Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations.
Proverbs 27:23-24
Many believers might argue that there is no need to pursue the acquisition of assets. After all, is that not what a pension is for? This is a valid argument; you can certainly think of your pension as that ‘flock’ or ‘herd’ that will sustain you when your strength fails.
I would still extend the challenge in Proverbs 27:23, however…
Do you know the condition of your flocks? How has that pension fared over the past five years? How has it fared over the past ten? Is it currently on track to cover your monthly expenses when it matures?
Do you give careful attention to your herds? How much are you paying your fund manager in fees each year? How much are your payments likely to increase as you approach retirement? Are there better alternatives out there that you could invest in? What type of pension are you invested in? Is it one that you can pass on to your children should you shuffle off this mortal coil before you are able to reap the benefits of said pension? Most of all, if you continue at the current rate of growth, will the pot be sufficient to support you and your family in your twilight years? Will it keep track with inflation?
The truth about retirement is that not all pension schemes have your interests at heart.
If you can’t answer these questions, then I submit you do not know the condition of your flocks and have not given careful attention to your herds. It may be time to heed God’s word on the matter and take this proverb’s instruction on board.
The video below reveals some frightening truths about the modern ‘retirement industry’. This is not specifically Christian content — but truth is still truth. If this video gives you pause for thought, then I would urge you to heed the above Bible verse and start paying attention to your ‘flocks and herds’, as the proverb advises.
I will be the first to acknowledge that the Bible message is not about money, wealth or the pursuit of riches. This raises the obvious question. If this is not what the Bible is about, then why devote an entire blog to the subject? After all, does the Bible not say, ‘For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil?’
In answer to that question, I would submit…
First — even though it is not a core theme, the Bible still has something to say on the subject and…
Second — since most churches I ever attended have failed to address the subject at all, I feel it needs to be discussed somewhere.
With that said, we come to the next protest with regards to falling for the love of money. Whenever interpreting the Bible, we can’t take a single scripture out of context; we have to interpret each scripture in the light of all scripture. This is a common response in modern Christian culture when addressing a taboo subject like money.
For instance, if I choose to focus on the following verse:
Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
Ecclesiastes 11:2
… and suggest that this is some sound advice that the Bible offers about how we should invest our money…
Christendom’s ‘for love of money’ alarm-bells start to ring. The immediate response is, ‘You can’t take one scripture out of context and disregard all other scripture on the subject! For instance, you can’t ignore,’
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
1 Timothy 6:10
For the Love of Money is… Only Half the Story
My response? Consider those words carefully, dear brother or sister. That sword cuts both ways. And in this instance, that sword is the word of God. I am not suggesting that we should love money or pursue riches. However, the same Bible that contains 1 Timothy 6:10 also says,
Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.
Proverbs 21:20
In fact the very same passage in 1 Timothy contains the following verse;
Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
1 Timothy 5:8
And then there are verses like,
Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations.
Proverbs 27:23-24
… or…
Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.
Proverbs 12:11
And that is to name only a few verses that speak about how we should manage our money. There are plenty more I could quote. Please look here if you want to explore this further.
All I am saying is, ‘We can’t take one scripture, (E.g. 1 Timothy 6:10) out of context and disregard all other scripture on the subject.’
We need to look at God’s word as a whole to understand everything the Bible has to say on a given subject.
1 Timothy 6:10 is an important verse and it is one hundred percent true. But does that make any of the other verses above less important — or less true?
And here’s the rub. I have lost count of the number of times I have heard 1 Timothy 6:10 quoted or taught in church, from the pulpit, in home groups or in Christian media. There are countless sermons, books, DVD’s and even entire ministries devoted to the truth of this verse.
How many times have I heard any of the other verses above quoted or taught? In some forty years as an active Christian, who has seldom let a week go by when I was not in church or the company of fellow-believers…
… I might have heard 1 Timothy 5:8 quoted once, maybe twice in Christian conversation. And I have definitely heard Ecclesiastes 11:2 quoted on a handful of occasions, though never taught from the pulpit. As for the rest? As far as I can recall, I have never heard one of those verses taught by a pastor or elder in any church I have ever attended. Nor have I heard any of those verses discussed in a home-group or Bible study setting. In fact, I have never even heard those verses mentioned around a dinner table with fellow-believers; I had to seek them out and find them for myself.
This is a pity because, to quote the apostle Paul again,
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
So, here I take my stand — and choose to quote and discuss the verses that others have chosen to avoid.
Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse.
Proverbs 28:6
Proverbs 28:6 is one of those scriptures so easily turned on its head.
Spoiler alert! This verse does not say it is better to be poor than rich; it says better to be blameless than perverse.
Yet, somehow, we always tend to focus on the wrong aspects of verses like this. I guess this is because we are physical beings in a physical world. As such, our immediate focus is on what we see every day; the poor vs the rich.
So, when we read a verse like this, we immediately latch on to the obvious — and we zone in on the words, ‘Better the poor…’
And why wouldn’t we? Our Christian culture loves to focus on the virtues of poverty over the evil of riches. But this is a cardinal error on our part with respect to this verse — because Proverbs 28:6 is not concerned with issues of poverty vs wealth. It is primarily concerned with issues of sin vs righteousness.
Jesus did not come into this world to save us from poverty. Nor did he come into this world to save us from wealth, for that matter. He came to this world to take away our sin and to make us righteous before God.
Better the Poor — Exposing the Lie
So, if we read the verse again — carefully this time — it does not say, ‘Better the poor… than the rich.’
Rather, it says, ‘Better [to be] blameless… than [to be] perverse.’
The verse simply uses poverty vs riches as a measure against which to show us exactly how important this is. In fact the writer assumes that everyone agrees we would rather NOT be poor. It assumes that everyone would want to have a little more money in their pockets.
Then it teaches the lesson; those whose walk is blameless are far better off than those who are perverse. Even if they were steeped in poverty — something we all agree is a terrible fate — they are still better off than they would be if they were perverse.
To be perverse, according to the dictionary definition, is to deliberately deviate from what is good. At its core, this scripture addresses a condition of the human heart. Blamelessness versus perverseness. So how do we become blameless? Well, that is what the Bible is really all about. Jesus died on the cross and, in so doing, took all our sin — our perverseness, if you like — on himself. And in that same moment, he imparted his righteousness, or blamelessness, to all who would accept his free gift of grace.
Relative wealth or poverty pales into insignificance next to this eternal gift of righteousness — which is precisely the point that the writer of Proverbs 28:6 is trying to make.
When I began looking into what the Bible says about money, I found innumerable articles that that used scripture out of context or stretched a verse’s meaning to teach a ‘Biblical’ lesson about how Christians should manage their finances.
While these teachings were well meant and, in many cases, offered sound financial advice, I needed something more. I was not looking for verses that could be applied to a financial context, provided we squint hard enough and tilt our heads at the right angle. I wanted to find scriptures that spoke about money unequivocally. Nothing less would do.
And, so, I was forced to disregard the many articles I read about Jehovah Jireh.
Why? There is actually only one Jehovah Jireh Bible verse to be found in God’s word — and it has absolutely nothing to do with physical or financial provision.
Jehovah Jireh Bible Verse
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
Genesis 22:13-14
The verses above are the culmination of the passage in which Abraham is called to sacrifice his son, Isaac. In the preceding verses, Isaac notes the fact that they don’t have a lamb for the sacrifice, to which Abraham replies that God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.
In this story, Abraham goes through the entire process of placing his son on the altar and is on the verge of sacrificing his own son — when God stops him at the last second. As we see in verse thirteen above, it is then that Abraham spots the ram caught by its horns; so God provided the sacrifice, after all.
This whole passage is a foreshadowing of the ultimate sacrifice in which God would provide the lamb for the offering. Jesus is the Lamb of God, the sacrifice provided by — Jehovah Jireh — for the forgiveness of our sins.
Isn’t that a far greater gift than mere financial or physical provision? This is the crux of our Christian walk, and physical provision pales into insignificance next to the power of this verse.
So, in conclusion, there are many Bible verses that speak about money and how we should manage it… but Genesis 22:14 — the Jehovah Jireh Bible verse — is not one of them. And I, for one, think that the promise in this scripture is all the richer for this truth.
I grew up in a single-parent home. My mother worked hard to support me and my sister while we were young but money was always tight and we faced constant financial struggle in my formative years.
After completing school, I was a little rudderless. I never went on to tertiary education. Instead, I started a Christian outreach band and built a small music ministry. This was a great calling but it earned nothing so I started working in sales on a commission-only basis in order to pay the monthly bills. I was a terrible sales-person and, as a result, my income was low and quite sporadic. While my friends all went to university and then started working in high-paying jobs, I continued living from one intermittent paycheck to the next.
I had always believed that the love of money is the root of all evil, just as the Bible and my pastors taught me. I still do. However, there came a time when I realized that I simply had to earn more in order to make rent and put food on the table. I didn’t want to be rich — but I also knew that God did not want me to starve.
It was around this time that I moved to a new church that introduced me to the ‘Prosperity Gospel’. This teaching offered a perspective on money that I had never heard in church previously. Before I go any further, let me state for the record that I DO NOT buy into this teaching. I believe it is contrary to scripture, that it is a false teaching and, ultimately a dangerous one.
However, for a time in my twenties, I attended this church and bought into the idea that God wants every believer, including me, to be rich. The only requirements were a little faith on my part along with a lot of generous giving into the offering each week. This, according to my pastoral team, would obligate God to open the floodgates and pour out a financial blessing so great that my bank account would not be able to contain it.
Needless to say, that promise never came to pass. The only good that came out of the experience is that I learned the value of giving generously to God’s kingdom — something my previous churches had also kept fairly low-key.
In that dark place, I told God that I no longer believed he cared about my financial state…that I no longer needed or wanted his help…from that moment on, I would take care of my finances myself
I cried out to God in frustration
In my late twenties, I found myself earning a paltry $200 (yes — two hundred dollars) a month on average. And many months, I failed to earn even that much. Taking inflation into account, I was earning the equivalent of about $680/month, or just under $4.00/hour. This is less than half of minimum wage in over thirty states, according to these statistics, at time of writing. In short, I was locked in a cycle of eternal financial struggle.
I never lost my faith in God but I reached a point where I cried out to him in frustration. In that dark place, I told God that I no longer believed he cared about my financial state. I told him that I no longer needed or wanted his help or intervention with respect to my finances. And I told him that from that moment on, I would take care of my finances myself and that he would have no part that that aspect of my life going forward.
Fortunately, this dark period of my Christian walk only lasted a few months before I recognized my own foolishness and repented. I realized that my expectations were based on deliberately misunderstood and misinterpreted scriptures about prosperity, taught to me by a misguided pastoral team. I am sure that many of these men of God were and are sincere believers — but, with respect to their teachings on financial prosperity, they were sincerely wrong.
I put the prosperity teaching behind me and turned my face towards God and his word. Still, little changed with respect to my financial worries. God did not deliver me from the deep financial struggle in which I found myself. I started a business which did extremely well in its first year, and then tanked in the second. As I approached my thirties, and looking to get married, I found myself effectively unemployed with nothing to show for my life but a failed business.
I opted for a career change and started working in IT. With no tertiary qualification and zero experience, my starting salary was equivalent to that of someone fresh out of school, and barely above minimum wage. However, for me it was a step up. At least it was a regular income.
I got married in my early thirties. My wife and I built a life together and raised a family. Two children, one emigration and countless career changes later, our financial situation had changed in many respects. Our income was higher and more regular, that much is certain. And yet, our financial struggle remained. We still found ourselves living from paycheck to paycheck every month. As our income grew, so did our expenses, so much so that we were hardly able to keep up.
I now found myself facing a daily commute, two hours each way. I left for work at 06h00 every morning and returned home at 18h30-19h00 each evening. I spent the time in between chained to a desk for five days a week — all in an effort to simply make ends meet. My wife was in the same position as we needed two incomes just to cover our monthly expenses.
Wealthy? You’re joking! We were barely scraping by.
In this new normal, I barely ever saw my children. I was either working or commuting to and from work for roughly sixty-five hours each week. The demands of my job also left little space for God in my life and my Christian walk suffered as a result. The problem was, I dared not stop for fear of falling back into a situation that left me unable to make rent or put food on the table. I wasn’t twenty any more and I had two children relying on me to provide for them.
And so, I continued in my eternal financial struggle. All the while I had this deep-seated feeling that something was terribly wrong. This was not the life to which God had called me. Sure, I was able to put food on the table, but at what cost? My health? My family? My faith?
What the Bible Says About Money
I decided once and for all to understand what the Bible says about money…what it actually says… and, by extension…everything it says
What the Bible says about money
As I approached my fifties, I decided once and for all to understand what the Bible says about money. Not what popular Christian culture claims it says. Not what I think it says — nor what my pastors tell me it says. I wanted to understand what it actually says. And, by extension, I wanted to understand everything it says on the subject.
So began my journey into God’s word to understand… what the Bible says about money.
The first point to note is this; nothing I read negated what I had always been taught with respect to the love of money.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
1 Timothy 6:10
This is what the Bible says about money. It is very clear on this — so don’t let anybody tell you anything different.
However, as I studied 1 Timothy 6:10, a frightening truth began to emerge; I was a lover of money! In fact, I had always loved money.
What the Bible says about money in 1 Timothy 6:10, made it clear that the love of money is a state of heart; not a bank balance. As a lifelong believer, I had heard this verse taught countless times from the pulpit. But the way it was taught and, as I had always understood it, the verse simply did not apply to me. After all, I had never chased after riches. Quite the contrary; I had faced financial struggle my whole life.
But, as I read God’s word, this chilling thought consumed me; you don’t have to be rich to love money. In fact, you don’t even have to want to be rich to love money. As I studied what the Bible says about money, I came to realize that the love of money has led far more people into consumer-debt and relative poverty than it has ever led to wealth. And my life was a glaring example of this terrifying Biblical truth.
I began to understand that my desperate need for job security was little more than a fear of loss — loss of the little that I had managed to acquire. I also began to grasp how an ingrained cultural focus on consumer spending always left me coming up short. This, in turn, left me working and commuting sixty hours or more each week, forever chasing that next paycheck to cover mounting bills and keep food in the table. This is the love of money at its stealthiest. I never planned for this life. Not once did I picture this as living the dream back in my teens and twenties.
As I studied God’s word, I began to understand something my pastors had never taught me; how the love of money would keep me steeped in poverty and financial struggle for the rest of my life — if I let it. My pastors had always called out the danger of chasing after riches, and how to avoid it but not once had a pastor ever explained to me how my innate love of money could keep me forever chained in a life of financial struggle.
This was the first Biblical truth my pastor never taught me about money. There were many more to come as I embarked on this frightening and exhilarating journey into God’s word.
As I delved into God’s word to learn what the Bible says about money, I discovered a treasure trove of verses that offer immense wisdom on the subject. Here are a few to get you started.
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.
Proverbs 24:30-34
I noticed this trend in my life a week or two back.
After a period of roughly four years spent diligently following the sound business advice offered in books like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, I dropped the ball.
It happened so quickly.
I was pursuing two new investment opportunities that were proving difficult to negotiate. Both appeared to have gotten stuck in the doldrums and they were simply not progressing. At the same time, day-to-day work responsibilities began to demand more and more of my energy and attention.
Before I even realized it, I had taken my attention off of my investment portfolio completely and focused all of my energy on work demands.
Then I was reminded of the passage in Proverbs 24:30-34. In this proverb, Solomon, the wise king of Israel observes something interesting. While walking past a vineyard and/or field, he notices that the ground is filled with thorns and weeds. Apart from that, the field’s stone wall is in ruins.
Solomon concludes that the field’s owner is lazy — a sluggard — or, at the very least, is a person who has no sense.
It became apparent to me that, as I focused all of my energy and attention on day-to-day work, I had stopped taking care of my property portfolio; my vineyard, so to speak. I was too tired and it was too hard. I was too busy with other things and work had become too demanding.
In short, I was too busy to give my ‘vineyard’ the attention it deserved. As a result, my new acquisitions were in the doldrums. Agents were billing me for superfluous services. Maintenance jobs were not being properly managed and my pipeline of new purchases was drying up.
The Field of a Sluggard
What would Solomon have to say about me if he saw the state of my investment portfolio at that point in time? He could reach only one conclusion; that it is the field of a sluggard, a vineyard of someone who has no sense.
The writer of this proverb would have concluded that I was lazy — and yet, I was busier than I had been in a long time. I had no excuse. Being busy in one area of my life did not give me a free pass to be lazy in another.
There was only one thing for it. I adjusted my mindset and refocused on my vineyard.
Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
Proverbs 23:4-5
It is easy to read a passage like Proverbs 23:4-5 and think, ‘This does not apply to me.’
Sadly, this is exactly why Christians wear themselves out to get rich — inadvertently and on a daily basis.
It all starts with one’s personal definition of the word rich. If we don’t consider ourselves to be rich, then we simply blow past this passage and move on. And there’s the rub. Very few people in this world consider themselves to be rich. In fact, almost everyone considers rich to be orders of magnitude — richer — than they are.
In other words, anyone earning minimum wage would consider those who earn the median USA salary of $4,600/month, at time of writing, rich. Of course, people who earn the USA median don’t consider themselves to be rich; they consider millionaires to be rich.
So, it should come as no surprise to learn that a survey showed that the vast majority of millionaires don’t consider themselves to be rich either.
How can this be? The simple truth is that people in all these various walks of life simply don’t have quite enough money. They have debts and living expenses that consume all of their current income. They all need just a little bit more…
… so, as a result, they don’t feel rich.
It’s easy to point the finger at those who are far wealthier than we are and ask, ‘How much more money could they possibly need?’
But consider this; people in less fortunate circumstances than you or me are looking at us and asking the exact same question.
We say things like, ‘If I had as much money as that person, I would never need any more.’
The sad truth is, we would. It’s the human condition.
Ignoring the warning in this proverb is one reason why Christians wear themselves out to be rich. I’ve said it before; the love of money is a state of heart — not a bank balance. We don’t need to be rich to love money.
Why Christians Wear Themselves Out to get Rich
The love of money is a state of heart – not a bank balance
Rich Abba, Holy Abba
The average hard-working person spends 75% or more of their waking hours in pursuit of a paycheck. Every time we receive that paycheck, we acquire — riches.
And, just like the proverb says…
We cast but a glance at those riches, and they are gone! They sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
So we head back to the office each Monday in pursuit of the next paycheck — and most hard-working folk will do this for the forty to fifty most productive years of their lives. This is how and why Christians wear themselves out to get rich.
Meanwhile, we neglect the Kingdom of God in our lives. This is a brutal truth for hard-working believers to face. Can it be that we seek second the Kingdom of God and his righteousness — after we seek that eternal paycheck?
In a world where Christians generally shy away from capitalism, greed and even a sensible approach to investment — all in the name of forsaking the love of money — I find it surprising that there is so much hype around Bitcoin and similar Cryptocurrencies in many Christian circles.
There appears to be a big question being asked in Christendom today. Should a Christian invest in Bitcoin?
To be fair, there are many Christian platforms on the internet that call out the dangers of Bitcoin. I have seen the recent spate of Crypto-mania described as the “Bitcoin Cult”. However, there are many Christians who take the opposite view and see Bitcoin as a positive force in the world, built on an ethos that aligns with Christian values, according to their view of the world.
One thing these opposing views appear to agree on; they both elevate Cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin — Crypto’s poster-boy — to a mystical status that transcends the things of this world. They both contend that Bitcoin wields some sort of spiritual power beyond the mundane. In the minds of believers on both sides of this fence, Bitcoin represents a force for change in this world. The only thing they disagree on is whether it is a force for good, or a force for evil.
So… should a Christian invest in bitcoin?
I am inclined to take a slightly different view with regards to this question. I simply don’t believe that Bitcoin is more of a force for good or evil than any other currency in this world. Furthermore, it is no more worthy of our consideration as an investment vehicle than any other from a Christian perspective.
Cryptocurrency is a new asset class. It is not yet well-understood and, as such, it remains a volatile one.
Personally, I don’t invest in Bitcoin or any other Cryptocurrencies. However, my reasons are financial, not spiritual.
First — Cryptocurrencies are Speculative
For instance, when Elon Musk buys a bunch of Bitcoin, the price suddenly sky-rockets — and when he sells half of his investment a few months later, the price drops through the floor. Everybody is speculating as to whether the price will go up or down, and nobody gets it right all the time. This is more akin to gambling than investment, in my opinion.
Second — Bitcoin has no Underlying Value
By way of example, if I buy shares in a business, and then that business goes bankrupt…
The administrators will sell off any assets held within that company. This could include property, computer equipment, office furniture, company vehicles — the list is endless. Once everything is sold off, outstanding debts are paid, and the dust settles, the business will distribute any remaining money from the sale of those assets to its shareholders. In other words, I have a reasonable chance of getting some, if not all, of my money back. Not so with Bitcoin and its crypto counterparts.
Third — Bitcoin Offers no Ongoing Revenue Stream
If I invest in property, I get monthly income in the form of rent. If I invest in the stock market, I can expect dividend payouts once or twice each year, regardless of whether the share price goes up or down. Conversely, when I buy Bitcoin, it just sits there. It doesn’t earn me any rent or pay out any dividends. In fact, the only way I can get any money back from my Bitcoin is by selling it.
Some might argue that the same can be said for commodities, like gold and silver. Fair enough but then, personally, I don’t invest in those either — and for the same reason.
My personal investment goal is to own assets that produce a passive income. I do this so that I have the time to focus on working to further God’s kingdom rather than working sixty hours a week just to make ends meet. Neither Bitcoin nor the commodity asset classes above support that objective.
However, this only answers the question, ‘Should I invest in Bitcoin?’
It still fails to answer the question, ‘Should a Christian invest in Bitcoin?’
Should a Christian invest in bitcoin?
In conclusion, I see no compelling Biblical reason why a Christian should or should not invest in Bitcoin or similar offerings. Rather, the question distils down to a simple financial one; does the investment make sense for the investor?
In my opinion, Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have the following drawbacks from an investment perspective:
They are speculative
They have no underlying value
They offer no ongoing revenue stream
And, for those reasons — I’m out!
Don’t take the above as financial advice. I have merely outlined the reasons why I personally do not invest in Cryptocurrencies. Other investors may have different goals and different opinions. If you are considering Crypto or any other type of investment, please seek advice from a qualified professional.
