I\u2019m attending a new support group for Christians who want to be better stewards of our money. We\u2019ll be reading from Mark Scandrette\u2019s book Free: Spending Your Time and Money on What Matters Most , and discussing issues like generosity, giving, and how to know when you have too much stuff. (It\u2019s a fair bet that most of us do have too much stuff.) Our aim is to be more transparent with each other about this taboo topic.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019ve been thinking lately about what the Bible has to say about money. Quite a lot, actually \u2014 particularly in the advice-filled Book of Proverbs. What does the Book of Proverbs have to say about money, generosity, and wealth?<\/p>\n
1) Get rich slow .<\/p>\n
Proverbs takes a dim view of get-rich-quick schemes, in keeping with the book\u2019s general emphases on wise and industrious living. The authors of these proverbs don\u2019t really question the overall idea that having money is a nice comfort; Proverbs is not the place where you\u2019re going to find those \u201cGo, sell all that you have\u201d admonishments of that crazy Jesus guy in the New Testament. It just tells you to accumulate your nest egg slowly, \u201clittle by little\u201d (Prov. 13:11, 28:20). Don\u2019t be greedy or hasty.<\/p>\n
2) Give to the poor .<\/p>\n
While Proverbs doesn\u2019t highlight a particular percentage or amount that we\u2019re supposed to give to the poor, it\u2019s clear from start to finish that we\u2019re expected to be generous. When we oppress the poor, we insult God (Prov. 14:31, 17:5); when we ignore those who are suffering, God is likely to return the favor and not hear our prayers when we\u2019re in trouble ourselves (Prov. 21:13).<\/p>\n
3) Don\u2019t be idle. Like, ever .<\/p>\n
Proverbs hammers home the point that work is vital to a fulfilling life. If ants can do it, so can you (Prov. 6:6\u20138)! Ideally, in the Bible\u2019s eyes, you\u2019d be at work on your own land, raising your own food with your family or clan. Failing that, you can at least join a CSA and work diligently at whatever day job you\u2019ve got. Hard work builds character, whereas idleness leads to destruction and watching reruns of Jersey Shore (Prov. 13:4, 12:24, 10:4).<\/p>\n
4) Don\u2019t be too rich or too poor .<\/p>\n
Proverbs makes a strong case for the strength of the middle class: if you\u2019re too poor, you\u2019ll be prone to sins like theft and envy; if you\u2019re too rich, you\u2019ll cozy up to the things of this world and forget all about God (Prov. 30:8).<\/p>\n
5) Get your priorities straight .<\/p>\n
Loving God and growing in wisdom are more important than money. Money is a fleeting thing that\u2019s of use for this brief life but no longer (Prov. 23:5, 27:23). The Bible says it\u2019s better to have a little money but be right with God than a lot of money you obtained unjustly (Prov. 16:8).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m attending a new support group for Christians who want to be better stewards of our money. We\u2019ll be reading from Mark Scandrette\u2019s book Free: Spending Your Time and Money on What Matters Most , and discussing issues like generosity, giving, and how to know when you have too much stuff. (It\u2019s a fair bet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1122,376,5466,85,4563,1578,1396],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}