What the Bible Says About Money
By Lee Wilson
The Bible has a great deal to say about money and our use of it. Though an outspoken group ofpeople today suggest that having great wealth and making wise financial decisions is selfish orsinful, the Bible doesn't take that viewpoint.
One example is that of King Solomon. According to historians, the wealth of king Solomon wassimply astronomical. He was at least the wealthiness person in history at that point. And yet theBible says that it was God who gave Solomon his wealth. God gave that massive, lavish wealth toSolomon even though Solomon didn't even ask for it. If having great wealth and money itself werein fact evil, why would God choose to give someone large amounts of it?
There are other people whom the Bible calls righteous who were blessed by God with greatwealth. God blessed Job with great wealth after Job was tested. He also blessed Abraham andDavid with wealth. If God saw being wealthy as sinful then would He have blessed faithful peoplewith money?Proverbs 10:22 says,
"The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it."
Yet at the same time the Bible tells us that the blessing of wealth is not a reward God gives tothose who are lazy. Again in Proverbs we read,
"He who works his land will have abundant food,but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment"
(12:11).
Other passages in Proverbs about work:
•
"All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty"
(14:23).
•
"Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. He who gathers crops in the summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son"
(10:4,5).
•
"One who is slack in his work is a close relative of one who destroys"
(18:9).
•
"Sluggards do not plow in season; so at harvest time they look but find nothing"
(20:4).
•
"The cravings of sluggards will be the death of them, because their hands refuse to work"
(21:25).
•
"I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest--and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man"
(24:30-34).
1 Timothy 5:8 says that anyone who does not take care of his own family
"has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."
In Proverbs we're also told that,
"A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children"
(13:22). In order to leave an inheritance, not just to our own children, but to our children's childrenrequires work, discipline, investing, planning and saving up our money!
The Bible tells us that it is through noble qualities that wealth is obtained (hard work, diligence,sacrifice) and that failure to do those things will result in poverty. That's not to say that all thosewho are poor or in poverty are sluggards or refuse to work, but it does tell us that those kinds ofcharacteristics and flaws will most often lead to poverty.
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