Click below to listen to Episode 219 – Financial Wisdom from the Bible: 10 Principles to Guide You
Financial Wisdom from the Bible: 10 Principles to Guide You
Check out these Biblical stewardship principles that have directly shaped Christian Financial Advisors.
This is one of the most personal podcast episodes that you may hear from Christian Financial Perspectives, as these scriptures are what have directly shaped Christian Financial Advisors and the business we are today. Because of this, Bob and Shawn have many scriptures to share that have to do with 10 Biblical principles that the business has used to guide our financial advisors (and personal finances) when it comes to Biblically responsible investing.
From being good stewards of our financial resources and creation because “God owns it all,” to sharing exactly what the Bible has to say about hard work and savings, you will hear some great stewardship principles on finances. Most are pretty straightforward, but you may just have your eyes opened with these financial wisdom tidbits straight from the Bible!
HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
Mentioned In This Episode
Christian Financial Advisors
Website
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.
PROVERBS 22:7
The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.
2 CORINTHIANS 9:7
Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
MALACHI 3:10
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
PROVERBS 14:23
All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.
PROVERBS 6:6-8
o to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.
PROVERBS 13:11
Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.
PROVERBS 21:20
The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down.
HEBREWS 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.
LUKE 14:28
Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?
MATTHEW 22:19-21
“Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
PROVERBS 10:9
Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.
EXODUS 20:16
You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
EXODUS 20:17
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male slave, or his female slave, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
MATTHEW 6:19-21
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
ECCLESIASTES 11:2
Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
2 CORINTHIANS 6:17
Therefore,“Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
MATTHEW 25:14-30
In this parable, a master entrusts different amounts of gold to three servants before going on a journey – five bags to one, two to another, and one to the third. While the first two servants double their master’s money through investments, the third servant buries his portion out of fear; upon the master’s return, he rewards the productive servants with greater responsibilities and punishes the unproductive one by taking away what he had and casting him out.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Are you looking for timeless principles to guide your financial decisions? With over 2000 scriptures addressing money management, the Bible offers practical wisdom that has stood the test of time. We’ll explore 10 essential Biblical financial principles that can transform how you handle money. Let’s get some perspective. Welcome back to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. My name’s Shawn Peters, and this is Bob Barber. And today we’re going to be covering 10 Biblical financial principles to follow. And in the next 15 minutes or less, we will discuss these 10 principles that are timeless, true, and transcendent.
Shawn, I’ve never met anyone hurt by following Biblical financial principles, but I sure have met many harmed by not following them.
And with over 2000 scriptures on stewardship, Biblical stewardship, it is very hard to pick just 10.
We could be here all day long talking about this easily with that many scriptures.
But we won’t. We understand no one wants to be here that long.
So in this short time. And then like I say in the next 15, hopefully we can get through this in 15 minutes.
I think we can, we’ll keep it on 15 for y all.
We’re going to cover the ones from experience that I’ve seen that are some of the most important Biblical financial principles to follow.
That’s right. That’s right. Alright Bob, well why don’t you get us started. What’s number one?
I think number one is truly the foundation for it all and that is what I call ownership. And you’ve heard me talk about this many times, Psalms 24:1, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it and all who live in it.” And this is the foundation…
Yeah. Everything is a good way of everything. And this is the foundation for stewardship that God owns it all. And once you really come to this realization that God owns it all, then the rest of this makes so much more sense.
Yeah, yeah, that’s right. Number two, debt.
Yeah. We’ve talked about this over and over. Proverbs 22:7 is the scripture that goes with this, “The rich rule over the poor” [are the banks. The banks rule over the poor] “and the borrower is slave to the lender.” You can’t get any more clear than that, can you?
Yeah, yeah. That is, I mean, straight to the point.
So when you get in high debt, what’s happening?
You’re becoming a slave to the lender and we are not to be a slave to anyone.
And keep in mind, debt isn’t inherently wrong.
I didn’t say debt was evil.
But you do want to keep in mind that, I mean Proverbs 22:7, “The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender.” So you need to be very careful what you’re borrowing, when you’re borrowing, and looking at are you putting money on a credit card that you can’t pay off? Is this something happened that you weren’t prepared for? Was this a systemic issue? Which many times it is. It’s where people are just not, you’re looking at your finances and wondering why they’re out of whack. Well, if you don’t manage them properly, you don’t make sure you’re spending less than you bring in, you’re going to get into this problem. And so avoid that debt for things like that.
We want to say again, debt is not a sin and I’m not against responsible debt. It’s very difficult for anyone below 40 years old or even below 50 to go buy a home today and not borrow.
You don’t buy a home without borrowing some money at least.
And my dad used to say, whether you rent or whether you buy, you pay for the place you occupy.
We’ll have to do a whole episode if we need to on why you can’t buy a home for cash anymore. But yeah, so debt just be responsible with it, I guess is a good way to cover that one. Number three, giving and tithing.
You’ve heard me say me again many times, giving it breaks the chain of materialism, but I think it’s important that you not be giving from a point of guilt. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” There’s a starting place for everyone. And maybe that starting place is just a hundred a month right now and then you get to 120 a month or maybe it’s just $10 a week, just little bits at a time. And then Malachi 3:10 goes with the tithing part, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house…” And you realize in scripture this is the only place that says this…”Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be a enough room to store it.”
That’s right. Think of giving, again, the reason why we kind of did them in this order, God owns it all. So if God owns it all, when it comes to giving, you’re not holding onto it tightly, but you’re willing to let it sit on your hand. And so if the Lord is directing you and guiding you like, “Hey, I want you to give some of this up.” It’s okay because it didn’t belong to you in the first place, and he is faithful to take care of our needs.
When we said the debt was the second then we went to giving was because debt takes away from giving.
That’s right. That’s right.
Number four, working and saving.
Proverbs 14:23, “All hard work brings a prophet, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” Working is good.
And it existed before sin entered into the world. So we know it has always been part of God’s plan for creation.
This is the fourth principle, is that working and saving you look at Proverbs 6:6-8. I’ll have you read that scripture. That’s always a funny scripture.
I was going to ask, do I get to read something today?
So Proverbs 6:6-8 is, “Go to the ant, you sluggard, consider its ways and be wise. It has no commander, no overseer or ruler yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.”
Works and saves up. Yeah.
At the same time. And then another one that goes along with this.
Speaking of that, I think it’s amazing. There are certain ant species that actually are farmers. They don’t just gather and prepare ahead of time, but they actually cultivate and grow different types of fungi inside their colony for extra food.
You would know this because you come from a farming family.
It’s just a really cool science thing. And then Proverbs 13:11, “Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.” That is one of the most direct, but definitely not the only ones, that goes against the idea of get rich quick.
And it really hurts my heart how much content and stuff there is out there of all these supposed influencers that most of them are literally faking it and trying to act like they’re, oh, they’re already wealthy and they know what they’re doing and they sell people on this idea of the course that they want people to sign up for. Oh, if you invest in this thing or getting this new particular cryptocurrency or whatever the latest fad is that you’re going to be able to get ahead. And it’s all lies because it goes against what God’s word says all the time. It’s not flashy, but as we see in Proverbs 13:11, “Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.”
You remember we did the podcast last year, what was it? The 10 traits of Christian Millionaires.
And if we could put that, which one that was, I don’t know which one that was.
We’ll find it, put it in the description. So by the time you’re listening/watching this, it’ll be in the description for you.
But most all of them did not get wealthy by huge big investment returns.
No, it’s very, very rare.
Yeah. It’s by following Biblical, these Biblical principles, right here, which we get into number five. Number five, overspending. Proverbs 21:20 says, “The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but the fools gulp theirs down.” Proverbs never is…it’s just right to the point, isn’t it?
I feel like it’s as close to plain English on some wisdom and principles as you’re going to get.
Hebrews 13:5, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you.'” And that’s another one, too. Again, it says from the love of money. Because again, a lot of times people talk about like, “Oh, money is the root of all evil.” No, no, no. The love of money is the root of all evil and all kinds of evil. And a big part of that is because, well, if you love money more than you love God, you’re going to put it ahead. You’re going to serve it instead of God.
And God already owns all the money in the first place. So you’re putting the creation on the throne of the Creator.
Again, you’re creating overspending, which is this principle and the second part of that scripture and it says, “Be contempt with what you have.” And here in America it’s always, you need more, you need this newer, you need this better. And it’s always just a little bit more. That’s right. You’ve got to ask yourself the question, “How much is enough?”
The drive – a little bit more, a little bit more – when it comes to the materialism and the consumerism of wanting to get a little bit more, buy a little bit more, own a little bit more things. It’s actually a perversion of something that is actually a really positive thing, whereas our reflection of being made in God’s image and that God is a Creator God and so He created, but then you look at, okay, wine and bread and there’s all these things that were made by mankind who discovered a way to take things that God had originally made and make something new from it that didn’t previously exist. So if you’re not careful, that drive can turn into consumerism and materialism. But that drive to a little bit more to make things a little bit better is actually a reflection of God’s nature. You just have to be careful with where it’s focused. Is it getting things to get things or is it, “Hey, I just want to take good care of what God’s entrusted me. I want to make this a little bit better. I want to make my kids’ lives better,” whatever that case may be. So anyway.
This next scripture really warns us also about overspending is Luke 14:28, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the costs to see if you have enough money to complete it.”
I think it’s a great scripture for retirement planning, too.
Like, okay, well if you want to retire at X, whatever the age is, you have to plan ahead. Am I on track to make that? Because if you’re just chasing returns all the time, it’s not going to matter. You need to plan ahead and figure out what you actually need. What’s the target?
This is a big one. I’ve met Christians even that said, they’ll say, “Well pay me in cash.” And I’ll say, “Why do you want me to pay you in cash?” “Well then I don’t need to report it.” I’m like, wait a second.
Well, as a Christian, you absolutely should still be reporting it whether you technically can get away with it or not.
And Matthew 22:19-21, if you’ll read that one for us.
Sure thing. “‘Show me the coin used for paying the tax,'” was Jesus talking, “They brought him a denarius and he asked them, ‘Whose image is this and whose inscription?’ ‘Caesar’s?’ They replied. Then he said to them, ‘So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.'”
It’s absolutely critical as a Christian that we pay our taxes fairly.
My good friend Ron Blue, he always says, that’s God’s provision.
That’s right. If you’re not paying any taxes, you’re not making a whole lot of money. My dad always told me growing up, always pay your taxes. Don’t try to cheat on your taxes, but pay as little taxes as you have to. There’s no sense in paying more than you have to, but pay what you owe.
Alright, number seven, we got three more. Three more honesty. And that goes into paying the taxes.
Proverbs 10:9, “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.” When you’re honest, you never have to worry about, what did I say? Because every time you lie, you have to have to say another lie to make up for that lie.
That’s right. So it ends up going down a slippery slope. It’s given to us in the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20:16, “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor,” which is again, not lying and being honest about everything.
That’s right. Number eight, coveting. Exodus 20:17, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male slave or his female slave or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
This is the last commandment of the 10 commandments. And it’s such a Biblical financial principle because we cannot start looking over and comparing. And when you get into that game again, it’s a game of greed and coveting and God calls for us. And that is a strong Biblical financial principle.
Number nine, hoarding. Kind of goes right, right off of a coveting, really.
To not just over store up and, “Oh, I want more. I need more.” And so number nine, hoarding. Matthew 6:19-21. Would you like me to read that one, Bob?
Okay. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal. For where your treasure is there, your heart will be also.”
Amen. And the last one. We’re not going to get a whole lot into that because the last one today we’re going to say is investing.
We’re going to give you some Biblical principles and then next week we’re going to have a complete program on the parable of the talents. But investing Ecclesiastes 11:2 says, “Invest in seven ventures. Yes, in eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.” This is a warning given to us in scripture that when it comes to investing, we need to be very careful about putting all our eggs in one basket, as the old saying goes.
So two examples on that. One, if you’re investing in the markets, that doesn’t mean you work with say, two advisors that are both investing you in the S&P 500 index. It doesn’t mean if you’re investing in real estate that you have more than one single family home. If anything, that real estate is not diversified. Number one, it should be different types of properties. But I would argue even more so if you only have the real estate, you’re still not really that diversified.
It needs to be different kinds of investments.
Across many different sectors. That correct. We always emphasize about what we call Biblically responsible investing here, and that’s 2 Corinthians 6:17 is a great scripture of that is, “‘Come out from them and be separate,’ says the Lord, ‘Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.'” Speaking of being careful how we do invest, and we’ll speak more about this in our next episode. In the next episode, like I said, it’s going to be taken from Matthew 25:14-30, which is going to go deep into investing, looking at the parable of the talents, which is a very long scriptural passage, and it needs to be broken down and talked about.
That’s right. So that’ll be next episode, right, Bob?
All right. So hope you tune in for that one. As always, thank you so much for joining us. God bless. And if you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave those comments on the video or you can call or text us at (830) 609-6986 or visit our website, www.ChristianFinancialAdvisors.com. Thank you and God bless.
* Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc dba Christian Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Comments from today’s show are 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 hosts, Bob Barber and Shawn Peters, and their guests. Bob and Shawn do not provide tax advice and encourage you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Financial Advisors believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.
