Today my mind is on money. This is because later today I need to meet with the budget committee for next year and as of yet I have not had time to prepare.
Money trips up a lot of people and Christians especially have a wide range of opinions about it. Some think it is evil, and that any person who has money must have made some kind of ‘deal with the devil.’ On the extreme opposite end of the spectrum, some people believe that God wants every faithful Christian to be rich. The majority of us are somewhere in between.
So let’s see if we can come up with a theological stance on money. Pardon me if this comes across a little bit like bullet points.
Money, like everything else on this earth, ultimately belongs to God. He allows people to have stewardship over it, but we should always view it as taking care of something for God and therefore should use it in a manner He would approve of.
Christians should consider tithing, which is giving the first 10% of their money to the church they are a member of, as a sacred responsibility. The tithe is God’s method of funding the local church, but it also serves as a reminder to the believer that he’s merely a steward of God’s money, not the boss of it.
Money itself is neither good nor evil, but like all other inanimate objects, it can be used for either good or evil purposes. It is not evil in and of itself. Yes there is a verse in Timothy which indicates ‘the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.’ But notice in this passage it doesn’t say money is evil, it says the love of money is the source of many evils.
Believers should trust God to determine how much money they have. However, as is true with other things, this works best with our cooperation. Things like working for a living, budgeting, wise investing, tithing, and wise spending are all ways we cooperate financially with God.
Charles W. Short 