If the Bible were written today and judged by what it says about money and possessions, it would never be published. If it were published, it would be mercilessly panned by its reviewers and not see a second printing.

When it comes to money and possessions, the Bible is sometimes redundant, often extreme, and occasionally shocking. It turns many readers away, making it a hard sell in today’s marketplace. It interferes with our lives and commits the unpardonable sin—it makes us feel guilty. If we want to avoid guilt feelings, it forces us to invent fancy interpretations to get around its plain meanings.

We come to the Bible for comfort, not financial instruction. If we want to know about money, we’re more apt to read the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, or Money. Let God talk about love and grace and brotherhood, thank you. Let the rest of us talk about money and possessions—and do whatever we want with them.

How could the Bible’s Author and Editor justify devoting twice as many verses to money (about 2,350 of them) than to faith and prayer combined? How could Jesus say more about money than about both Heaven and Hell? Didn’t He know what was really important?

When I was a pastor, I planned a three-week sermon series on money. I began by compiling a cross section of Bible passages. Every passage led to another and another. I quickly became convinced that God cares a great deal about our money—a great deal more than most of us imagine.

The sheer enormity of Scripture’s teaching on this subject screams for our attention. And the haunting question is, “Why?” Considering everything else He could have told us that we really want to know, why did the Savior of the world spend 15 percent of His recorded words on this one subject? What did He know about money and possessions that we don’t?

Hitting Close to Home

And what are we to think of all the current teaching on money and possessions that emphasizes what does not apply to us? Confident voices assure us that the Old Testament practice of tithing doesn’t apply to us, that the New Testament practice of sacrificial giving by liquidating assets and giving to the poor doesn’t apply to us, that the biblical prohibitions of interest and the restriction of debt don’t apply to us, that the commands not to hoard and stockpile assets don’t apply to us, and so on. It’s time to ask, “What does apply to us?”

Can we put Christ before all, deny ourselves, take up our crosses and follow Him (Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 14:27), with no apparent effect on what we do with our money and possessions?

Sometimes more can be learned from the passages of Scripture we ignore than those we underline. No wonder C. S. Lewis called God “The Transcendental Interferer.” God has this annoying habit of stepping into our lives even when we’ve pulled in the welcome mat and bolted the door. The more we allow ourselves to grapple with these unsettling passages, the more we are pierced. Jesus wounds us with His words about money. Then, just when we think we’re healed, we run into another sharp passage, and God’s Word pierces us again. Our only options, it seems, are to let Jesus wound us until He accomplishes what He wishes, or to avoid His words and His gaze altogether by staying away from His Word. The latter option is easier in the short run. But no true disciple can be content with it.

You may be thinking, I’d rather not deal with these issues; I’m content with what I’m doing. But are you really content? I, for one, hate to live with that nagging feeling deep inside that when Jesus called people to follow Him He had more in mind than I am experiencing.

The fear of dealing with what God expects me to do with my money is exceeded by the fear of not dealing with it. I don’t want to stand before Him one day and try to give an answer for how I could call myself a disciple without ever coming to grips with money and possessions. Not when even a cursory reading of the New Testament shows this issue to be right at the heart of discipleship.

I must quickly add that for me the process of discovering God’s will about money and possessions has been exciting and liberating. My growth in financial stewardship has closely paralleled my overall spiritual growth. In fact, it has propelled it. I have learned more about faith, trust, grace, commitment, and God’s provision in this area than in any other.

I have also learned why Paul said, “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). I have found that cheerful givers love God and love Him more deeply each time they give. To me, one of the few experiences comparable to the joy of leading someone to Christ is the joy of making wise and generous choices with my money and possessions. Both are supreme acts of worship. Both are exhilarating. Both are what we were made for.

What we do with our money will—and I choose these words deliberately—influence the very course of eternity.

My study of this subject has reinforced the reality that we were made for only one person and one place. Jesus is the person and Heaven is the place. Our purpose should pervade our approach to money. If it does, the door will be unlocked to exhilarating Christian discipleship, where “following Christ” is not merely a comforting but meaningless cliché; instead it is an electrifying, life-changing reality.

I believe that most of the financial matters we typically discuss are on the fringes of what’s important, light years away from the core of the issue. We tend to focus on things that belong at the tail end of stewardship discussions, not the beginning. In effect we’re trying to install the gutters before we’ve laid the foundation and started the framing. We must realize that many of the things our society considers to be at the heart of financial planning (such things as insurance, the stock market, and retirement, for instance) never existed before the modern era and still don’t exist in much of the world. That doesn’t mean they’re wrong—only that they are secondary.

Advice about how to accomplish our financial goals is valuable only if the goals we set are biblically based and Christ-centered. It’s not only important to know how to get the canoe down the river, it’s also essential to know where the river is taking you.

Before we learn the fine art of building a sturdy boat or the skill of staying in the boat as we head down the rapids, we should make certain that our desired destination is really downstream rather than upstream. Because if it’s upstream, we would do better to get off the river altogether, forget the boat, and plot our course by land. It may be a harder trip, but isn’t the whole point to arrive at the correct destination?

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). If we prefer to think as the world thinks about money and possessions, we needn’t change a thing. Conformity is as natural as swimming downstream. But if we’re committed to thinking about money and possessions as God does, it’s a different matter. We need to set aside the bookshelves and magazine racks filled with advice on how to make, spend, and invest our money and blow the dust off our Bibles. The Bible is the only book worthy of the title chosen by a popular financial counselor for his own book: The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need.

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