God our hearts and money

Some time ago I posted this article, thoughout it might be worth posting again just as I've been giving some thought to God, my heart and money

Is money good or bad? What is a Christians attitude to money to be? What are our needs? How are we called to radical discipleship in the area of our bank balances and possessions? The Bible teaches more frequently about money than it does about sex and yet we rarely see that reflected in preaching programmes or home groups, perhaps because we have picked up societies reticence to talk about it. So what does the Bible have to say about money?

God and money
In the beginning God made the world and everything in it and it is declared seven times to be ‘good’ (Genesis 1). God then gives what he has made to his stewards –Adam and Eve. They are to care for God’s creation, though it remains God’s. It is given to them to enjoy and is a good gift from a loving father to his obedient children.

In 1 Chronicles 29:10-14 we see that King David recognises this principle(11), he is amazed at the wealth God has provided which the people have been able to bring to contribute to the building of the temple. He recognises “Everything we have comes from you, and we have only given you what comes from your hand”. There is amazement at God’s provision, joy at being able to give and recognition that they are only giving back part of what God has given to them.

This idea carries over to the New Testament in 1 Tim 4:4 Paul is arguing against the prohibitions of false teachers who “forbid people to marry, and order them to abstain from certain foods...” He then emphasizes twice that “everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving!” It seems to be an echo of what God taught Peter on the rooftop in Joppa.

But Paul adds that the believer is to give thanks to God for what they have. Again a reminder that everything we have is given to us by God – it’s his and we are given it to invest for his glory. Even what we work hard for is God’s; God has given us the talents and skills to get the job we have as well as the job itself.

We need to hear carefully what the Bible is saying here. God makes the material world and it is good, it is designed for humans to enjoy and money and possessions are part of that. But there is also in its very set up a helpful corrective God is the creator and he does not give up ownership of what he give but makes us stewards of what he has given us. It means that if everything we have is God’s given to us to invest then a lack of generosity isn’t excusable as ‘Oh so and so is just tight’, it is actually robbing God (Mal3:8).

Sin and Money
Having said that possession and material things are created and given by God for our good and for us to enjoy in thankfulness in Genesis 3 we see that along with all of creation money and possessions are affected by fall. They are now part of the world which is under the curse and is dislocated in terms of relationship with God and how we view it.

That is why the tenth Commandment is “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.” One consequence of the fall is that instead of enjoying material things we are in danger of becoming enslaved by them. They are now a rival to God and his place in our affections.

The dangers of money enslaving us are emphasized in the parables that Jesus tells. Warnings are also found in Colossians 3:5 and Ephesians 5:3 where believers are told to put greed to death, and that there is not to be even a hint of it in the church.

We need to be aware that as Christians greed is a very real danger for us. In fact so blind are we to greed that it would probably be wise to work on the assumption that we have a greed problem rather than that we do not. This problem is exacerbated by the world we live in, a world where we are bombarded with advertising trying to create desires and wants. Making greed seem like need!

It is helpful to actually sit and think; ‘What are my needs?’ on a basic level we need food, water, clothing, shelter, warmth, friendship. It is telling to then compare that list with adverts we see on the side of buses, on poster boards, and on line or on screen, which tell us we need so much more!

Credit enhances that, credit seeks to make the need manufactured by advertising easy to fulfil. Feel like you need a new car, sofa, computer… here have the money to buy one. But of course you pay for that money later, and end up overpaying for what you actually did not need. It is not wise stewardship on any level, and leads people into debt.

Post fall possession and money and our attitudes to it are warped and distorted by sin. Greed is a very real danger; we can all too easily forget it is a gift of our creator and worship the created rather than God.

The Gospel and Money
The Sermon on Mount is teaching for believers (5:1-2), it is extended teaching about the values of the kingdom. In Matthew 6:25-34 Jesus says that being in the kingdom, knowing God by grace liberates the believer from worry and anxiety. We’re freed from keeping up with the Joneses, from earning security and status for ourselves because we are given security in Christ, and relationship with God as our Father.

In 1 Timothy 5:8 Paul clearly teaches that we are to provide for our families, he says that not to do so makes us worse than an unbeliever. We trust God to provide and recognise his provision is found in the position in which he has put us. In Chapter 6:6-10 Paul exhorts Timothy to be godly, reminding him that he is saved for contentment, that the believer lives with the awareness that we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it. That realisation should free us from the hoarding mentality. In contrast Paul calls him to be content with food and clothing (8).

Such contentment is radically COUNTER CULTURAL, especially as we live in a world which bombards us with advertising whose very aim is to make us discontent, to make us want something which we do not have, to make us feel like we need it and must have it. Yet Paul calls Timothy to be content with food and clothing as part of radical discipleship. Are we content? At root the issue is to recognise what my real needs are. Do I need sky TV? – no, do I need a 60” Plasma? – no. None of those things is wrong to possess in and of themselves but they are not needs. Not to have them does not mean God is not meeting my needs. We can and must learn to be content without them.  ( Can you tell that as someone who loves technology I'm preaching to myself here!)

In 2 Corinthians 8:8-9 Paul calls on the Corinthians to give to alleviate the needs of fellow believer’s elsewhere. His instructions are telling, he does not demand a set figure of them he does not set a total and send them a big wooden thermometer with gradations up the side and a tin of paint to mark their progress. As he exhorts them to give and give generously it is grace that calls them to give. God has been generous to them and to us and they and we mirror the love and generosity shown to us supremely in Jesus Christ.

Having been made God’s children by his grace and mercy we adopt the fathers values. This means that we love God with all our heart, soul, strength and love our neighbours as ourselves. This love will inevitably impact what we do with our money. See a need meet a need. Tellingly it is lack of love for God shown in lack of love for others that leads Amos and other prophets to make known God’s stinging rebuke to the people of Israel for their failure to provide for the poor and willingness to trample the weak.

As Gospel people we mirror gospel attitudes, God held nothing back from me therefore I hold nothing back from him.

The question is how can we live like this?
In Luke 16 Jesus tells the parable of The Shrewd Manager. This man knows he is going to lose his job so he radically cuts the debts of those who are debtors to his master (v3-4). The shock in the passage is the way this man is treated by his soon to be former boss. His master commends him (v8). We need to recognise what it is he is commended for, he is not commended for dishonesty, he is not commended for being righteous but he is commended for “dealing shrewdly”. In other words this man sees the future and acts accordingly.

The call (v9) is to see the future and act now in light of it. It means that we are to use what God gives us with an eye on eternity. What we do with what God gives us reveals where heart and hopes really lay. And (v13) makes it clear that we either serve God OR Money. The impossible application of that is to say that I am the one exception who can serve both God and money, but we would never make that impossible application would we.

How can we live as the gospel calls us to with our money and possessions, recognising God has given them to us but that they are ours to steward for God’s glory and in the light of grace? We recognise that we are to live now in the light of eternity.

Implications
So having looked at what the Bible has to say about money we need to work out what this means for us. The first thing is straight forward but is foundational to everything that follows. Everything we have is God's given to us to use for his glory. This means that being wealthy is not wrong, but that it also isn’t a sign of being right with God. And the inverse is true, being poor is not wrong neither is it a sign of not being right with God.

Secondly; what we do with what God gives us is what matters, we are to be those who use wealth now with a view to eternity. This means that no matter what economic sphere we move in we will stand out among our neighbours. This Christian millionaire uses his or her money differently, as does the Christian struggling on benefits or a low income. In the early church we see that this love is worked out by alleviating the poverty of others, helping out when there is a need we can meet.

Should we tithe?In Luke 11:42 Jesus doesn’t say it’s wrong to tithe, as he deals with the Pharisees he approves of their tithing but calls them to additionally meet needs of justice and love that they come across. What Jesus attacks is not their giving of tithes but their failure to love others and seek justice as well as giving tithes.

If God gives us everything giving back 10% is actually economically a good deal. If on the other hand we regard it ours then it is more difficult. The Bible consistently tells us that giving is a privilege and we need to learn to view it as such. Giving tithes is not a rigid rule, nowhere is that expectation set out in the New Testament, but it is not condemned either. For some of us maybe it would be a good starting point to help us think about what we value and whether we are living for now or in the light of eternity. Though for some it would be impossible for many of us we are in a position to give much more.

One denomination worked out if each of its members lost their jobs and became unemployed and then each gave 10% of the benefits they received the churches giving would go up by £1 per head on average.

Fourthly the Bible would warn us about greed, that the love of money is a real danger in our society should come as no surprise to us. We need to learn to adjust our thinking to need not greed. It is also helpful to look at what our needs are, we are so moulded by our culture that often what we need is the result of advertising and assumptions based on the lives of those we live alongside rather than on Biblical principles. We need to evaluate our needs in the light of the Bible.

The way to stay free of it is to give money away. The Bible would encourage us to be generous with what God has given us to invest for him. We can do this if we live with an eye on the future. 1 Timothy would teach is that in our giving we need to ensure that we do not to become a burden on others, that we are providing for our families health and safety, and that can continue to do good by exercising hospitality and the like.

For many of us in the West the biggest challenge comes in the area of assessing our need and thinking beyond the Pharisees, to go beyond tithe if we can. What drives us is not the calculator but the cross where God gave his all for us.