What Else Does the Bible Say about Money?
Jesus’ clearest message on our relationship with money is found in the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew 5-7. Specifically, Jesus’ words about money are found in Matthew 6:19-24, and some could also argue it extends through the end of the chapter in v. 34.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21). The words are pretty straight forward. We have choices to make. The choice is to find security in earthly things—wealth and the attaining of it—or in the things of God—security and peace.
I find it interesting that there almost always seems to be a point when we’re never really sure if we possess our things or if our things possess us. The person who places his trust in the earthly things takes steps to protect the earthly things. We polish off the rust, use cedar closets to fend off the moth, and install security measures to thwart the thief. We embrace elaborate passwords and pin numbers to protect our accounts from hackers.
There’s nothing wrong in wanting to preserve our earthly goods. That’s a sign of good stewardship and responsibility. The problem arises when our efforts go to such an extreme that we forget why we have been blessed with our possessions. In Luke 12:42-48, Jesus tells a parable regarding the Second Coming. He uses the illustration of a servant being put in charge of his master’s household. Jesus says the wise servant will be a good steward of the master’s possession. The foolish servant, though, begins to assume that the things which belong to the master have become the servant’s. The result is the servant mistreats and wastes the things of the master. Jesus’ concluding statement is, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48). When we remember that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it (cf. Psalm 24:1), then we realize that all we have is a blessing from God. That blessing contains the need to recognize that we are but stewards. We therefore are to set our hearts on the things of heaven, seeking God’s direction in all we do with what we have.
Jesus concludes His lessons on money with the realization that “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24).
The rest of the chapter, Matthew 6:25-34, speaks about worry. The things Jesus warns us against worrying about are food and clothing. There was a time in my life when I was wondering if I was working to live or living to work. Was I so caught up in work in order to earn the money to put food on the table and clothing on our backs, or was I taking the time in my career to see the opportunities being made available to me through that career? In other words, what was my focus?
Jesus tells us that worry doesn’t help us any. Science tells us undue worry and stress can be detrimental to our lives, even to the point of decreasing our health and our lifespan. Jesus asks, “Which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?” (v. 27). He concludes the passage with the return to the theme of storing up our treasures in heaven—“Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (v. 33).
Years ago, I was watching a documentary about a well-known entertainer. I enjoyed the entertainer’s talent and found the biography interesting. He began his career travelling in the South, performing for church groups and things like that. He wanted more, so he headed to California. There he was recognized for his talent, but he was told he needed to break out of his “church entertaining” mode and make his show earthier. He took the advice to heart, and soon his career took off. Toward the end of the program, the comment was made that the entertainer was forced to work almost non-stop to provide the money for the lifestyle he had chosen to live. As I watched, a verse came to mind: “What good is it for a man if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Which all goes back to the issue of the love of money is the root of all evil. People in its pursuit will find themselves doing things that are not consistent with who they want to be or hope to be. They will find themselves saying things and doing things that are inconsistent with the values and mores they were taught. We justify it with the idea of, “If I don’t do it, someone else will,” but that’s just an excuse, not a reason.
Years ago, for a lark, I went to my complete concordance of the Bible and looked up a couple of words. My concordance was restricted to the King James Version of the Bible, which is not my Bible of preference, but that was okay. As I said, it was for a lark. I looked up the words “liberal” and “conservative” to see what the Bible said about the two terms. Oddly enough, the KJV had no reference at all to conservative, but it did have several listings of the word “liberal.” The liberal was restricted to 2 Corinthians 8-9. The passage speaks to an offering being taken up in the European churches for the church located in Jerusalem.
From the beginning of the church, the Jerusalem congregation had had a difficult time. In Acts 2, the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out into the followers of Christ. Immediately, they began to speak in languages previously unknown to them. Probably. There is no dispute that the foreigners in Jerusalem heard words coming from the Christians, and they heard the words in their native tongues. It was not Aramaic or koine Greek, but various languages throughout the Roman Empire. Whether God enabled the hearers to hear or enabled the speakers to speak isn’t clear (personally, I tend to fall on the side of the speakers, but that’s for another day and time). The result of all this was that Peter preached a rather simple message and 3000 people were added to the church that day. These new converts had come to Jerusalem for Pentecost from all over the Roman Empire, and now they were making their home in Jerusalem. They had no jobs and no ready source of income, but they needed to be housed and fed. The church rose to the challenge, as we read in Acts 4:32-37—“No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had” (v. 32b). Still, the need was great.
As Paul went on his missionary journeys, word about the needs in Jerusalem went with him. Soon, the churches in Europe wanted to contribute to the care of the needy in Jerusalem, and an offering was being taken up. It is about this offering that Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8-9, and it is here that the KJV speaks of being liberal. The NIV speaks of generosity. The gist of Paul’s instructions in these two chapters is that we are to be generous in our giving towards the needs of others. He begins his concluding remarks with, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:6-8). Paul is reminding us that, again, the money is the tool; the attitude is the person’s, and the reminder is that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.
James has some interesting things to say about how we treat the rich and the poor. In James 2, he warns against showing favoritism toward the wealthy and negligence of the poor. He doesn’t have nice things to say about the rich in vs. 6-7. And he also writes, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” (James 2:14-16). While his emphasis is on the need for a faith that is expressed in our daily living, the example is a reminder that we possess our money as stewards, and as stewards we are to be open to God’s direction. We are to serve God and not money; we are to seek His kingdom first.
In the Revelation, Jesus gives a message to seven churches located in present-day Turkey. There is one church, the Laodicean church, that Jesus has no good words for. “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one or the other. So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of My mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” (Revelation 3:15-17). It goes back to the “gain the world and lose the soul” issue of Matthew 16. When we come to rely on our earthly wealth to the exclusion of our heavenly treasure, we are in danger of losing everything.
Conclusion
We live in a society that values money and wealth greatly. There is nothing wrong with being wealthy, but there is something dreadfully wrong with equating that wealth with self-importance. The Bible is very clear that the love of money is the root of all evil, that we are to use our wealth to assist those less fortunate than are we. The Bible does expect us to earn our income, but it also recognizes the need to take care of the poor and needy. The bottom line (no pun intended for my accountant readers) is that money is merely a tool to be used by us as we go about seeking God’s kingdom and His will. Only as we follow Him can we truly understand what true wealth is.
© 2018 Glynn Beaty