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| Mike Hosey, Elder |
The historic
and influential philosopher John Locke said that all wealth is the product of
labor. Of course, he is correct, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to
figure it out. If you have your own business you know this well. And if you’ve
worked your way through college, or some kind of training for a good paying
job, you also know this is true. Further,
it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a terrible paying job in a sweatshop, you’ve
figured out that in most cases if you want any level of wealth, you’re going to
have to work for it. The Bible even confirms Locke’s idea that personal
industry produces wealth, and a lack of it produces want (Proverbs 6:6-11).
But Locke’s
idea needs some qualification. The idea that our work produces for us wealth
that is entirely ours is wholly unbiblical. The idea that “I sweat for it and made
it, therefore I should be able to spend it however I want” is an idea that does
not align with the Bible, and frankly, keeps us from using the wealth “we make”
in ways that fully please God. Consider,
for instance, Deuteronomy 8:18. In that
verse we are explicitly told that it is God who gives us the ability to make
any wealth in the first place.
But if that
isn’t enough, consider that the Bible also tells us that God owns the Earth and
EVERYTHING in it (Psalm 24:1 NIV). Everything in it includes the wealth you were
empowered to produce!
If you don’t
get the mindset that “your” wealth actually belongs to God, then it’s going to
be a lot harder for you to part with it when God asks you to spend it on
something other than your own pleasures. And it will be difficult for you to
understand that God will give you other pleasures that are greater than
anything you could exchange your wealth for.
The idea
that God owns the wealth that you temporarily hold is both liberating and
constricting. It will force you to spend
it wisely and constrict your spending, and it will liberate you from a fear of
letting it go.
So be sure
to remember God (Deuteronomy 8:18) in all your finances.
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