In our exploration of our dependence, we have discovered that everything we possess has been entrusted to us by God. Implicit in such a trust is the expectation that all of these things will be used for God’s intended purpose.
Which raises the question of how God intends for us to use them.
I have suggested that there are at least four main items on this agenda.
- Provide for my needs, and those of my family
- Provide for the needs of others within the body
- Fund Ministry
- Build relationships with those I can impact spiritually
The first of these – God’s provision for our personal needs – seems the most obvious and foundational. We looked at this one last week.
As I began to consider how to move on to the next item on the agenda, I realized there is an important issue that we need to pause and address – the importance of saving.
Conventional wisdom holds that we should be accumulating for future needs. In fact, some Christian financial training programs teach that saving and investing are essential to good stewardship. Thus, they make it another item on the agenda.
But should it be?
Over the years, I have seen Scriptural arguments drawn from advice in Proverbs such as –
Proverbs 6:6-11 ¶
Go to the ant, O sluggard,
Observe her ways and be wise, Which, having no chief,
Officer or ruler, Prepares her food in the summer
And gathers her provision in the harvest.Proverbs 10:5
He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely,
But he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully.
Before the advice of these passages can accurately be applied to our situation, we must remember the culture in which they were written.
Israel’s economy was agriculturally based. This is evident in the distribution of the land among all the families of Israel, in the laws God gave them, and even in their worship. The center of this worship was the offerings they would bring from their crops and from their livestock.
In an agricultural economy like this, most people didn’t receive a regular paycheck every week or two. Each crop produced one harvest a year. Likewise, livestock tend to produce on a yearly basis. If you didn’t gather your crops at harvest time, you wouldn’t have anything to carry you through the rest of the year. This was the normal means of God’s provision for them. So, the counsel here is not “save for a rainy day,” but manage your resources according to God’s normal provision. This would be the equivalent of advising those of us who receive a regular paycheck every two weeks to save some funds for the second week.
That doesn’t mean that it’s wrong to save, only that these passages do not place a biblical requirement on us to save.
Proverbs 13:11
Wealth obtained by fraud dwindles,
But the one who gathers by labor increases it.
These lines do not speak to an obligation to accumulate wealth, but to the manner in which wealth is obtained. It assumes that men will pursue wealth, but does not require us to do so.
Proverbs 13:18
Poverty and shame will come to him who neglects discipline,
But he who regards reproof will be honored.
This verse addresses our response to correction, not our management of money. If you ignore reproof you can expect poverty and shame. If you accept it, you will be honored.
Proverbs 13:22
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children,
And the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
In this verse, both the righteous man and the sinner are accumulating wealth. The point is that we should be pursuing righteousness, not that we should be saving.
Prov. 21:20
There is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise,
But a foolish man swallows it up.
Of all the verses we have looked at, this is the first to actually focus on the wisdom of not consuming everything you have.
Ok. What about the New Testament?
Perhaps the most common passage I have seen from there is the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30).
Clearly, this parable teaches that we are stewards who, at Christ’s return, will be rewarded for our faithful management of everything entrusted to us… or not. The critical issue in interpreting this parable is identifying the nature of that stewardship and how our faithfulness will be evaluated.
Viewing this stewardship as financial leads to the conclusion that we will be judged on the soundness of our spending, saving, and investing decisions. It assumes that I will be a good steward if I pay the least amount possible for the things that I buy, get the most for anything I might sell, and am able to generate as much money as possible for the Kingdom.
While this may seem reasonable at first glance, there are some serious problems with this.
- If everything I have has been given to me by God, then anything I get in the future will also be given to me by God. That would include any growth on investments I might make. God doesn’t need me to generate anything for His purposes. He already owns it all.
- Since this parable deals with Christ’s judgment of His servants at His Second Coming, this interpretation reduces our final judgment to a financial audit. The better your financial decisions, the better your reward. On the other hand, if you are not so good with money, outer darkness awaits you. Those who die destitute, like the saints of Hebrews 11:37, would have no hope of reward. This is clearly at odds with the rest of Scripture.
- It establishes an impossible standard. Look closely again at the parable. The servants are evaluated based on how much they are able to multiply all that God has given them. The wicked, lazy servant was only able to return what God had given him. He didn’t multiply it at all. So, how much has God given you over the course of your life? Five-hundred thousand? One million? Ten million? If all you can do is return all of it, you are a wicked, lazy servant. To be rewarded, you are going to have to give God back more than He gave you. And now, we are back to the logical impossibility of it all, because any increase would also have to come from God. You can never have more than He has given you to give back to Him.
So this parable is not about our spending, saving, and investing decisions. It is about what we do with all God has entrusted to us. It includes, not only our finances, but also our relationships, our abilities, our spiritual gifts, the truth of His Word, and our influence. The issue is how we use all of this to spiritually impact others. As God’s impact in our lives is multiplied in our investment in the lives of others, we are good stewards.
So, what about saving?
The scarcity of passages advocating saving is instructive.
Of all the passages we have looked at, only Proverbs 21:20 would seem to support long-term saving. This passage must be balanced with the abundance of passages that clearly warn against the pursuit of wealth (e.g., Proverbs 23:4; Matthew 6:19-34; Luke 12:13-34), and with all that we have learned about living in daily dependence on God’s provision, as we have studied the experiences of Israel, and those of the disciples.
Taken together, these passages reveal that saving is not one of the items on God’s agenda that dictate how we should manage the resources He give us.
Does that mean it’s wrong to have an accumulation?
I don’t think so. Not necessarily.
There is actually a term for those who have an accumulation of possessions. They are known as the “rich”. And their riches are not, in and of themselves, treated as a bad thing in Scripture. In fact, they are sometimes treated as very good.
But how can you accumulate possessions without make saving a priority on your agenda?
We will look at that in the next article.
There is a better way.