The Christian and Money
by Christopher Hendrix
As of this writing, the DOGE has ripped open the curtains on certain departments and their excessive spending. Amounts were slotted to be spent over the coming years totaling more than most neighborhoods of people make combined in a 5 year span. For example, $10 million was to go to Mozambique for voluntary medical male circumcision. $40 million was spent on a gender equality and women empowerment hub. $2.5 million for inclusive democracies in Southern Africa. How about $47 million could be spent on improving learning outcomes in Asia? These very vague descriptions with these ginormous amounts paint a picture of the insane misuse of money by our government. The government has grown so large that these numbers can be extracted from the American populace without notice. It takes another agency tasked with this purpose to come in and discover the thievery and abuse of taxes. The bureaucrats responsible for this did not care about spending our money wisely. After all, it wasn’t their money anyway.
You can watch the full sermon on 2 Cor 8:1-7 here to accompany this blog post.
Much can be said about these discoveries, but this misuse of money points to a greater issue that sits under all of this. This mishandling of money didn’t happen overnight, but it’s built upon decades of the church mishandling funds. Instead of the church teaching, leading, and influencing society, Christians have given over our responsibility of caring for our communities, the needy, and our fellow businesses and sought to hoard our wealth. Instead of being the center place of society, the church has handed over the keys to the government. Unlike any other society, America was founded upon churches being the center point for handling money rightly through caring, giving, starting up schools, raising businesses, etc. Over time, many churches became greedy and hoarded their wealth. This created a gap for the government to step in. As America grew and became more populated, the church's influence waned, and the power of the government grew. What we have today is an out-of-control, wealth-consuming, regulation-oriented monster.
However, all is not lost. Just as it took generations to reach this point, it may take generations to rectify it, but the change has to start somewhere. It has to start with us. The wisdom to initiate this change must come from Scripture and our understanding of the wealth that God has entrusted us with. 2 Corinthians 8:1–7 is just one of many places in the Bible that provide guidance on how to handle our wealth. The foundation of any discussion on managing our resources is God's grace. The Macedonians, mentioned in the text, gave sacrificially because of God’s grace. His grace was the catalyst for this remarkable act.
What is it about God’s grace that led them to do this? Grace is one of the attributes of God. God’s grace means God’s goodness toward those who deserve only punishment. Grace is the freely given favor to those who don’t deserve it. There is no cost to it.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8–9
This is what has been given to us as Christians. What is the basis for this grace? God’s love was evidenced through Christ's coming to die for our sins. The Christian life isn’t obtained by working and being good. You can’t be good enough to earn the title of Christian. Getting the title Christian means knowing who Jesus Christ is, the God-Man, believing He came, lived a perfect life, died on the cross innocently to forgive us of our sins, and rose again 3 days later to justify us, declaring us righteous before the holiest God. Believing in this truth, repenting, and humbling ourselves before Him demonstrates this faith. Faith is how we are saved. All of this has occurred as evidence of God’s grace. This is what it means to be a Christian and to have God’s grace upon you. So, this is the grace that those churches in Macedonia have, faith that leads to salvation.
How did that grace lead them to give? One of the signs that God’s grace, His faith, is upon a person is a transformed life. A life that no longer values itself but values the Lord and others more than it. These believers in Macedonia valued the poor church in Jerusalem more than themselves. The church at Jerusalem did nothing to earn it, yet was the recipient of the giving of the Macedonians. More than likely, they didn’t even know the names of the people there. But, the grace of God drove them to give to them even though they didn’t do anything to deserve it. Ultimately, their giving reflects the transformative work of God in their lives. Their giving comes out of the overflow of the grace given to them. Even though they are in a tight financial position, they give sacrificially, just as Christ did.
Handling money well starts with looking to the grace of God. This drives us to live well and rightly. It’s easy to throw money at someone, but it’s an entirely different thing to give with grace. God doesn’t waste any of His grace. Every ounce of it given changes us. Likewise, we seek to steward what God has given us to better our fellow believers in need and build society. This need can be the next meal on the table or building a business to honor the Lord. This need can be a missionary overseas, or it could be the local pregnancy center. This need can be helping a fellow brother or sister get out of debt so that they can help others, or it can be helping a young Christian start life well. Just as God doesn’t waste a penny of grace, let us not waste a cent of wealth. Next week, we’ll continue to see more biblical principles for redeeming what we have and setting a new course for future generations.