Monday, June 12, 2006

A Biblical Worldlife View and Financial Management



Since the Bible is the “God-Breathed and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work (II Tim. 3:16)” and is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path then it must direct, sustain and guide us in every area of life. Therefore, knowing the Bible is extremely important. But even more important is having the Holy Spirit apply the Word of God to a believers heart so that he lovingly knows and obeys the will of the Father. Christians are to live by the Word of God and pray that God would apply it and work it into our everyday life. Jesus said “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Jesus, the Son of God, says his food is the Word of God. If Jesus being the Son of God lived on the Word of God then it is safe to say we as Christians must seek to prayerfully apply the Word of God in all areas of life (work, leisure, church, school, family etc.)
However, the Bible does not guide by specific instruction for specific situations. Actually, the genius of the Bible is much more complex than that. The Bible gives revealed principles by which all His people are to live. Therefore, no matter what the setting, the time period, or the culture, the principles of the Bible still apply. Even though the specifics and the how to might change, the principle is unchanged, because our Heavenly Father is unchangeable. As a Christian grows in grace, the Holy Spirit enables us to understand the principles of His Word and we must work at understanding how they apply to our current situations. We must apply and obey.
For example, let’s say I am a financial planner. How am I to be a Christian working in the financial world?
There are three principles to follow within the field of Financial Management. Actually there are probably more, but these are three safe Biblical principles to follow. 1) Christians are always called to be honest (Exodus 20:19). No one ever has the right to do wrong. Therefore, as a financial planner I am to be honest in my dealings with other people’s money. I do not cut corners even when it appears profitable for myself and/or others. Not only is this obeying God’s word, it is one of the many ways that a Christian is a light unto the world. In an area such as financial management where the temptation of dishonesty and thievery is very prevalent, an honest handler of money is quite the witness and honors His Lord and Savior.
2)A Christian cannot exploit the poor to gain wealth (Amos, Matthew). There is nothing inherently good or bad about money. It is simply paper. However, the way men handle money makes its use good or bad. Obviously, Enron would be an example of dishonestly handling money. There could be other ways a financial manager refuses to exploit the poor. My guess is there could be other ways that financial companies could exploit the poor, but I can’t think of any concrete examples
3) Being responsible with money and enabling others to be responsible is good. Men are to take care of their family. If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he had denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (I Tim. 5:8). By teaching people to save, and helping them wisely manage their money, a financial planner is doing a very good thing. Financial planners help others understand how to wisely invest, wisely save, and prepare for the future so they can take care of their family in even hard times. Read the latest credit card debt statistics and you will see that many Americans need to be taught the wisdom of saving. Along with this notion, many times God gives Christians lots of money so they can in turn give lots of money away and be a blessing to many. Christians are to always realize that all good gifts come from above (James). Everything we have is a gift of God, therefore we are to be generous with our money and care for the poor (Deut 15:7). As someone once said, “Christians are different from the world, they are promiscuous with their wallets and stingy with their bodies.”
For more on the issue, the positive commands of the 8th commandment in the Larger Catechism (#141) help as well. As Christians we love God, use our gifts, love others, and work faithfully. Some might object to financial management because of the motive of greed so inherent with money making. However, all people are sinful, and even pastors serve with impure motives. Impure motives do not negate our duty to work faithfully in our calling. We repent of our impure motives, ask and seek for pure motives, and continue to work faithfully according to His perfect Word.

Now make me some money.

1 Comments:

At 11:05 AM, Blogger Alex said...

my brother-in-law is on the preaching rotation with Steve Brown at Perimeter Pres, he told me Dr. Brown recently preached a message on money, his outline was:
1) make as much money as you can
2) give alot of money away
3) If you don't make alot of money, deal with and repent

....good advice huh?

 

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