We’re going to continue talking about money on this episode. We know that the Bible warns that the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil (see 1 Timothy 6:10).

So there is a great danger there with money, and wealth, and riches. Most teachers and preachers who will mention the fact that Scripture warns against the love of money will quickly point out, and rightfully so, that it’s not money itself that is the root of all sorts of evil, but it is the love of money that is the root of all sorts of evil.

Money is a horrible taskmaster, but it can be a great servant, right? That’s important to remember.

Jesus warned that you can’t serve two masters (see Matthew 6:24). You’re going to love one, and hate the other, or vice-a-versa, right? He, specifically, then tagged money. He said you can’t serve God and money. Money is a great competitor against God for people’s hearts. God wants us to love him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. God wants us to love our neighbor as ourselves. When we love money more than we love God, or more than we love our neighbor as ourselves, we got our love on the wrong thing.

“ Money is a horrible taskmaster, but it can be a great servant. —DAVID SERVANT

Can You Be Righteous and Rich at the Same Time?

Okay, is it possible to be righteous and to also at the same time be rich? Well yes, but with a little disclaimer: the person who is laying up treasures for himself, as not rich towards God, as Jesus warned about in the parable of the rich fool, he’s not righteous.

If you’re going to be righteous and rich, you have to be submitted to God, and if you are submitted to God, then you’re going to be using your money to do his will. And then it can be a wonderful, wonderful blessing. As I said, money can be a wonderful servant, it’s a horrible taskmaster.

Looking at All of Scripture

Oftentimes we find some folks who love to just focus on one or two verses of the Bible and build their theology on those. For example, where Jesus said, “But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.” (Luke 6:24).

If that verse was spoken in a vacuum, we might conclude that it’s just evil to be rich. But it wasn’t spoken in a vacuum, it was spoken within the context of everything else that Jesus said, and everything else that God said in the entirety of the Bible.

In fact, it might not hurt us just to read a little bit of the context of that statement by Jesus.

Jesus’ ‘Woe to You’ Statements in Context

But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way. – Luke 6:24-26

Well, was Jesus condemning all wealthy people? If He was, He was condemning a lot of biblical people, right? Sure, and He was condemning some folks who were helping Him in His own ministry, because Scripture makes it plain that Jesus was supported by the contributions of those who appreciated his ministry.

“ If you are submitted to God, then you’re going to be using your money to do his will. —DAVID SERVANT

There’s also a condemnation of anyone who’s not currently hungry, and they’re well fed. Well, woe to a lot of us if there’s no deeper meaning, or perspective, that we ought to take by looking at the entirety of Scripture here.

Jesus also said, “Woe to you who laugh now,” yikes, “for you shall mourn and weep.” So He’s condemning everyone who’s not mourning and weeping right now. Well obviously, looking at that in the context of all of Scripture, these can’t be carte blanche condemnations of everybody who’s smiling and laughing, and everybody who’s got a full belly, who just completed a meal, and then for that same reason, for everyone who’s rich.

When Riches Are Sinful

Jesus is talking about a specific instance, a specific time, when His followers were being persecuted, and suffering because of it, and those who were not His followers who were having a party at the expense of His followers. Now, James similarly, whose writing mirrors what you find in the Sermon on the Mount perhaps more than any other epistle, wrote something similar.

He said in James 5:1, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.” I always believe that the best commentary on what Jesus said in the gospels as recorded by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is found in the epistles, right? These guys were the closest ones to Jesus.

Was James across the board condemning anyone who had some degree of wealth or riches? Well, he goes on and becomes more specific on who he’s condemning in this fifth chapter of James.

Description of the Greedy

“Your riches have rotted,” so that means you’ve got more food than you need, that could have been shared with the poor, but you didn’t care about the poor, your food, that you’ve got stored up has rotted, and it’s not good for anybody now. “And your garments have become moth eaten,” well that’s right out of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus warned about laying up treasures on this earth where moths, and rust consume.

“ Money is a great competitor against God for people’s hearts. —DAVID SERVANT

The moths that eat the garments of the wealthy, those are garments that the wealthy aren’t wearing. In other words, it’s an incrimination against the wealthy. You’ve got more clothes than you need, you could be clothing the naked, but you just have clothes stored up in your closet, and you never wear them, and the moths are benefiting, but the poor are not benefiting from your wealth.

Then he goes on, “Your gold and your silver have rusted.” So you’ve got piles of stuff that is not being put to use, it’s not being invested, it’s not being given to anybody to help the poor, or to give opportunities for people. It just piling up.

“Their rust will be a witness against you, and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasures,” so clearly this is a condemnation of a certain group of wealthy people. Not generous wealthy people like Job, who used his wealth to take care of widows and orphans, and to employ people, and to put them to good service and use in a functioning little economy. This is just wealthy greedy people piling up their treasure on the earth, okay?

Well, this is a Little Lesson, and how time flies. So we’re going to have to do part two in our next Little Lesson. Thanks for joining me, hope to see you then. God bless.

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Is it wrong or is it right for Christians to invest in the stock market?

We’re continuing from our previous Little Lesson’s question about investing in the stock market. This is something that is widely practiced because, at least from a natural standpoint, it certainly does make a lot of sense to save money for the future.

Now, I began to speak yesterday a little bit about the whole idea of saving. We have to question why we would be saving. You have to be saving for a legitimate reason. If you’re just piling up treasures on this earth so that you can just grow your wealth and enjoy more, that’s a questionable practice.

But, investing a portion of what you earn to guard against the future, and the eventualities of old age is extremely wise and could be considered again, as just an act of love towards the people that you love, so you’re not a burden upon them.

Saving to Start a Future Business

There are other valid reasons to save. You may be saving to start a future business in which you need some startup capital. Doesn’t it make more sense to save and earn interest and dividends then it does to borrow money and pay interest? That shows some self discipline, some prudence. And then when the time comes, you have enough money, some capital to start a business.

Because every business, generally speaking, needs some capital to start, even the smallest business. If you have a lemonade stand, you’ve got to have the water and the lemons and you’ve got to have a little table.

That being said, there are legitimate reasons to save for business. But again, if you’re not submitted to God, if you’re just trying to save money to start a business so you grow filthy rich and live a life of luxury, that’s wrong. That’s very, very wrong.

But if you’re trying to save so that you can start a business and support your family and help your kids get a start in life and take some of the earnings from your business and—as much as possible, if God blesses it and you work hard enough—that you could give a whole lot for the sake of Gods Kingdom. Well, that’s praiseworthy, that’s virtuous. So it all comes down to what’s really in your heart in this case.

Saving Purely to Give

You can also save purely to give, and that’s from the New Testament. I just pulled up a verse in the Bible from 1 Corinthians 16 where Paul is writing about a collection that he’s taking amongst all the churches for the very poor and struggling saints in Jerusalem:

Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come. – 1 Corinthians 16:1-2

So what he’s saying is, “I’m going to be coming by in a few months, and if you save weekly from what you earn every single week, when I come, it’ll be a huge blessing, and I can take your gift to Jerusalem.”

That’s an illustration of saving money in order to be a blessing. To give money, to serve others. And you can do that in the short term or the long term, as in the example that I previously made.

Starting a business at some point in the future, having the business capital to start up, you have to save to get there. But, your ultimate goal is to be a blessing. Maybe one day you could be a millionaire, and you can give away millions of dollars and lay up lots of treasure in Heaven.

So you can see that saving money could be on the path to laying up more treasure in Heaven, which is what Jesus wants us to do and what, of course, all followers of Christ want to do.

How to Invest in the Stock Market

There are valid reasons to save, but, regarding the stock market, again, it’s not a short term investment. If you want to invest in the short term, like you’re saving up to buy a car in two years, I wouldn’t personally recommend the stock market. Because there’s a chance you could lose money. And nobody wants to lose money. And God, I don’t think, wants us to lose money.

Now, people try to beat the stock market. One of the ways to do it is of course to spread your investment out over the entire stock market. These are called Index Funds where you basically are investing in the top 100 biggest companies in North America, for example. Those are actually the safest and in one sense the smartest mutual funds to invest in, but the trouble is, as I mentioned on our previous little lesson, you’re very likely to be investing in a few companies where what they’re doing doesn’t please God.

So I’m not encouraging investment in Index Funds, but I am certainly encouraging, if you’re going to invest for the long term, spread out your investment. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

No One Can Predict the Future of the Stock Market

People also try to beat the stock market by predicting the future. There are a lot of really, really smart people who have trying to figure it out this as their business. And the next thing they’re trying to figure out is how to convince you that they can predict the future. None of them can.

This year’s great stock picker is often next years major loser. Because you could you say, “Well, last year my investments returned 100%, I doubled my money so listen to me.”

Well, it wasn’t because he was so smart. It was because he was so lucky! Luckiness has a way of turning into unluckiness, so my advice is to be conservative investing in companies that have proven track records, that are definitely providing goods and services that benefit people and are evolving with the times. And the stock value goes up and they’re paying the dividends.

Investing in the Stock Market is Participation in a Functioning Economy

You think about it, what an opportunity it is to be a part-owner of a business that is providing goods and or services for which people are willing to pay a fair price. It’s the investors that make it all possible. All the blessing that comes from an economy, a functioning economy, comes from the people who’ve invested, who are part-owners in those companies.

For you to say, carte blanche, it’s wrong to invest your money. That would be like saying it’s wrong to participate in a functioning economy. No, it’s the investors that make it all possible. Those are the people who consume less than what they earn, so they’re living below their means, as it were, but seeing the wisdom in preparing for their future. And at the same time, have the blessing of participating in a functioning economy which blesses everybody in that functioning economy.

Alright, well, that’s enough. This is a Little Lesson. There’s so much to be be said about this, but, I thought I’d just give you my two cents.

Thanks for listening! God Bless.

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