A Biblical Guide
Randy Alcorn
God owns everything — a biblical framework that reshapes how you spend, save, and give.
What would change if you stopped thinking of your money as yours? Alcorn makes the case that generosity, contentment, and stewardship aren't spiritual nice-to-haves but the foundation of a healthy financial life.
Everything Alcorn wants you to walk away with
The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. If we think 'at least I own myself,' Scripture says 'you were bought at a price.' This single shift changes every financial question from what you want to what God wants done with his resources.
Thousands of verses address money directly or indirectly. Jesus judged the reality of Zacchaeus's salvation by his cheerful eagerness to part with his wealth. If Christ is not Lord over your money, he is not your Lord.
The Bible doesn't say money is the root of all evil — it says the love of money is. Luther compared us to a drunkard falling off a horse: Satan doesn't care which side, as long as we don't stay in the saddle.
Christ's primary argument against hoarding isn't moral — it's financial. He's the ultimate investment counselor: don't ask how your investment pays in 30 years, ask how it pays in 30 million years. Earthly currency is Confederate money.
You will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. When those with too much give to those with too little, two problems are solved. When they don't, two problems are perpetuated.
Every item you add to your possessions is one more thing to think about, clean, repair, and replace — time stolen from God, family, and people in need. Possessiveness and covetousness are two sides of the same idol.
The Israelites actually gave about 23% across three tithes. When people built the Tabernacle, they gave so much the workers begged them to stop. Whatever you give should be a meaningful expression of dependence on God, not a tip tossed on a table.
Wise people think ahead not just to retirement but to eternity. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. With $20,000 you could buy a car — or support missionary families for a year.
Why trust God when you have everything covered? Why pray when you own the bakery? God warned Israel that prosperity would turn them away from him. The sleep of a laborer is sweet, but abundance permits the rich man no sleep.
Giving gifts is often a substitute for giving attention. Training children about money starts at birth. If our actions about money speak so loudly our kids can't hear our words, no lecture on stewardship will matter.
These notes are inspired by direct excerpts and woven together into a readable guide you can follow from start to finish.
By Randy Alcorn
The Bible emphatically demonstrates that how you view your money and possessions is of utmost importance. What you do with them will influence eternity. In one of Jesus’ parables, a rich man calls in his manager and demands an account of his management, because the manager has been wasting his possessions (Luke 16:1–2). This parable, like the other stewardship parables, shows that God—who is infinitely rich and owns all things—has assigned to human beings management responsibilities over his assets. You can manage his money well, or poorly. One day you will stand before God and give an account of how you have managed what belongs to him.
It might seem unfair that you won’t formally answer to God for your work as his asset manager until your life is over and it’s too late to implement changes. But it’s not unfair, because God has recorded in the Bible everything you need to know about his investment priorities, his high standards of management, and the rewards he offers his faithful stewards.
As Martin Luther put it, “There are three conversions necessary in the Christian life: the conversion of the heart, the mind, and the purse.”
Many who say “I have nothing to give” spend large amounts of discretionary income on cars, clothes, coffee, entertainment, phones, and computers. They have nothing to give when they’re done spending, precisely because they’re never done spending. Then, when they run out of money, they think it’s because they didn’t have enough. The real issue is not what you would do with a million dollars if you had it, but what you are doing with the hundred thousand, ten thousand, or ten dollars you do have. If you are not faithful with what God has already entrusted to you, why should he trust you with any more?
Jesus judged the reality of Zacchaeus’s salvation by his cheerful eagerness to part with his money for God’s glory and the good of others. When Zacchaeus declared he would give half his wealth to the poor and repay anyone he had cheated four times over, Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today” (Luke 19:8–9). In contrast, when the rich young man asked what he must do to have eternal life and Jesus told him to sell his possessions and give to the poor, the young man went away sad because he had many possessions. Jesus knew that money was this man’s god. The principle is timeless: if Christ is not Lord over your money and possessions, he is not your Lord.
When John the Baptist was asked by the crowds what repentance looked like in practice, his answers were concrete and financial: share your shirt and food with those who have none; collect only what taxes the government requires; don’t extort money; be content with your pay (Luke 3:7–14). Suppose Luke or John the Baptist were to visit today and gauge your spiritual condition by your attitudes and actions regarding money and possessions. What conclusions would they draw?
In Mark 12:41–44, Jesus deliberately sat down near the Temple collection box and watched what people were giving. When a poor widow dropped in two small coins, he called his disciples over and said she had given more than all the wealthy donors, because they gave from their surplus while she gave everything she had to live on. Notice the passage doesn’t say Jesus happened to see—he deliberately watched.
The rich fool of Luke 12 stands in stark contrast to that widow. He wanted to tear down his barns and build bigger ones, accumulate enough wealth to retire early, and have a good time. It sounds just like the modern dream. But God called him a fool because he stored up earthly wealth without being rich toward God. The God who knows hearts and sees from the vantage point of eternity regards the poor woman as eternally wise and the rich man as eternally foolish. Yet who do most Western Christians live more like—the poor widow or the rich fool?
A distraught man once rode up to John Wesley shouting that his house had burned to the ground. Wesley replied, “No. The Lord’s house burned to the ground. That means one less responsibility for me.” His reaction didn’t stem from denial of reality—it sprang from life’s most basic reality: God is the owner of all things, and we are simply his stewards.
From beginning to end, Scripture emphasizes God’s ownership of everything: “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1). “The land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants” (Leviticus 25:23). “Everything in heaven and earth is yours” (1 Chronicles 29:11–12). “‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty” (Haggai 2:8). And if you should think you at least own yourself, God says, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).
Not only does God own everything, he grants you your money-making skills and determines how much of his wealth he will entrust to you. “Remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18). If you really believe God is the owner of all that has been entrusted to you, you should regularly be asking him, “What do you want me to do with your money and your possessions?” And you should be open to the possibility that he may want you to share large portions of his assets with those whose needs are greater than yours.
In every spending decision, ask: Am I acting as if I owned this, or am I acting as the Lord’s trustee? If you’re God’s money manager, you’re not God. Money isn’t God. God is God. So God, money, and you are each put in their rightful place.
In his parable of the shrewd manager, Jesus doesn’t tell you to stay away from “worldly wealth” but to use it strategically. He says to use it “to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings” (Luke 16:9). Money can be a tool of Christ, but it must be used as such now, before your current period of service ends. Those “friends” are believers who are in Heaven as a result of your ministry or whose lives you’ve touched in a significant way through the use of your material assets. Every time you give to world missions, famine relief, prison ministry, or Bible translation—whenever you invest your time and prayers—you can dream about the day you’ll meet and enjoy the hospitality of new friends in Heaven. One day money will be useless. While it’s still useful, God’s money managers with foresight will use it for eternal good.
The parable of the ten minas (Luke 19:11–27) shows that those with comparable gifts, assets, and opportunities will be judged according to their faithfulness, industriousness, and wisdom while investing in God’s Kingdom. Consequently, in God’s eternal Kingdom, they’ll receive varying positions of authority.
When you stand before your Master and Maker, it will not matter how many people on Earth knew your name, how many called you great, or how many considered you a fool. It will not matter whether schools and hospitals were named after you or whether your estate was large or small. What will matter is one thing and one thing only—what your Master thinks of you.
Two equally incorrect beliefs about money are that it is always evil and that it is always good. The Bible does not say “money is the root of all evil.” What it says is “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10).
Paul learned the secret of contentment in every situation—with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little (Philippians 4:11–12). Generating income is a necessary and God-ordained part of life in the present world and is therefore not unspiritual. You should commend those who choose to live simply so a larger portion of their income helps the needy, but you should neither disdain income production nor withdraw from “the system,” as if economics were sinful. Doing so contributes to poverty rather than alleviating it. You must battle materialism—not by withdrawing from society, but by serving God faithfully within it.
God created us to love people and use things, but materialists love things and use people. Scripture is filled with cautionary examples: Achan stole things set apart for God and paid with his life (Joshua 7). Delilah betrayed Samson for a fee (Judges 16). Gehazi lied to gain payment for Elisha’s miracle and was struck with leprosy (2 Kings 5). God warned against a king’s temptation to accumulate horses, wives, and large amounts of silver and gold (Deuteronomy 17:16–17). In the ultimate act of treachery, Judas betrayed God’s Son for money.
Greed surfaces in both possessiveness and covetousness (Colossians 3:5). It takes time to hover over your things, and that time must come from elsewhere—time you might spend cultivating intimacy with God, time in his Word and in prayer, time with family, time visiting the needy, time with people who need Christ. Every item you add to your possessions is one more thing to think about, talk about, clean, repair, display, rearrange, and replace when it goes bad.
Materialism blinds you to your spiritual poverty. It’s a fruitless attempt to find meaning outside of God, the Source of all life and the giver of all good gifts. Some wonder why God still blesses with wealth many once-godly Western nations. Perhaps the “blessing” is but a curse in disguise. In contrast, times of financial struggle may be God’s character-building gift. In the midst of prosperity, the challenge for believers is to handle wealth so that it acts as a blessing, not a curse. As Steinbeck said, “If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much, and I would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy, sick.”
People store up treasures on Earth rather than in Heaven, not only because of greed and selfishness, but also because of fear and insecurity. Yet putting your hope in earthly treasures does nothing but multiply anxiety, because earthly treasures are so temporary and uncertain. They cannot bear the weight of your trust. As Solomon wrote, “The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep” (Ecclesiastes 5:12).
The book of Ecclesiastes is the most powerful exposé of materialism ever written. Solomon, one of history’s wealthiest men, recounted his attempts to find meaning in building projects, entertainment, alcohol, sex, and possessions. After decades as the world’s richest man, he concluded: “It was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere” (Ecclesiastes 2:11).
”I took care of you in the wilderness, in that dry and thirsty land. But when you had eaten and were satisfied, you became proud and forgot me” (Hosea 13:4–6). Mighty warriors who do not trust in God but trust their wealth instead grow more and more bold in their wickedness (Psalm 52:7). Few things are more repugnant to the Lord than the rich despising the poor (Job 12:5; James 2:1–9). And those who indulge their material appetites are not likely to curb their sexual appetites either. “Riches won’t help on the day of judgment, but right living can save you from death” (Proverbs 11:4).
For Christians to choose not to provide for their children or truly needy relatives is to deny the faith and become worse than an unbeliever (1 Timothy 5:8, 16). Likewise, it’s the responsibility of grown children—not the state or an insurance company—to take care of their parents and other relatives in their old age or illness. Christ, even when on the cross dying for the sins of the world, took the time to entrust his mother’s welfare to one of his own apostles, who from that point forward made sure her needs were cared for (John 19:26–27).
Sometimes your actions speak so loudly that your children can’t hear a word you’re saying. Training your children about money and possessions begins at birth (Proverbs 22:6). Giving gifts to children is often a substitute for giving them personal attention. Anything you give your children is a poor substitute for yourself.
Jesus spoke blessings on the poor, the hungry, and the weeping—and pronounced sorrow on the rich, the fat, and the laughing (Luke 6:20–26). Prosperity theology sees as its model the ascended heavenly Lord rather than the descended earthly servant. Jesus warned his disciples not to follow a lordship model but his own servant model (Mark 10:42–45). In this life, you are to share his cross; in the next life you will share his crown (2 Timothy 2:12).
Paul wrote what no health-and-wealth preacher would: he was given a thorn in his flesh, and when he begged the Lord three times to remove it, God said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:7–10). Whatever Paul’s affliction, it was “given” to him by God, who had a specific purpose for not removing it—to teach Paul to trust in God’s strength, not his own. You need to recognize that God may accomplish higher purposes through your sickness than your health. When God chose not to heal Paul, he didn’t “name it and claim it” and demand healing. Instead, he acknowledged God’s spiritual purpose in his adversity.
Only when you look at your life with an eternal perspective will you be able to make eternally wise, countercultural choices that may not be easy today but will pay off in the long tomorrow. In Matthew 6:19–24, Jesus presents three groups of two: two treasures (the present Earth and the future Heaven), two perspectives (the good eye and the bad eye), and two masters (God and money). He is telling you to spend your life investing in the right treasury, adopting the right perspective, and serving the right master.
You store up treasures on Earth by accumulating and gripping them tightly. You store up treasures in Heaven by holding loosely, sharing freely, and giving away earthly treasures for God’s Kingdom purposes. Jesus doesn’t say to do this because it’s right but because it’s smart—because such treasures will last. It’s not an emotional appeal; it’s a logical one: invest in what has lasting value. If you give instead of keep, you invest in the eternal instead of the temporal, and you store up treasures in Heaven that will never stop paying dividends.
Of course, there are many good things God wants you to do with money that don’t involve giving it away. It’s essential that you provide for your family’s basic material needs (1 Timothy 5:8). But these good things are only a beginning. Selfishness is pursuing gain at the expense of others, but God doesn’t have a limited number of treasures to distribute. When you store up treasures for yourself in Heaven, it does not reduce the treasures available to others. In fact, it is by serving God and others that you store up heavenly treasures—so everyone gains, and no one loses.
Jesus also establishes that God rewards his children for practicing the spiritual disciplines, the first being giving. If you do your giving, fasting, and praying for God and not men, “your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” As Craig Blomberg states, storing up treasures in this context focuses particularly on the compassionate use of material resources to meet others’ physical and spiritual needs, in keeping with the priorities of God’s Kingdom.
Consider this analogy: Imagine you’re living in the South at the end of the Civil War, but you’re a Northerner planning to move home. You’ve accumulated lots of Confederate currency. If you know the North is going to win, the only smart move is to immediately cash in your Confederate currency for U.S. currency—the only money that will have value once the war’s over. Keep only enough Confederate currency to meet your short-term needs. Kingdom currency is the only medium of exchange recognized by the Son of God, whose government will last forever. That currency is your present faithful service and sacrificial use of your resources for him.
When the Lord returns, what will happen to all the money sitting in bank accounts, retirement programs, and estates? It will burn like wood, hay, and straw, when it could have been used to feed the hungry and fulfill the great commission.
Scripture calls you to set your sights on the realities of Heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand (Colossians 3:1–4). Heaven is not a vague, disembodied existence. After entering Heaven, the martyrs look down on Earth and clearly remember their lives, fully aware of what’s happening there. In Revelation 6:9–11, those martyred for the word of God call out to the Lord, asking how long before he judges the people who belong to this world. They were told to rest a little longer until the full number of their fellow servants who were to be martyred had joined them. Heaven is a place of awareness, memory, and continuity with the life you live now.
Imagine telling your teenage daughters, “If you put in a full day of yard work Saturday, I’ll pay you sixty dollars and take you out to a nice dinner.” Would they be wrong to want that reward? Of course not—you’re their father, you made the offer, and you want them to desire those rewards. Your own joy would be lessened if they didn’t want what you offered. The same principle applies to God’s rewards: it wasn’t your idea that God reward you. It was his idea.
It would be inappropriate to refuse to work unless and until God offered rewards. And Jesus addresses this when he says, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty” (Luke 17:10). But what turns the debate on its head is that one simple fact—rewarding faithful stewards was God’s idea, not ours.
New Testament giving goes far beyond tithing, but the principle of tithing was ingrained in the beliefs and lifestyles of the early Christians, most of whom grew up in Jewish homes. The first teaching about tithing as a law occurs in Leviticus 27:30: “A tithe of everything from the land … belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.” The word tithe means “a tenth part.” The Creator warned the Israelites that to present anything less than the full 10 percent was to “rob God,” since the first 10 percent belonged to him, not them.
The Israelites actually gave three different tithes, one given every third year, so that cumulatively the three tithes amounted to 23 percent of their income. Whatever amount you choose to give should not be like a tip tossed mindlessly on a table after a meal. It should be a meaningful expression of your dependence upon God and gratitude to him. And those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them (Galatians 6:6).
Jesus himself affirmed tithing even while rebuking the Pharisees for neglecting justice, mercy, and faith: “You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things” (Matthew 23:23). When people say “I can’t afford to tithe,” ask yourself: if your income were reduced by 10 percent, would you die? You wouldn’t. Somehow, you’d manage to get by. That’s proof you really can tithe. In recent times of economic difficulty, countless people have been living on 10, 20, and 50 percent less than they used to. It isn’t easy, but most manage.
On the question of whether to tithe on gross or net income: gross is the total amount God provides; net is what is left after taxes and other deductions. Some say money they don’t see is not true income. But are you not the beneficiary of taxes, insurance, and other withholdings from your paycheck?
In a passage about financial giving to the needy, Paul grounds generosity in the gospel itself: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). When the Israelites gave voluntary offerings for the building of God’s Tabernacle, they gave so much that the workers had to ask them to stop (Exodus 36:4–6). The people got caught up in the thrill of giving; the emphasis was not on the amount but on the willingness of each person’s heart. It wasn’t a tithe, which was obligatory—it was given “freely” (Exodus 35:29).
One person, when trying to figure out how much to give monthly, decided to give at least as much as his house payment. His reasoning: “If I can’t afford to give that much, then I can’t afford to live in a house this nice.” He didn’t reason from the tithe; he reasoned from his house payment, which was significantly greater than 10 percent.
Giving involves money, but much more. You can give a meal, a house, a dress, a shovel, a bicycle, a sewing machine, or any other possession. You can also share possessions while still maintaining ownership—loaning books, cars, camping equipment, or computers with no strings attached. God will reward you not just for giving but for sharing. Two cautions: first, you can easily rationalize owning unnecessary things on the grounds that you share them. Second, guard against possessiveness. If others are afraid to borrow from you because they know a dent or scratch would bother you, you’re not having much of a ministry no matter how “willing to share” you imagine yourself to be.
Jesus said, “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap” (Luke 6:38). Paul writes, “You will be enriched in every way so that …” and finishes not with a promise of personal wealth but: “you can always be generous” (2 Corinthians 9:10–11). God loves a cheerful giver and will generously provide all you need—and plenty left over to share with others (2 Corinthians 9:6–8).
Why does God give some of his children more than they need and others less? So that he may use his children to help one another. When those with too much give to those with too little, two problems are solved. When they don’t, two problems are perpetuated.
Generous giving isn’t meant to become a badge done for recognition or to feed pride. The story of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1–10) makes this painfully clear. They sold property and claimed to bring the full amount to the apostles while secretly keeping part. Their sin was not in keeping some money—that was their right—but in lying about it. Both fell dead. The warning is not against withholding, but against dishonesty and giving for the sake of human praise.
In the account of the final judgment (Matthew 25:32–46), Jesus separates people as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. The sheep are those who fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed strangers, clothed the naked, and visited the sick and imprisoned. Whatever they did for “the least of these,” they did for Jesus himself. The sin held against the goats is not that they did something wrong to those in need but that they failed to do anything right for them—a sin of omission with grave eternal consequences. You cannot wash your hands of responsibility to the poor by saying, “I’m not doing anything to hurt them.” You must actively be doing something to help them.
Scripture also recognizes different causes of poverty. Widows and orphans with no one to care for them deserve priority support (1 Timothy 5:3–4). But some poverty is due to laziness (Proverbs 24:30–34) or self-indulgence—“Those who love pleasure become poor” (Proverbs 21:17). Lazy and self-indulgent people do not need financial support; they need incentives to no longer be lazy and self-indulgent. Acts of well-meaning provision can remove their incentive to be responsible for themselves. Paul was direct: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10–12).
God’s own model for helping the poor preserved their dignity. The corners of the fields were left uncut so the poor could have food (Leviticus 19:9–10). But the grain wasn’t cut, bundled, processed, and delivered to the poor. Provided they were able, the poor did the work themselves—and thereby were neither robbed of their dignity nor made irresponsible by a system requiring no work.
Isaiah 58:6–8 describes the kind of action God wants: free those who are wrongly imprisoned, lighten burdens, let the oppressed go free, share your food with the hungry, give shelter to the homeless, give clothes to those who need them. Yet even radical generosity without love gains nothing: “If I gave everything I have to the poor … but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3).
In the early church, “those who owned land or houses would sell them and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need” (Acts 4:34–35). Note that they entrusted their gifts to spiritually qualified church leaders, who distributed them wisely. Giving should start with your local Bible-believing, Christ-centered church, the spiritual community where you’re fed and to which you’re accountable. Even gifts sent to other places were given through the local church. And if the Bible tells you to pay taxes (Romans 13:6) and you comply, even though some will be wasted or used for bad purposes, surely you can give to God through your church even when you don’t feel comfortable with every use of the funds.
When Jesus called Simon, Andrew, James, and John away from their fishing nets, they left at once and followed him (Mark 1:16–20). But even these apostles didn’t irreversibly divest themselves of all possessions. Just ten verses after they’ve left their nets, “they went to Simon and Andrew’s home” (Mark 1:29). These disciples who left their home to follow Jesus still had a home. Peter says, “We have left everything to follow you!” (Mark 10:28)—but he doesn’t say “We have sold everything.” When Jesus entrusted his mother to the apostle John, John took her into his own home (John 19:26–27).
Levi got up and followed Jesus (Mark 2:14), and in the very next verse a dinner party at Levi’s house is used to introduce people to Jesus. Given his profession and the size of the gathering, Levi’s house was undoubtedly nicer and larger than average. We’re never told Jesus called Levi to sell his house. Just as for most of his life Jesus served God working as a carpenter and living in a house on a piece of land, so most of his disciples served God as faithful stewards, raising their families and working in their own communities.
After Jesus healed the Gerasene demoniac, the man begged to leave everything and follow Christ. But Jesus said, “No, go home to your family, and tell them everything the Lord has done for you” (Mark 5:18–19). Christ knew God’s Kingdom could be better served if this man made his home his base. The results were powerful: “the man started off to visit the Ten Towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed” (Mark 5:20).
”Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else” (Galatians 6:4–5). There are some things no Christian should do—hoard money, live in opulence, or fail to give generously. But there are other things some Christians can freely do that others may sense God’s leading not to do, such as own land, a home, a car, or a business; go on certain vacations; or set aside significant retirement funds.
How much money and how many possessions can you safely keep? Enough to care for your basic needs and some wants, but not so much that large amounts of money are kept from higher Kingdom causes, not so much that you become proud and independent of the Lord, and not so much that it distracts you from your purpose or leaves you with the illusion that you are an owner rather than a manager.
Even in wartime, soldiers take leave when possible. Your battle lasts a lifetime, so it’s appropriate to have recreational items and to spend money on vacations that aren’t “necessary” but serve to renew you. These things aren’t essential, yet they contribute to physical health, mental and emotional refreshment, and relational enrichment.
“Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7). And God says, “You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of human masters” (1 Corinthians 7:23). God says borrowers put themselves in servitude to lenders, then tells you to be a slave only to him, not to men. The Mosaic law reflects a strong connection between debtors and slaves—so detrimental was this that God commanded a Year of Jubilee every fifty years when debts would be canceled, and freedom for slaves after six years.
”The wicked borrow and never repay, but the godly are generous givers” (Psalm 37:21). If you take God’s Word seriously, you should avoid debt when possible. In those rare cases where you go into debt, make every effort to get out as soon as you can, never undertaking debt without prayerful consideration and wise counsel.
Scripture counters this mentality directly: “True godliness with contentment is itself great wealth” (1 Timothy 6:6–8). “Those who love money will never have enough” (Ecclesiastes 5:10). “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think” (Romans 12:2). To expect God to meet needs you manufacture through indebtedness is an attempt to manipulate the Almighty. Assuming the role of master, you demote God to the obedient genie who exists to grant your wishes.
Remember: you don’t save money by spending money. If you buy an $80 sweater on sale for $30, you didn’t save anything—you spent $30. Every purchase should be examined in light of its alternative uses or ministry potential. Before you spend $20, $100, or $1,000, weigh the value of your purchase against what the same money could have done if used another way. You should understand and resist the manipulative nature of advertising, which thrives on instilling discontent. And little expenses add up—like water from a leaky faucet, money trickles through your hands. One dollar here, ten dollars there; a hamburger here, a mocha there. If a swimming pool is full of leaks, pumping in more water will never be enough until you find the leaks and fix them.
Imagine you’ve entrusted a large sum to a money manager, telling him to take out only what he needs to live on and invest the bulk on your behalf. Months later you call and he says there are no investments—all the money is gone and he doesn’t even know where it went. How does God feel when at the end of the month nothing’s left from the money he entrusted to you, and you don’t even know where it went? “Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds” (Proverbs 27:23–24). God is telling you: know what your assets are and know where they go.
Jesus told you what matters more than anything else: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37–39). Accordingly, God says there is one debt to which all your money and possessions must be unreservedly committed, yet which you can never retire: “Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another” (Romans 13:8). Your indebtedness to God is to be treated as indebtedness to others, so that you keep both God and others in mind as you manage his money. In order to best fulfill that spiritual debt, you must free yourself from the burdens that come with financial debt.
”Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own” (Luke 12:15). One common formula for figuring out what’s affordable in a home is a purchase price that’s two-and-a-half times or less the family’s gross annual income. But remember, there’s no guarantee you will have your job next year or make as much money. Borrowing for a home is sometimes wise and sometimes not. If debt seems the best or necessary choice, go slowly and prayerfully. Get objective financial counsel from good stewards (Proverbs 15:22).
”A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences” (Proverbs 22:3). Even if you’ve come into debt legitimately, your first debt is to God since he says the firstfruits belong to him. “On the first day of each week, you should each put aside a portion of the money you have earned. Don’t wait” (1 Corinthians 16:2).
Debt isn’t the main problem; it’s a symptom of a more basic problem—greed, impulsiveness, and lack of discipline—sins you must confess to God.
“Fools spend whatever they get” (Proverbs 21:20). “Take a lesson from the ants … they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter” (Proverbs 6:6–8). Even ants know there will be no food in winter unless it’s stored during the summer. Only a shortsighted person would fail to store up provisions for upcoming times of predictable need. By God’s inspiration, Joseph devised a careful savings plan in anticipation of famine in Egypt (Genesis 41:25–57)—for seven years Egyptians stored 20 percent of the harvest. When famine came, the nation was able to care for itself and provide for others as well.
Lack of planning invites poverty. To feast now without regard to future famine is to manage your resources poorly and presume upon God or others to bail you out. Money needlessly spent is a double loss—not only is it gone, but its potential for earnings disappears. Had you set it aside, it could have been multiplying on Earth through savings or in Heaven through giving.
Some save in the wise way that Proverbs encourages. Some save out of greed, others because they’re misers. Still others save out of fear—by stockpiling money, they insulate themselves from God, no longer depending on his provision and protection. So you can’t say “saving money is always biblical” or “saving money is always unbiblical.” It may be either, depending on the reasons and the alternatives. “A person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God” (Luke 12:21). “Trust in your money and down you go!” (Proverbs 11:28).
James warns the rich bluntly: your wealth is rotting away, your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags, your gold and silver have become worthless. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire. This treasure you have accumulated will stand as evidence against you on the day of judgment (James 5:1–5). When God provided manna from Heaven, he told his people they’d have just enough for each day. Those who hoarded found it full of maggots by morning (Exodus 16:16–20).
When a person retires at sixty-five, studies show the chances of a fatal heart attack immediately double. Your mind and body weren’t made to be shut down. Nowhere in Scripture does God call healthy people to stop working. How much of what you think about retirement is based on your culture, and how much on God’s Word? It’s legitimate to work without pay—donating labor to ministries and volunteering. But as long as God has you in this world, he has work for you to do. The hours may be shorter, the work different, the pay lower or nonexistent. But he doesn’t want you to take still-productive minds and bodies and permanently lay them on a beach, lose them on a golf course, or lock them in a dark living room watching game shows.
Paul commended the Macedonian believers not for clinging to the little they had but for giving beyond their means (2 Corinthians 8:3–5). They had virtually no material things, yet they gave to the point of leaving themselves impoverished. If they didn’t need to think of tomorrow, why do you—with all your material wealth—need to be so concerned about storing up earthly treasures for thirty years from now? This is not to say you can’t use or shouldn’t have retirement plans, but as God’s child, you don’t need them.
At the conclusion of the movie Schindler’s List, Oskar Schindler—who saved many Jews from the Nazis—looks at his car and his gold pin and regrets that he didn’t give up more of his money and possessions to save more lives. Christians get no second chance to live life over, the second time doing more to help the needy and invest in God’s Kingdom. You have one brief opportunity—a lifetime on Earth—to use your resources to make a difference.
Many Christians don’t evaluate the source of their mutual funds’ income. Most would think it wrong to invest in Playboy magazine, but some Internet companies partner with such ventures in less obvious ways. Paul warns about being careful regarding partnerships: “Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness?” and “Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them” (2 Corinthians 6:14; Ephesians 5:11).
Many people sincerely desire to make profitable investments now and give substantial amounts to God’s work later. “Rather than give now, shouldn’t I hang on to the money, hoping my investments will do well and I’ll have more to give to God’s Kingdom in five or ten years?” In some cases this appears to have been wise. But observation over many years shows that countless good intentions are never realized.
In Old Testament times, it was essential that parents pass land ownership to their children and grandchildren. Many were too poor to buy land, and without inheritance, they would end up enslaved or unable to care for their aging parents. Hence they were told, “A good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children” (Proverbs 13:22). But in affluent modern cultures, inheritances are usually windfalls coming to people who live separately from their parents, have regular sources of income generated by their own work, and have far more than they need.
Andrew Carnegie called the almighty dollar bequeathed to a child “an almighty curse.” Cornelius Vanderbilt said inherited wealth is “as certain death to ambition as cocaine is to morality.” Henry Ford stated, “Fortunes tend to self-destruction by destroying those who inherit them.” God says, “An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning will not be blessed at the end” (Proverbs 20:21). You should not transfer wealth to adult children unless you’ve successfully transferred wisdom to them. Without wisdom, wealth will not only be wasted but will damage your children by subsidizing addictions, laziness, and immorality.
If you decide to give most or all of your estate to God’s Kingdom, explain your plans to your children. This prevents false expectations, frees them from later resentment, and alleviates present guilt feelings stemming from what children might imagine they have to gain by their parents’ death. If children and grandchildren have special needs, leaving money to them is appropriate. But generally, leaving only a modest portion—enough to help grandchildren with college, for instance—encourages your adult children to work hard, plan, not overspend, and experience the joy of trusting God.
New Testament principles and examples suggest you shouldn’t strive to leave a large estate. John Wesley made a great deal of money on his books—about £50,000 in all. Yet at his death his estate was worth only £28. Wesley was left with so little not because of poor planning but good planning—he had generously given it to the cause of Christ. His stated goal was to have as little left as possible when he died.
Children shouldn’t always be paid for their chores. However, there are many “extras” that can legitimately be rewarded financially, and children can take on jobs outside the home as they grow older—washing cars, mowing lawns, cleaning house, or babysitting. Parents who automatically pick up the tab for expensive events do their children a disservice. If teenagers believe these events warrant that kind of money, they need to work for it themselves—months in advance, if necessary. Some parents offer to pay for classes where their children earn A’s and B’s, but the student has to pay for classes with a C or lower. Suddenly they have motivation to study.
For those who say “giving must be from the heart, not imposed by someone else,” remember that giving is also a habit, and like all good habits it can and should be cultivated. There’s no better way for a parent to cultivate giving than by deliberately making it one of the family’s standard practices. Praise your children for giving and resist any temptation to hold them back.
An effective way to teach children how to properly spend money is to show them how you spend it. It helps them compare what’s expensive and what isn’t, what’s a priority and what’s not. Few things you can teach your children are more valuable than the discipline of saying no. Model delayed gratification and teach the discipline of avoiding expenditures when the money could accomplish a higher purpose by being given away, saved, or used more wisely. Shop less for entertainment—it can breed discontent to look at all the latest things you don’t need and can’t afford.
Children who’ve been told to turn off the lights or shut the front door suddenly understand when they see the stack of money required to pay the electric bill. Until they can visualize what words mean, words don’t sink in. If your child wants a brand-new bicycle like his friends have, one way to teach the cost of borrowing is to offer to loan him the money at the going rate of interest. Work out a payment schedule showing how much the bicycle will actually cost and how long it will take to pay off. He may back out of the deal, but if he doesn’t, by the time he pays off the debt—perhaps six months later—he will never forget the cost of borrowing.
Jesus told you never to give in order to be seen by others (Matthew 6:1). Yet maybe ten minutes earlier in the same sermon, he said, “Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father” (Matthew 5:14–16). Jesus commands you to let your good deeds shine—not so everyone will praise you but so they will praise God. There is a way to talk about every good deed, including giving, that does not involve self-praise but instead brings praise to God and encouragement to others.
Better to be seen as fools now in the eyes of other people—including other Christians—than to be seen as fools forever in the eyes of an audience of One whose judgment is the only one that will ultimately matter.
You will never manage God’s money well unless you truly believe it is God’s money. Life becomes much clearer—and in some respects much easier—when you abandon the false god of your ownership and authority, which manifests itself in a deadly spirit of entitlement. A test of your stewardship is whether you ask God to show you what to do with his money. If you don’t consult him, no matter what you say, you’re behaving as if you were an owner, not a steward.
This will mean surrendering some temporary treasures and downsizing your earthly kingdom. In doing so, you will upsize God’s Kingdom and gain eternal treasures. In Romans 12, Paul lists seven spiritual gifts, including serving, teaching, mercy, leadership, and giving. “If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly” (Romans 12:6–8).