Why Christians Don’t Need to Feel Guilty About Building Wealth
If you’ve seen many of my videos you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I am a person of faith. More specifically, I’ve been a Christian since I was 15 and my faith has largely shaped my views on a variety of subjects, including finance.
Recently, a viewer who suspected I was a Christian contacted me and asked me to make some videos that address some of the intersecting points of faith and finance.
I love making videos that address requests from viewers and I also love God, so I’m going to begin occasionally making videos that discuss specific issues of faith as they address the world of finance.
If you are a non-theist, I want to invite you to stick around as many of the points are relevant to secular audiences, even if underlying worldviews may differ.
My perspective will be biblically based, so I won’t be addressing monetary beliefs from any other religious background.
I’m going to start by sharing a semi-crisis of faith that I was faced with when I started MartinMoney.com back in 2022.
That is, whether or not it’s acceptable for Christians to pursue increased net worth through investing, tax efficiency, seeking increases in income, etc.
The Problem
I am enthusiastic about finance.
I have enjoyed math as far back as I can remember and when I began studying finance in college, I have to admit that I found it a bit fascinating.
Being completely honest, a contributing factor was the idea that I could use finance to become wealthy.
Back then, I had a negative net worth and the hole I was digging with student loans was only growing deeper.
The idea of having significant wealth was very attractive to me.
But that wasn’t the only reason I enjoyed finance. It is a subject that I feel like I’ve been given a desire to learn a lot about.
How else can you explain spending hours each week writing and shooting video for a blog and YouTube channel that don’t produce a dime in income for me?
It’s a passion. And when you believe your talents and passions are given to you by your creator, it’s all the more reason to lean into them and grow.
But here’s the thing, the Bible has a lot of negative things to say about money. More specifically, rich people.
- A rich man is wise in his own eyes, but a poor man who has understanding will find him out. – Proverbs 28:11
- And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” – Matthew 19:23-24
- But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. – Luke 6:24
- Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf – Proverbs 11:28
- No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. – Matthew 6:24
- “If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.” – 1 Timothy 6.8-9
- “Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” – Luke 12.15
These are not exactly ringing endorsements from God to go out and gain wealth.
Was the creation of my website, the goal of which is to teach people about finance, an act of hypocrisy?
To be fully transparent, I spent several months thinking about this and wondered for a while if I shouldn’t just kill the website.
But eventually it occurred to me that the Bible also says quite a bit about managing money.
The Parable of the Talents
As it relates to my website, one of the most important is the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30.
In this story, a master gives money to three servants. To one he gives 5 talents, to another he gives 2 talents, and to a third he gives 1 talent.
The master then leaves town for a while, but when he comes back, he asks his servants what they did with his money while he was away.
The first two servants invested the talents they were given, and each doubled the master’s money while he was away.
The master is delighted in this result, and he calls them both “good and faithful” servants. The master then decides to give each of the servants even more responsibility to reward them for their faithful stewardship.
However, instead of investing his talent, the third servant buried the money he was given so it wouldn’t be lost while the master was away.
The master is not pleased with this outcome.
He calls the third servant “wicked and lazy” and criticizes him for not at least lending the money to the bankers so he could earn a little interest.
In the end, the third servant’s talent is taken away and he is cast out “into the outer darkness”.
No beuno.
These are the words of Jesus and money isn’t necessarily the only resource he is talking about, but it’s pretty convenient for those of us who have an interest in finance that money is a central component to this parable.
If the money itself was evil, I don’t think Jesus would have used it in his example.
The lesson here is clear: Christians are given certain resources by God (not necessarily always money) and God expects us to steward those resources well.
And this is consistent with other passages about stewardship. For example, the Bible teaches us to avoid debt (Proverbs 22:7), save for the future (Proverbs 21:20), work for profit (Proverbs 14:23), and as we just saw from Matthew 25, to invest.
And what is the natural result of saving, investing, generating income, and avoiding debt? More money.
Misplaced Blame
The ultimate issue is that we sometimes confuse money with evil, when it’s actually the “love of money” that is the root of all kinds of evil. (1 Timothy 6:10)
Matthew 6:19-21 summarizes it well:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
It’s not the possessions in this set of verses that are evil, it’s allowing those possessions to take a preeminent position in our hearts.
Money is an amplifier for what is already in our hearts. If our hearts have an idolatry problem, money won’t help that. It will probably only make it worse.
If we have a greed problem, money won’t help that.
If we have an honesty or theft problem, money won’t help those either.
Again, it’s the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil, it’s not the money itself that is evil.
Money for Good
On the other hand, when our hearts desire things that are good and honest and holy, then money can amplify those things as well.
Almost everyone, Christian or not, would agree that generosity is a good thing. Of course, the Bible supports this as well.
2 Corinthians 9:7 tells us that the Lord loves a cheerful giver.
And there are countless other examples throughout scripture of how God uses people with resources to help those who had little.
So instead of allowing money to serve as an amplifier for evil characteristics like greed, malice, idolatry, or abusive behavior, make it an amplifier of godly characteristics like kindness, generosity, self-control, and even faith.
If this is a challenge for you, then I suggest spending time in prayer and meditation about how God wants you to use the resources he’s given you.
I’m totally going to cop out here because I can’t answer that question in a blog post as I feel like it’s very personal to everyone, but I do know the Bible is an excellent guide.
When in doubt, you’ll never go wrong with prayer and the Bible. I believe that to be a universal truth.
Wrap Up
So, no, it’s not the accumulation of money that could be a problem, it’s how you use what has been given for you.
You should not feel guilty about managing money wisely, only to find out that the result is more money for you to manage.
This is exactly what occurs in the parable of the talents (except for the wicked, lazy guy).
But I do think, as people who have been greatly blessed, we have an obligation to ask God how he wants us to deploy the resources he has given us.
It would be a shame to enjoy all the benefits of affluence that we do and not make a meaningful impact for good and to miss out on the ways God can really strengthen our faith by trusting him with our money.
