Faith & Finances: Part 1

Posted on January 28 2009

Is it spiritual to talk about money?

Well, the Bible speaks on money as much as any other subject. There is a nerve that runs from the heart to the pocketbook, which tells a lot about our spiritual condition. A man heavily in debt has a ‘broken decision-maker’ which hinders him in every way. Debt immobilizes a person as well as causes stress in an already strained marriage.

Jesus said, “No servant can serve two masters” (Luke 16:13).

Sadly, nine out of ten times, debt is “self inflicted”. Nasty debt bondage is only a symptom of the actual root problems, which are covetousness, pride (keeping up with the Joneses), irresponsibility, and impatience (unwillingness to wait to purchase). Sadder yet, is the hardship that unpaid debt causes the creditor, which the bankrupt man normally doesn’t think about. Many years ago as an electrical contractor, I felt the sting of someone else’s debt when one of my customers filed bankruptcy while owing me $3,500. I never saw my money. Over a million Americans file bankruptcy every year. Many small businesses are ruined in the process. Back in Bible times, there was no such thing as filing a ‘Chapter 11’ or a ‘Chapter 13’.

In Matthew 18, Jesus tells a parable about a man who was ‘in over his head’ financially. Jesus said, “Forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made” (Matthew 18:25).

I would dare say there were a lot less people in debt back then. In the Old Testament, we find a woman left in debt after the death of her husband. The woman desperately pleaded for help from the prophet Elisha saying, “My husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen” (2 Kings 4:1).

Unfortunately, unplanned things such as the death of a breadwinner can happen. This is all the more reason to practice self-restraint with our purchases, and become “unvulnerable”. Nobody likes wolves at the door. The goal is to become insulated from recessions, lay-offs, inflation, etc. To “owe no man anything” (Romans 13:8) is going to require a whole new outlook on life. You will have to forget what society is telling you. You will have to ignore the cry of our culture. You will have to disregard what you have been trained to believe as ‘a good little consumer’. You will have to stop ‘jumping through the hoops’ of the advertisers. If you ever get out of debt, it will be against all odds.

The American dream has become a nightmare. The whole system is designed to keep you drowning in interest. We are often flattered by credit card offers that show up in the mail telling us we qualify for big bucks on our credit limit because we have such good credit. These same companies aren’t quite as flattering when you overspend and can’t make the payment on the credit card. While the world tells us that we need more income, the problem is actually not the paycheck, but the discontented human heart. The more income folks receive, the more they increase their standard of living (instead of paying off their debt). As soon as people get a raise or a tax rebate, they run off to buy a new computer or a flat screen television. Of course, the retailers can convince you to buy anything as long as you can make the payment. As a result, people live on the razor-thin edge of vulnerability. Conventional wisdom is just plain wrong!

Reprinted with permission. © 2008 By Pastor Tony Scheving (Part 1 of 3)