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What Does the Bible Actually Say about Wealth?

  • Liz Kanoy What topic related to Christianity, faith, and the Bible is trending online and in social media today?
  • Updated Feb 01, 2016

Most of us would like a little more money…this is why the lottery gets so much attention, and it’s why prosperity pastors hoodwink so many people with their false theology. The notion that God wants you to be rich and follow a 5-step process to get there only leaves people feeling empty when they can’t achieve it.

Graham Beynon, an author and minister in the UK, has written an article titled 3 Things Your Bible Doesn’t Say About Money for The Gospel Coalition.  He wants to set the record straight regarding what the Bible does NOT say about money.

The Bible says that God guarantees prosperity on this earth, true or false?

FALSE. This view has steered many well-intentioned believers off track. The concept that God wants to give you everything you want sounds nice but couldn’t be more wrong.  

Beynon explains,  

“Financial blessing simply isn’t promised to Christians. Yet a general principle does remain: God will bless our obedience. Jesus promised:

No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.’ (Mark 10:29–30).”

God wants his followers to be givers because everything we have has been given to us; the Bible tells us that the real blessing is in giving not receiving. But what does this blessing look like from God? Beynon writes,

The prosperity gospel is an ugly thing. But there’s a beautiful flip side. God does honor our giving. Sacrifice a vacation for the sake of giving to your church and you may find greater richness in unity and love in your church. Give generously to someone in need and you may find people giving you gifts. I use the word “may” since I don’t know what sort of blessing God will give, but I know he will bless you—if not in this life, then in the next. We can never outgive God.”

Beynon wisely concludes,

Wrong thinking always leads to wrong living. It’s as true with money as with anything else. But wonderfully, the opposite is true, too: right thinking leads to right living. And when we get our thinking about money right—when we grasp what God does say about money—we can find true joy.”

To read Beynon’s full article please visit The Gospel Coalition.  

Crosswalk.com Contributor Brittany Rust reminds us,

Regardless of how much you have in the bank, your current circumstances, and what you feel, pursue a life that is holy and pleasing to God. Spend your resources wisely. Be patient for the fruit to produce in your life. Remain steadfast in your suffering. Endure even though the world seems against you. This is your call. This is your mandate. 

One day Christ will return and it will be worth it all to hear him say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’”

Related video:

Christianity.com: Is it possible for a Christian to live their best life now? - Colin Smith from christianitydotcom2 on GodTube.

Publication date: February 1, 2016

Liz Kanoy is an editor for Crosswalk.com.