lord. The proverbs extol the virtues of hard work and wise stewardship, with prosperity the result. God rewarded many of the Bible’s heroes with great wealth. When the Lord made his covenant with Israel, he promised that if Israel kept the law, he would make their land and herds productive. At its most basic level, money is a merely a resource that we use to stay alive. So if you have life’s necessities, thank God for his provision. This is why both Jews and Christians often pray before a meal!
But then there’s a second stream of teaching about money flowing through the Bible, a stream that warns of money as a peril for our souls. Money tempts us to covetousness, greed, pride, injustice, and stinginess. As Paul said, “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (1 Tim 6:10). When we love money, we stop loving the Lord and our neighbor. Jesus declared that we can’t serve both God and mammon. Greed is a type of idolatry.
Haven’t you seen the love of money wreak havoc? Families fracture over an inheritance. HOAs war over spending decisions. People sacrifice family in the breathless pursuit of just a little more.
So what’s the solution? That brings us to the third theme: generosity. God blesses us to be a blessing. The Mosaic law contains many commandments about care for the poor in Israel. The proverbs tell us that he who is generous to the poor lends to the Lord (Proverbs 19:17). Generosity marked the early church community. Jesus said that when we give we are laying up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21). You can’t take it with you, but apparently you can send it ahead of you. Living open-handedly acknowledges wealth as a gift and helps us fight the love of money.
Jesus is the ultimate model of generosity. As God’s Son, he owns all things, because he created all things. And yet he laid aside his glory and took on human flesh. He died on the cross to rescue us from the infinite debt of our sin — including the sin of idolatrous greed — by paying it off with the most costly thing in all human history: his own blood. And so his followers give as an act of thanksgiving.
Pastor Jeramie Rinne is the senior pastor at the Sanibel Community Church.