IT IS OFTEN SAID THAT MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL.
Jesus says that the love of money, not money itself, is the root of all kinds of evil. While money-talk can be uncomfortable, our Lord tells in the parable of the unjust steward, “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home” (Luke 16:9).
Good stewardship does not mean impoverishing oneself or putting one’s family at risk to serve a noble cause. God says that whoever does not provide for his own family is “worse than an unbeliever” (I Tim. 5:8). God desires that we are responsible with what He has entrusted to us. Yet He also does not want us to horde our things for ourselves, instead of trusting Him for all our needs of the present and future. Decisions about stewardship are deliberate. Good decisions are expressions of one’s faith in Christ. The best decisions are not driven by emotional impulse, fear or anxiety. While Jesus’s admonition not to worry about the future (Mat. 6:25) does not mean that we are to forfeit our earthly vocations of caring for one another as Christ cares for us, by, say, selling everything we have and entering a monastery, it does challenge us to examine to what degree we honestly believe all that we have comes from him and is only on loan to us.
God does not need our money to provide for our neighbors or for us. That is why we should not worry when we offer large donations or budget in generous ways, even though they may make us feel uncomfortable. God desires that we make use of all the resources that He has given us to serve and promote His Kingdom on earth with heavenly goals. We are good stewards when we adopt the Lord’s priorities, as opposed to our own. This is illustrated in the parable of the rich fool, wherein the titular character is described by Jesus as “he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God” (Luke 12:21). As children who take care of our Father’s wondrous gifts, we are indeed rich towards Him. So we sing in the beloved hymn:
We give thee but thine own,
(LSB 781)
whate’er these gifts may be;
all that we have is thine alone,
a trust, O Lord, from thee.
Over the next 20 years, financial professionals estimate that nearly $84 trillion will be transferred to the next generation. This so-called “Great Wealth Transfer” might be the largest in history. While much of this transferred wealth will be used by the children of this world to serve mammon, we Christians should manage our wealth in ways that advance God’s Kingdom. We seek the glory of His holy name by serving our neighbor through the ministry of the Church, as opposed to striving ultimately for the personal pleasure and satisfaction through our investments and financial decisions.
Christians can learn from the various ways in which the world manages money. Unbelievers make great use of financial tips to advance their various priorities that have nothing to do with Jesus and sometimes even oppose Him. Jesus certainly does not want to imitate those efforts or attitudes. He likewise does not endorse greed: “For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:25). Yet, in Luke 16:8, Jesus commends the shrewdness of unbelievers: “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.” The point is that we have something infinitely more valuable than the world has, and we ought to be all the shrewder in its protection and growth. Money is a gift of God. The love of money is sin: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (I Tim. 6:10).
Our use of money and our attitude towards the topic of stewardship determines the degree to which wealth is an idol in our lives. We all trust too much in wealth, and God has generously forgiven us for such sins in the shed blood of His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. In returning our gratitude by giving back to God through our donations and Christ-centered wealth management decisions, we find that the grip of mammon is loosened while our grip on Christ’s cross is tightened. The Christian walk of faith can be pictured as a walk towards heaven with eyes once affixed upon earthly things, as, overtime, they are lifted up towards the heavenly ones. Our wealth, though a gift, can get in the way of that. But when we repent of our lack of trust, fear, and greed, and trust in Christ’s forgiveness, we are freed from that stress and anxiety, while offering our good Lord more opportunities to demonstrate to us that he is our strength, hope, and peace, the sustainer of body and soul.
We are indeed a rich generation. While it is certain we cannot bring money into the Kingdom of heaven—Jesus is our true wealth, far exceeding any gold or silver or retirement account—Jesus does promise that we can use temporal goods for eternal ends. Money used for the sake of the Church’s mission, such as donating to Christ-centered and Biblical education offered at schools like Luther Classical College, is an investment in the spreading of the Gospel. Students at LCC are formed into the spiritual leaders, missionaries, pastors, and evangelists of the future. There is nothing wrong with being shrewd, wisely stewarding and investing our money, especially when it comes to the salvation of souls. Our prayer is that Christians choose not to invest in what allures our hearts away from peace with God but rather to invest in that very peace the world cannot give. As many of us take up these considerations, we pray this advice will help you to do so in a fulfilling way, in faith, and to the glory of God.