How do I pursue provision, excellence, and even wealth… without becoming consumed by mammon? This can be one of the most important Christian tensions the provider of a home can wrestle with.
You prayerfully, and carefully press forward towards goals, daily girding up your loins, entering the fray, working hard, investing without being reckless, planning without being lazy. The goal, you figure, is not to be lounging on a beach drinking Mai Tai’s, earning 8%, and rubbing bronzer on a bloated version of yourself as a testament to affluence. But it is also not to work yourself into an early grave among tribes where overworking becomes a virtue, risk becomes masculinity, and wealth becomes identity.
Seminars, business coaching, empowerment, spheres of influence, becoming the sum total of 5 influential people, must-reads, plugged-in, taking initiative, low-hanging fruit, scalability – is it any wonder we are programmed to attain more? And if you step off that treadmill, there is judgement.
Though keeping yourself small can feel safer, or more moral, there are aggressive tribes within business, and sales, within which we tend to forgo comfort for ambition, a reflection of the surrounding culture. There are no attempts to ratchet down intensity, and we cannot find the criteria to decide if that is a good thing or not. A pressure to succeed and achieve potential for some, and for others a recipe for self-destruction, maybe health, maybe spiritual. We pray for wisdom, and discernment, dependent upon a plan we don’t understand. Some days we conquer the world, other days we are swallowed whole. And the Bible’s answer is actually far more nuanced than “money bad.”
Scripture condemns greed, oppression, idolatry, trust in riches, pride born from abundance. But it repeatedly praises diligence, stewardship, provision, wise planning, multiplication, leaving inheritance, generosity, productive labor.
The issue is almost never wealth itself, but rather, what is wealth doing to your heart?
There seems a narrow road between asceticism and material idolatry. We know that those who preach a prosperity gospel, i.e. “live your best life now,” is a false application of God’s word. Indeed we are to expect persecution, division, and trials. Romans 5: 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
But we also concede that burying talents, or laziness is as much a failure as reckless ambition. So we search the scriptures for God’s truth, rather than our own.
Firstly, Provision for family is not optional:
“If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” — 1 Timothy 5:8
What an amazing verse. Providing is not greed. It is obedience. A husband, father, or mother/wife if she is the provider, is commanded towards labor, stability, protections, inheritance. We do not get to be passive. Nor do we get to be reckless.
Though rich men seem to be scrutinized in the bible quite often regarding their hearts, we also notice that Proverbs praises productivity, and it does not romanticize poverty.
Read Proverbs straight through and you’ll notice:
- diligence praised constantly,
- sloth mocked constantly,
- wise investment praised,
- planning praised,
- savings praised.
Examples:
“Go to the ant, O sluggard…” — Proverbs 6
“The hand of the diligent makes rich.” — Proverbs 10:4
“Know well the condition of your flocks…” — Proverbs 27:23
That last one is ancient portfolio management.
The Proverbs 31 Woman is an underrated financial text. She buys fields, plants vineyards, profits from trade, manages servants, strengthens household wealth. Biblical womanhood is not passive helplessness, either.
Then why the struggle, and discomfort? Because Scripture also deeply warns wealthy men. It does something spiritually dangerous:
it creates the illusion of self-sufficiency.
“How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.” — Luke 18:2
Why? Because wealth whispers, “You don’t need God.”
Many godly men in Scripture were extraordinarily wealthy; Abraham, Job, Joseph, David, Solomon.
The difference? Wealth was tool, not God. It is an obvious logical truth that some people who work as if unto the Lord, who do honor to their gifts and skills, and who labor joyfully in a free society, can eventually obtain wealth. Once faced with that reality, part of dealing with it involves stewardship over decadence. Could there be sin in pursuing luxury while ignoring suffering? Of course.
The bible condemns dishonest exploitation, vanity, hoarding, but not flourishing through hard work. This type of financial growth that gets folded into a hard working life over time provides noble opportunities to care for families, peace, stewardship, freedom to obey God. This is very different than the prosperity gospel nonsense enticing someone to chase yachts and hedonism. We recognize that an influx of money can magnify generosity, or greed. It can cause freedom, or slavery. It can protect a family, or consume them.
The real question may not be, “How much wealth is it okay for me to obtain?”
But: “What kind of man does the pursuit turn me in to?”
In Ecclesiastes, Solomon explores many mindsets regarding life:
- ambition,
- labor,
- achievement,
- wealth,
- legacy,
- exhaustion,
- meaninglessness,
- enjoyment,
- gratitude.
And he lands not in laziness, or nihilism, or greed. Instead he lands on a proper stewardship under God:
Fear God, enjoy your labors, receive provision gratefully, and do not make a god out of the things you have been given.
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J.R. Cooper - Author 