Click below to listen to Episode 131 – How Christians Should Handle Their Money From a Biblical Worldview
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How Christians Should Handle Their Money From a Biblical Worldview
Check out this discussion on Christians handling money within a Biblical worldview.
In this episode, we present several verses on Biblical stewardship, management, and ownership to help better understand how Christians should approach money and wealth with a Biblical worldview. If you are a Christian, does the way you handle wealth line up with your Biblical worldview? Did you know that you could be unintentionally supporting anti-biblical values with your investments and not even know it? Not only that but the way that we view and manage money is so important.
We are actually the managers of all that God has blessed us with here on earth, and we are to manage His property and wealth wisely. This is also known as stewardship, or being responsible for managing something that belongs to someone else. As Christians, it is important to be good stewards of all that God has blessed us with in His name.
HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
CO-HOST: Shawn Peters
Mentioned In This Episode
Christian Financial Advisors
Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
Shawn Peters
Bible Verses In This Episode
PSALM 24:1
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;
HAGGAI 2:8
‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty.
PHILIPPIANS 4:11-13
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
MATTHEW 25:15-18
Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
LUKE 16:10-13
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Intro:
Welcome to Christian Financial Perspectives, where you’re invited to gain insight, wisdom, and knowledge about how Christians integrate their faith life and finances with a Biblical worldview. Here’s your host, Christian investment advisor, financial planner, and coach, Bob Barber.
Shawn:
Welcome to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. Thank you so much for joining us. Whether that’s listening to our podcast on one of the many directories, or you happen to be watching us right now on YouTube or whatever works for you.
Bob:
Yeah, that’s right.
Shawn:
And we’re glad you’re here. So Bob, what do you have for us today?
Bob:
Oh, Shawn, this is gonna be a subject that people are not used to hearing. So we’re gonna be talking about how a Christian should handle their money from a Biblical worldview. And that was a real big topic a long time ago, Shawn. I’m gonna say back in the nineties, I remember when The Truth Project came out by Focus On The Family, and it really was about what worldview are you living by? Are you living by a Christian worldview or are you living by a secular worldview? Okay. So there’s these differing worldviews going back and forth, especially when it comes to our finances.
Shawn:
So for those of you listening, watching who aren’t familiar with what is a worldview? So I guess an easy way to describe that would be is what is your perspective on the world, how you’re approaching it, to make decisions in your life. And so when we talk about a Biblical worldview, obviously that would mean we are basing how we interact and view the world and make those decisions on Biblical principles, which is important for a Christian.
Bob:
That’s right. Exactly. And whether you are a new Christian or somebody that’s been a Christian for 50 years, it’s very important that you think about what your worldview is of finances.
Shawn:
Well, let’s start with a couple scriptures. Psalms 24:1, “The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.”
Bob:
Shawn, this is really the foundation for a Christian worldview when it comes to handling your money because it has to do with ownership. And we’re gonna talk a lot about that in today’s podcast. And the second one is, Haggai 2:8, “The silver is mine and the gold is mine declares the Lord Almighty.” So these two scriptures are really saying that God owns it all.
Shawn:
Agreed.
Bob:
Okay. And we’re gonna go into what all those things mean, but I think we first needed to describe what is ownership?
Shawn:
Well, we have a definition here. Ownership, none of it is ours or belongs to us.
Bob:
From a Biblical world view. Okay? We’re managers, so God owns it and we become the manager. So all of it, when I say “it”, we’re gonna describe what the “it” is in here in just a minute. All of it is God’s and it’s to be managed well by us and for His glory or else we would be acting like we’re the owner of it, again. So in the world, it’s hard because we all wanna say, “This is mine, it belongs to me.” So this is a different mindset which that we’re going through.
Shawn:
As someone who is a Christian, that’s not true. The Bible is very clear. I mean, we’re not including all of the scriptures by any means on stwardship.
Bob:
Oh, there’s hundreds of them.
Shawn:
But the Bible has arguably at least 1500 scriptures on money and stewardship in some form or fashion. So since we’re not gonna go through all of those, we paired it down for our listeners and viewers today. But the next one goes into stewardship. And that definition, stewardship, refers to the role or responsibility of managing something for someone else. I always like to think of if someone is asking you to house sit. If you’re house sitting for someone and they came back and you had just destroyed the place, made a bunch of renovations without their approval, would they be happy with your work? Or, would they be a little upset?
Bob:
I think they’d be a little upset.
Shawn:
I think they’d be a little upset.
Bob:
I think it’s important that first, we define what the responsibilities of an owner are and what the responsibilities of a manager are. Now, this could go really, really deep, but for time’s sake, we’re not going to go that deep into it. But I was thinking about this this morning as I was gonna be talking about this. What is an owner? Well, an owner owns the building. I own this building, but then I entrust to the managers to take care of it. An owner, I was thinking of an owner this morning of a heating and air company, let’s say, and you see their vans out. I see those out everywhere. Well, there’s the tools. So the owner is providing the tools to those that are working in the business and the equipment. The owner’s providing what is needed for the manager. And then there’s the manager. And what does the manager do?
Shawn:
Well, let’s cover three responsibilities of an owner and three responsibilities of a manager. So for an owner provides the financial needs, tools and equipment, facilities, and we get to manager. The manager uses the finances wisely and in the best interest of the owner, uses the tools wisely and takes good care of them, and uses the facilities and takes care of them.
Bob:
Exactly. So now if you do a good job for the owner and you take care of what the owner has given you, the owner may give you more responsibility, right? Okay. So there’s a secular worldview of money and possessions, and the secular worldview is it’s all mine. It’s my…
Shawn:
My money and I want it now.
Bob:
It’s my bank accounts. It’s my savings accounts. It’s my brokerage accounts. It’s my retirement accounts. It’s my house. You notice there’s a lot of selfishness here. It’s my cars. It’s my boat, or boats. It’s my business. It’s my vacation home. It’s my airplane. I don’t have an airplane.
Shawn:
Hypothetically.
Bob:
I’m thinking this. So that’s a secular world view, it’s just really all mine.
Shawn:
It’s all about me. It’s all about mine.
Bob:
Where a Biblical worldview is…
Shawn:
A little different. It’s God’s banking and savings accounts. It’s God’s brokerage and retirement accounts. It’s God’s house. It’s God’s cars. It’s God’s boat. It’s God’s business. It’s God’s vacation home. It’s God’s airplane.
Bob:
So we should take care of those well, right?
Shawn:
Yeah, we should.
Bob:
So all we have to ask ourselves is which financial worldview are we living by? Are we all these things, all this stuff that I mentioned, are you thinking of it as yours? Or are you thinking of it as God’s? Because we said in the beginning when we were talking about the scriptures, right? Psalms 24:1, “The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” Now does that mean everything? And I believe it does. I don’t think the Bible is veering away from truth. And the truth is that God owns it all. So those bank accounts, that house, those brokerage accounts, those investment accounts, that airplane you may own, that boat – that belongs to God. It’s not ours. We’re just managers of it. And we should take very good care of it because God has given it to us.
Shawn:
So I guess we have to ask ourselves today, which financial worldview are we living by? So Bob, what does a Biblical worldview of money and possessions do to a person?
Bob:
Well, they become managers. I think of myself as that. I don’t own anything. God owns it. But I am a manager of it. And therefore, I should take the utmost care of what God has given me to manage.
Shawn:
And number three, they use wisdom with money and possessions.
Bob:
All possessions. And I’m not gonna associate because God owns it and it’s not mine, I’m not associating my self worth with my net worth. My association of my self worth is with what God did for me, right? That he gave his son, His only begotten son to die for us, to give us eternal life, and to take away our sins.
Shawn:
That one reminds me, Bob, of when there was the wealthy man who came to Jesus and he’s like, Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus looked at him and he said, “Well follow the,” I know I’m paraphrasing a little bit, “Follow the laws.” And he listed them off. And the rich man was like, “Well, I’ve done all these things all my life.” And Jesus said, “Okay, but this one thing you lack, sell all your possessions and come follow me.” And the guy went away sad. And people think, I feel like that’s gotten taken outta context sometimes where people look at it and say, Oh, well, if I have a lot of wealth, or someone has a lot of wealth, they can’t be a Christian. They can’t follow Jesus. That wasn’t the point. Jesus knew that in his heart, in this man’s heart, his identity was totally wrapped up in him being a wealthy rich man. And so Jesus confronting him with that was not because there was something inherently wrong with the wealth that he had. The problem is that Jesus needed him to understand that he couldn’t serve the money. He couldn’t be wrapped up in that and follow God and serve God. So that phrase of not letting your self worth be associated with your net worth is so powerful because it doesn’t matter how much money you have, just don’t let that net worth be your self worth.
Bob:
Another thing that this does to a person when you say, I realize that God’s now the owner of it, think of my fist and I’m holding all my possessions really tight, if I really make my hand tight, my knuckles start getting white. It starts creating stress, where when I open up my hand and I say, “Okay, God, this is yours.” That provides an enormous amount of freedom knowing that God’s got it and it’s His. You know what? There’s nothing that can be taken away from me because God owns it.
Shawn:
There you go.
Bob:
So these are not my possessions. These are God’s possessions. I’m the manager of them, and it just gives an enormous amount of freedom.
Shawn:
That’s true. That’s true. Also, they don’t worry about what the markets are doing and things beyond their control.
Bob:
Exactly. Things are gonna happen, right? We’re gonna have times, different times. It says that in Ecclesiastes. There’s a time for everything. There’s a time to plant, there’s a time to uproot. There’s a time to die and a time to be born. I mean, there’s just all these different times. We can’t do anything about the markets. The markets are gonna do what the markets are gonna do. So knowing that God’s got that, that’s why it’s so interesting. I’ll be talking to our clients and they’ll say, I bet you’re getting bombarded right now because we’re in a bear market. And I’m like, no, nobody’s worried about it because they know that God’s got it. And this next thing is we’re investing with Christian principles. If you have a Biblical worldview and you believe God owns it, you invest it with Biblical principles, with Christian principles, and you buy and you sell with wisdom.
Shawn:
That’s right.
Bob:
God’s wisdom. What God’s word says in the Bible about finance, because there’s over 1500, 1600 scriptures that have to do with how we handle money and stewardship in the Bible.
Shawn:
People with a Biblical worldview also understand that gratification doesn’t only come from having more stuff like bigger cars, boats, and houses.
Bob:
Their identities are not in that.
Shawn:
There’s more to it than that.
Bob:
It’s not always, I gotta go get that new home. I’ve gotta get that newer car. I’ve gotta get that bigger boat. It’s not about building bigger. There’s the world’s way of how much is enough. And our world is just a little bit more, It’s always just a little bit more, but not a Biblical worldview of finance.
Shawn:
They also figure out how much is enough, since it’s not always just about having a little bit more, and I’ll be happy. The materialism doesn’t bring joy. What kind of car or where you live is not important. Your relationship with Christ and others is what truly matters.
Bob:
And they learn to be content. Content in all circumstances. I think of this scripture, we’re gonna read this scripture now. It is from Philippians and it talks about Paul and how he’s learned to be content in all circumstances. So Shawn, if you’ll read this from Philippians 4:11-13.
Shawn:
“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all of this through him who gives me strength.”
Bob:
You think Paul knew who owned it?
Shawn:
I think so.
Bob:
Yeah. He sure did. He gave up that ownership of being about me and gave it to God.
Shawn:
,Well, it’s pretty obvious.. too, his identity and his joy, his contentment, it had nothing to do with the circumstance he was in, had nothing to do with anything material.
Bob:
That’s right. That’s correct. And I think this is a good one to share. There’s a couple more scriptures I wanna share before we’re done for today. And that is the parable of the talents that’s given into us in the 25th chapter of Matthew. And I’m just gonna read a few scriptures because it’s a very long parable, but I’m gonna read a few scriptures and if you’ll follow along with me. “Again, it will be like,” And this is from Matthew 25:15-17. “Again, we’ll be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold. To another two bags and to another one bag, each according to his ability.” Now I’ve highlighted that part in that scripture. “Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money.” Now, we were doing Bible study on this just last week here at Christian Financial Advisors. It’s interesting looking at this, isn’t it?
Shawn:
Yeah.
Bob:
Some things you pointed out to me.
Shawn:
Yeah. So not only does it say in verse 15 “each according to his own ability”, but the thing that is interesting, if you think about this, we don’t know if this was the first time the master had given his servants a chance like this. He had gone away on a journey. But the other thing that’s interesting is whether or not this was first trip, in this case, the man knew his servants well. How else could this man, how else could this master know how to give to each according to his ability if he didn’t already know their capabilities?
Bob:
That’s right. That’s correct.
Shawn:
So I just thought that was really powerful.
Bob:
And another thing is we dug into the scripture is we noticed that it never talked about how long the master went away.
Shawn:
Yeah. Was it a year? Was it 10 years? I mean, we don’t know.
Bob:
According to the rule of 72’s, if it was 10 years that would’ve been an average return of 7%. So, it would’ve doubled then. Because the one that got the three and the five doubled.
Shawn:
So maybe it was 10 years
Bob:
And I want to end up on this scripture today. So I think it’s important as we look at this one that we just looked at on the parable of the talents, and then as we look at this next scripture, when God is giving us, when the owner is giving us things to manage, how well are we doing? He’s going to give that according to our talents, according to how well and what kind of ability we have to manage that and how well we’re gonna do with it. And Luke 16:10-13 is another scripture, I believe, that goes very well with Matthew 25:15-17.
Shawn:
You want me to read that?
Bob:
Yeah. Go ahead.
Shawn:
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So, if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property who will give you property of your own? No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Which goes right back, like the rich man with Jesus. Again, there’s nothing wrong with the money, but you can’t simultaneously serve God and money.
Bob:
So I hope we’ve given you a very different perspective of what you’ve thought about. Because I’m telling you, you’re not gonna hear this, are you? You don’t hear this on the streets. You don’t even hear this a lot in churches. For some reason, churches don’t preach on this one much. Okay? That truly God owns it all. I want to emphasize this today because I want to give you freedom in that. There is freedom in knowing that God owns it all and giving that up. We’re managers and we don’t have to be stressed out about it all.
Shawn:
Yeah.
Bob:
That’s all for today. I hope we’ve helped you. If we can help you anymore, our phone number is (830) 609-6986 during business hours. You can call that number or text it, or you can reach us on the web www.christianfinancialadvisors.com, just like it’s written here. Or you can do www.christianFA.com.
Shawn:
Thank you so much for joining us, and God bless.
Outro:
We invite you to listen to all of our past episodes, covering many financial topics from a Christian perspective. To make sure you don’t miss any of Bob’s upcoming episodes. You can subscribe to Christian Financial Perspectives on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or Amazon Music to learn more about integrating your faith with your finances. Visit ChristianFinancialAdvisors.com or call (830) 609-6986.
Disclosures:
Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors, Inc DBA Christian Financial Advisors also known as Christian Financial Advisors Management Group, a registered investment advisor. Comments from today’s show for informational purposes only, and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the host Bob Barber and his guests. Bob does not provide tax advice and encourages you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Investment Advisors believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.