The idea of finance is one that is very important as a Christian yet I believe that, combined with sex, finance is one of the most misunderstood topics in Christianity. When we hear of finance or stewardship we tend to think of one of the following things: Church building, local church budget or tithe. While all these things are important and should be considered, I believe Christian finance is far more than that. Christian finance is about our entire day to day lives. Not just how much we give to the church or making sure we pay our tithe.
“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.”
Proverbs 22:7
“For the love of money is the root of all evil.”
1 Timothy 6:10
These two verses are quite important in our world view of money. The thing is money makes the physical world go round. Anyone who has ever said money does not make the world run might be a liar. Now don’t’ get me wrong of course God is the one who really guides and holds the world in his hand however money is the tool that makes our day to day lives functional. I believe that as Christian we focus so much on 1 Timothy 6:10 we forget that the verse says “the love of money.” Thing is to want or to have money is not evil. To LOVE money that is bad. Money is a tool and as such a tool cannot be evil it is the user of the cool you uses it in evil manner.
Financial stability is something that is very important to a Christian. This about it. What would you do if you had no car payments, no credit card bills, and no student loans, let get bigger no mortgage? I guarantee it you would give more to the church, more to charity and you would have no issues with tithing. That is what God wants for you. Proverbs 22:7 is a key verse in Christian finance. In this Verse God is clearly against debt. Why? Because to be in debt is to be a salve. And God does not want us as slave. When you are in debt you are a slave to the car company, the bank, the credit card company. All these things take priority and whether you mean it or not God becomes secondary. In the entire bible God never says anything good about debt. He never once advises Christians to borrow. Yet here we are listening to the financial gurus, and professor of our day who say it is okay to have good debt. There is no such thing as good debt. Debt is all bad. If you don’t believe me imagine loosing your job with all the debt you have. Now tell me which debt will not ruin your life. Which one is good debt? Making your monthly payments is not financial stability.
Now, I am not saying that you should not make your payments. Of course you should. You borrowed that money so you have to pay it back. Nor am I saying I am not in debt, because God knows I am. I am simply saying as Christians we need to achieve true financial stability. That only happens when we are no longer slaves to lenders. I for myself are hopefully on a journey to do just that. To break the chains of debt. I encourage you to do the same. Let us be good stewards.