A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children, but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous
Proverbs 13:22
I found this a rather difficult passage to understand — and the Bible commentaries really don’t offer much additional insight where this Bible verse is concerned.
As part of my research, I read several respected commentaries on this verse. All they really say is that a good, or a righteous, person who acquires their money honestly will leave a legacy to future generations. The wealth they acquire is there to sustain not only them but also their children and grandchildren. Conversely, those same Bible commentaries assert that sinners who acquire their wealth by immoral means will most likely burn through it and leave nothing for future generations. Instead, their money will migrate to righteous people who are more worthy of managing it.
In other words, all the many great theologians have to say about this verse is simply what it says on the tin — a good person will leave a legacy to future generations. They offer no deeper theological insights to help folk like me truly understand what Proverbs 13:22 is driving at.
So, in conclusion, the Bible commentaries agree; good people will leave a legacy — an inheritance for future generations — but the wealth of sinners will be passed on to the righteous who are more worthy of managing it. This poses some some challenges. First off, I see very little evidence of this in the world around me today.
I know many righteous people, Godly men and women, who struggle to make ends meet on a daily basis. These folk are unlikely to leave a legacy in this context to their children, let alone their grandchildren. Most of the Godly families I know never received any real financial legacy or generational inheritance from their parents when they passed. Instead, their equally Godly parents also battled to make ends meet their entire lives and left very little, if anything to their children or grandchildren when they went on to be with the Lord.
Conversely, I see many wealthy — or even super-rich — families that leave vast fortunes, often sheltered in trust funds, for future generations. I suppose some of those families might be thought of as good or righteous, but certainly not all of them. What we see in the news about many of those individuals and families is testament to this on a daily basis.
Looking back at the commentaries I have read, one take-away, on the face of it, might be that those who leave a legacy for their children’s children are good and those who don’t are sinners. That simply cannot be a valid interpretation based on the realities we see in the world today.
I briefly considered the idea that the ‘inheritance’ in Proverbs13:22 should possibly be considered as a spiritual, rather than a financial, inheritance — an inheritance of righteousness, if you will. This idea did not stand up to scrutiny. In such a context, the sinners’ wealth mentioned in the second part of the verse would be worthless. Such people would be morally bankrupt and could offer no spiritual ‘wealth’ that could be stored up for the righteous. No, this verse is definitely talking about a physical, financial inheritance.
So, in the absence of any meaningful steer from the many respected theologians and their Bible commentaries, I felt compelled to mull over this verse and reach conclusions of my own. I will share some of those thoughts below.
My first take-away is a simple one. Leaving a financial inheritance to our children and grandchildren is a good thing. Whatever else we might glean from this verse, it is quite clear that Proverbs 13:22 views the idea of leaving a legacy — a financial inheritance of multi-generational wealth — as a good thing.
I find this interesting, as I live in a first-world culture in which both the media and the politicians view this quite differently. I live in a country that actively undermines the idea of inheritance both politically and culturally, almost as if the nation doesn’t want anyone to leave a legacy to their children and grandchildren.
At time of writing, any estate in the UK worth more than a few hundred thousand pounds sterling will be taxed at 40%. In other words, nearly half of the estate will revert to the government on the death of any individual who has amassed any meaningful wealth in their lifetime. And if they leave money to their spouse, their children will be taxed on the balance a second time when the spouse passes away. This currently includes things like family farms which often have to be sold by the estate’s beneficiaries simply in order to pay the inheritance tax.
Many in the media support this idea, saying things like, ‘So what? Why should the beneficiaries receive all this wealth that they did not work for?’
The thinking goes thus. After paying tax their entire life, any wealth that an individual has managed to scrimp and save over a lifetime will be taxed one more time leaving only a pittance for the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries should go out and make their own fortune and should not be entitled to any wealth that they did not create or work for themselves.
While this may make sense on the face of it, I would submit that such thinking flies in the face of Proverbs 13:22. The ability to leave a legacy, or inheritance, for our children and grandchildren is a good thing; not something to be punished or undermined.
In light of this, I will do everything in my power to minimise the tax bill on any legacy I leave to my children — and I will do all I can to ensure that there is something left for their children as well. I would never break any laws in such an endeavour but I would use every legal means at my disposal to minimise the theft of that legacy.
Many sincere believers might take a very different view of this. In response, I would challenge them to explain away Proverbs 13:22 and show where my interpretation of this verse is at fault.
How to Leave a Legacy
This led me to my second thought on the topic. If leaving a multi-generational inheritance is a good thing, how can this be achieved? There is a raft of anecdotal evidence of individuals who amassed great fortunes, only to see their empires frittered away by their children, often leaving the grandchildren bereft of any inheritance at all. In all these cases, the money was gone by the third generation.
In my mind, the surest way to avoid this is by instilling a very specific value system in our children — and their children as well. We call this value stewardhsip.
The only way to ensure that our children do not burn through any legacy we leave behind when we shuffle off this mortal coil is by teaching them that the legacy we leave is not theirs to burn. Rather it is theirs to manage for future generations.
In simple terms, when a Godly family inherits a meaningful nest-egg from Godly parents who managed to save up even a small legacy for future generations, the tendency is almost always to burn through the gift as an act of relief. In these situations, said Godly family has inevitably struggled financially for years, barely able to keep their heads above water in financial terms. This sudden injection of funds allows them a brief moment to rise up and grab a breath of fresh air before the next wave of debt engulfs them once more.
Families use this bounty to pay off some long-overdue debts, buy a new car to replace the jalopy they have been driving for years, or to finally redo the kitchen that they have wanted to do for over a decade. In other cases, such families may choose to spend the money on that blow-out family vacation that they have hitherto only been able to dream of but have never been in a position to afford.
And then…
Back to the grindstone, living from pay-check to pay-check. Over time, the new car becomes another scraped and dented jalopy . The kitchen becomes old and tired. The holiday becomes a cherished memory, never to be repeated as the family could never afford to do it again.
The only inheritance this couple is likely to leave their own children is the one they received from their parents; a moment’s respite in an lifetime of financial struggle — if that.
Families with a Stewardship mindset would approach this quite differently. Instead of splurging the inheritance their parents left them, these families recognise that the inheritance is not theirs to spend. Rather it is something to be protected and passed on to future generations — their children and their children’s children.
This is not to say that the inheritance should not be enjoyed by the immediate beneficiaries. That inheritance, properly invested and managed will generate year-on-year income that the family can use to spend, give generously and reinvest for additional future harvests.
Even an initially small inheritance properly invested for the long term over a mere two generations would in all likelihood compound into a significant nest-egg that could support the family’s descendants for generations — as long as the same values of Godly stewardship are instilled across those generations over time.
This could grow into a vast fortune that would free up countless beneficiaries over multiple generations to use their time and energy in Kingdom-minded pursuits. It would generate income that could finance missionaries and ministries throughout the world while still leaving enough income in reserve to support.