Money is the currency of your belief system. That statement might take you aback, so let’s step back and see how Scripture supports it.

The way a person acts, reacts and responds to money reveals a lot about them. In fact, it reveals what they truly believe. It reveals firstly what they love. Money opens certain doors in this world, provides certain things, and so if you love what money can buy, you will love money. That’s part of your belief system.

Money also provides something of a hedge, a protection against certain things in this life. Therefore, if you love money’s protection, it reveals that money is what you trust in – your belief system. Money buys influence and status. If being influential or if being admired is important to you – then money will be important to you. That’s part of a belief system.

If I hoard money, then I believe money will help me in the day of evil. If I spend all my money on things temporal, things of this world, it shows what I believe is important. It reveals my priorities. Money is like the currency of your heart. It is an infallible test of what you love, desire, trust in. Money is the true revealer of your beliefs.

This is exactly why the Bible says so much about money. Since money strikes at the heart of man, and God wants man’s heart, you can be sure God will have much to say on it – and He does. Essentially, God uses money in our lives as the test of our hearts. Our handling and stewardship of money reflects our very faith:

He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
Luke 16:10-11

Believers in Christ have been given a new heart. We have been given a heart transplant, where our old heart of stone was taken out, and a heart of flesh, with a desire to please God, was placed in its stead. Consequently, believers should have a very different way of acquiring, giving, using, spending, and saving money from that of the world.

Our belief systems are completely at odds; our desires, priorities, values are fundamentally in opposition. While we are in the same world, and trade in the same markets, our attitudes and beliefs about money and its uses ought to surprise and bewilder those who do not know our God.

Sadly, many Christians are extremely lacking in Biblical wisdom when it comes to finances. Worse, the unbiblical theology of the health and wealth gospel, like all unbiblical teachings, has only muddied the water, making it even harder for Christians to sort through the Bible’s perspective on finances.

In this four-part series, we will go through the Bible to unpack a ‘Christian’s Guide to Money.’ Through it, we will look for the fundamental principles that make up a believer’s financial practice. We’ll find them all in the book of Proverbs, with the rest of Scripture enlarging and supporting these ideas. So let’s call this Part 1 of ‘Financial wisdom from Proverbs.’

Proverbs basically deals with the six main issues of finances: priorities, diligence, planning, giving, saving, and avoiding certain financial practices and traps.

The starting place is the principle of priorities

By priorities, we mean our very attitude towards finances. This undergirds everything else, because without a biblical attitude toward finances, the rest becomes meaningless.

The unsaved also practice the virtues of diligence, planning, saving and even giving. They too know to avoid living beyond their means, too much debt and the pitfalls of co-signing. There is nothing outstanding about a Christian who follows these principles – it is simply practical wisdom.

What marks the believer out is their totally different attitude toward money as a whole. Their whole view, their whole mindset as to its place in their life, is completely different to that of the world. So let’s begin, at the ‘end’ in Proverbs 30, which explains the mindset a believer is to have

Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.
Proverbs 30:7-9

Basically, the Bible is saying that a believer should neither seek to be wealthy, nor should he seek to be poor.

Some have said that poverty is noble. Others claim if you are wealthy, then God clearly is blessing you. With such reasoning, they try to justify their state, or their desire to be rich or to be poor. But the Bible drives a wedge right down the middle with a desire to be neither. Being poor can cause desperation and sin; being rich can cause proud self-sufficiency, which is sin.

Now, let this be clear: the Bible is not saying it is a sin to be poor. God speaks often in Scripture on how He defends the poor. And as we will see in Proverbs, God warns people against being cruel or merciless toward the poor. Many good believers in the Bible were very poor. Nor is the Bible saying it is a sin to be rich. Many good believers in the Scriptures were very wealthy.

The key here is the desire – the priority. Proverbs insists that the right attitude is to want your needs to be met – “feed me with bread convenient for me” means literally, feed me my allotted share. “Give me simply my portion in this life” means no more, and no less.

So it is not a sin to be rich – but here is the shocker: it is a sin to want to be. If you have wealth, there is no sin in enjoying it – but to desire and lust after being wealthy is simply covetousness. Proverbs 23:4-5 backs this statement up: “Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.”

Why do people want to be rich? Because they imagine that wealth will solve their problems. People think that a huge sum of money will buy them the control they want over life and will insulate them from life’s problems. But the Bible warns against this attitude.

For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
1 Timothy 6:7-10

We said that money reveals what you are trusting in, what you love, what you truly desire out of life. Someone who desires to be rich reveals that they trust in the security of money, they love the luxuries it will buy, and they truly want what it will bring. No, money itself is not the root of all evil, but the love of it is. And what is a desire to be rich, but a love of money?

It is not a sin to recognise the fact that we need money. It is not a sin to seek to earn or have money. But is a sin to want to have it in large volumes – because that reflects that we wish to place our trust in heaps of money. It is our priority.

Now we live in such a materialistic culture that many Christians find it hard to believe that it is a sin to want to be rich. Some theology has indeed taught that you should want to be rich. They say, ‘if I am rich, then I can bless others and minister to the kingdom.’ That’s a noble thought. But why do you have to be rich to do that? Why do you personally need a large bank account to bless others?

If you want to be a channel for large amounts of blessings into others’ lives, that’s great. But why then have your eye on accumulating wealth? You don’t need to desire riches to want to be mightily used by God in other’s lives. George Mueller and John Wesley are examples of men who handled huge amounts of money, but did not seek to be wealthy, nor did they die wealthy.

So Proverbs insists that our overall attitude toward money be that we do not covet it. We must not lust after having money in large amounts. Rather, we must seek to have it as we have need. We must seek to use money and love people, not use people and love money. Jesus put it simply:

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Matthew 6:24

You cannot love money, and love God. If you love God, you will not love money, you will simply seek to use it. You will seek to have it to meet your needs. But money will not be your treasure – God will be your treasure, money simply part of life.

Remember the church at Laodicea? What was their problem? Jesus said they declared “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked,” (Revelation 3:17). Their wealth and materialism had blinded them to the poverty of their spiritual condition.

See, as Jesus put simply in Matthew 6:21: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” The thing you love is the thing you pursue. The thing you want most is what you go after. The bottom line is – God wants your heart. Either He has your heart, or money has your heart. That’s why we said: God has allowed money into this world and life as a test of where our priorities really are.

Our priority, according to Proverbs, is to fear God. Proverbs 22:4 says, “By humility and the fear of the LORD, are riches, honour and life.” We may accumulate wealth in a God-fearing life, but wealth is not to be our first love. So how do we make sure that our priority is to love God and simply to use money, and not the other way around? There are three ways.

1. Remember God is your Creator

To love and trust in something created rather than the Creator Himself is idolatry. That is why the Bible calls covetousness, or the love of money, or the desire to be rich – idolatry. Colossians 3:5 says, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth … covetousness, which is idolatry.”

See, if I long for a large bank account, it’s because I believe that large bank account will unlock everything in my life. I believe it will provide for me, protect me, comfort me, make me happy and fulfilled. In other words – all the things God promises to do. Money is my god. The thing you treasure is your god. If you love money – it is your god.

To keep our priorities straight, we need to see that God is our Creator. God meets our needs, not money. Yes, God gives us money, but anyone who has been a Christian for any period of time will tell you that God provides and supplies more often in spite of the money you have, not because of the money you have. Money is the test God gives us to test our devotion and true treasure. God does not require money to supply our needs.

2. Realise what money cannot buy

The power of money lies in its ability to get you things that the world admires. That’s what makes it so attractive. The entire advertising world is built around creating desire for things. Things to eat, things to wear, things to drive. A nice thing to live in. Things to pretty up your face, things to play with, things to cause others to admire. Nice places to go to with your nice things.

People buy into this hook, line and sinker. Of course, the hypocrisy of the system is obvious – the world is forever telling people happiness is in having money and things, and then when people kill and steal to get this, the world is outraged and insists there is more to life than these things.

Jesus taught us the opposite: “And he said unto them, ‘Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth,’” (Luke 12:15). Proverbs tells us at least four things money cannot buy you.

• Love
  Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.
  Proverbs 15:17

The proverb means that the simple meal of the poor is better, if there is love in the home, than the sumptuous feast of the rich, if there is hatred there. Clearly, money cannot purchase love. And nothing is more important than love for God and your neighbour. Yet these two priorities of man do not require wealth to accomplish.

Money can buy pleasure, but not true love. Money can buy the superficial attraction of superficial people, but not the warm love of family, friends and brethren in Christ. Ask all the lonely rich people in the world, and their sad expressions will nod to the wisdom of Solomon. The dearest thing in the world – love itself – is beyond the grasp of money.

Proverbs 17:1 echoes this idea: “Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife.” The harmony of a home with love – a home with a meek and quiet spirit, though it be poor financially – is of greater value in the sight of God than a house full of meat and arguments. Money does not bring love, or solve conflicts. In fact, it often causes them. That leads us to the next thing money cannot buy.

• Peace
  Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith.
  Proverbs 15:16

The proverb means that it is better to have a right relationship with God without much money, than to have huge wealth and all the problems, worries and fretting it brings. Ask anyone who has chased money and obtained it; they will tell you it is probably more stressful trying to deal with the complications that much wealth brings than it is in trying to earn it.

Proverbs 13:8 says: “The ransom of a man’s life are his riches: but the poor heareth not rebuke.” It is not that poverty is superior, for there are other proverbs balancing out the idea – this simply reports the reality of life. The poor have less to worry about, while the rich are so often having to guard their wealth that they are held ransom to it, in a sense. Clearly, wealth does not bring peace. Inner calmness – the kind that passes all understanding – does not come from a full bank balance.

• Righteousness
  Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.
  Proverbs 16:8

Again, it’s better to have less with righteousness than riches without it. The idea is: wealth doesn’t purchase righteousness. The Jews of Christ time thought it did. They thought that money was a sign of God’s blessing, therefore the rich were righteous. This is why they were shocked out of their senses when Jesus said, “And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24).

In spite of what false teachers have said over the years, you cannot buy forgiveness from God. You cannot earn His favour with wealth. God owns the cattle of a thousand hills, it is the highest insult to think you can give anything to God, as if He lacked.

This is why in Isaiah 55:1 God spoke of salvation in these terms: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Righteousness is by grace, not through money.

• Deliverance
  “Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death.”
  Proverbs 11:4

The day of wrath speaks of a time of great calamity, war and judgement. One thinks of the descriptions of judgement in the book of Revelation. Who would begin to think that money would save you from plagues of hail, blood, scorching heat, a global earthquake or a third world war? What good is wealth in the face of certain death? Money can protect a man, but only up to a point. No person’s bank balance ever postponed their appointed day of judgement.

So we see that money can never buy perhaps the greatest, and most important things of all: love itself, peace – inwardly and with others, righteousness, and final deliverance. If money cannot buy these things, why does man pursue it so much? Because he believes it can bring these things.

He believes he will find love through being successful and wealthy. He believes he will find rest in this life through being wealthy. He even believes he will be right with God if he is wealthy, and he believes his wealth will prepare him for death itself. Mostly, people do not think too much about it – they just follow the herd, endlessly pursuing what will never satisfy.

3. Remember the fleeting and temporary nature of earthly wealth

Understanding that riches are uncertain, passing, and temporary is the third way of keeping our priorities straight. We quoted Proverbs 23:5, but let’s read it again: “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.”

I can just picture those money bills with little wings, like they were drawn in cartoons. Money is like that. It’s fleeting. Here today, gone tomorrow. Who wants to focus the years of your life on something as temporary and non-permanent as earthly money?

Again, here’s 1 Timothy 6:7: “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” And in verses 17 and 18, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate.”

Proverbs 11:28 puts it this way: “He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch.” To trust in your wealth is to make it your god. It means money is your priority. Worse, the things they buy are temporary and susceptible to theft or breakage. This was Christ’s point here:

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal…
Matthew 6:19-20

In summary, these are three ways of keeping our priorities straight:

• Realise God is our Creator, the One who will meet our needs, protect us, shelter us. He is the One we ought to pursue.
• Realise money cannot buy love, peace, righteousness or deliverance – the most important things in life.
• Realise that money is fleeting and temporary, and nothing to be placing your final hope and trust in.

Therefore our priority should not be to get rich. It should be to be rich toward God, as Jesus put it. We should not seek poverty or wealth as a virtue, but ask for our needs to be met. We should then conduct our affairs wisely – seeking to use the money we earn correctly.

Having seen the priorities we ought to have, in Part 2 of this series we will see what Proverbs says about accumulating wealth, and how we should, and shouldn’t, do it.