What Christians believe about money and wealth (the basics)

By Chris Daunhauer

I’ve been re-reading some of my old favorites lately.  And discovering connections between authors and books that I’ve not seen before.  I’ve been especially interested in stories of people whose lives were dramatically and observably changed by something they read or heard later in life.

In 1952 the Christian apologist and Great War veteran C. S. Lewis published a short book titled Mere Christianity.  The book is an edited collection of radio talks that Lewis had made to his fellow Brits over BBC radio during the long and dark years of World War 2.  In those radio talks and in the book, Lewis gave a clear and simple explanation of the basic tenets of Christianity and the reasons he had finally (and reluctantly) accepted them as true and had become a Christian himself at age 32.

Many people found his reasoning persuasive and Mere Christianity went on to become a classic.  It’s been translated into 30+ languages and it’s still a best seller 70+ years after its initial publication.  Lewis heavily influenced many generations and has been read by millions of non-believing but curious readers.

One of those curious readers was Chuck Colson, the tough-guy attorney and ex-Marine officer who achieved national “fame” as President Nixon’s black-hearted hatchet man.  Colson credits the simple and clear appeal to faith that he found in Lewis’s book for his decision to surrender himself to Jesus and begin a new life in 1973 at age 42.

Colson was in despair at the time of his conversion.  His law career and the Nixon presidency he was so loyal to were beginning to collapse around him.  He had heard from others that he was under investigation related to Watergate, he knew that he was guilty of many wrongs, and he was facing public humiliation and jail time.  Colson’s years of striving had brought him wealth and proximity to power but no lasting peace and he was seeking answers and relief from his anguish.  Colson drove up to Boston and visited with an old friend and former client of his, a business executive who had recently become a Christian and whose life had apparently been changed as a result of that decision.  Colson told his friend he had come seeking advice, and to hear more about his friend’s decision to become a Christian.  The friend suggested that Colson listen to some of the most important passages from a book that he had read — the Lewis book that made such a clear and compelling case for authentic Christianity.  Colson listened while his friend read portions of Mere Christianity to him.  Later that night, back in his car and sitting in his friend’s driveway, Colson made the decision to repent of his sins, trust Jesus, and surrender his life to him, regardless of the consequences.  It was a life changing night for Colson; one he never forgot.

Millions of people over the years, some famous but most not, have continued to ponder Lewis’s simple arguments.  Mere Christianity is perhaps the best book on the basic doctrines of Christianity written in modern times.

In the preface to a later edition of his book, C.S. Lewis added some remembrances of how it came to be and what his goals were in writing the radio talks that the book sprang from.  Lewis said that from the beginning he wanted to avoid contested and ancillary doctrines and instead focus narrowly on the core / foundational beliefs of the Christian faith.  He wanted to explain in the simplest possible terms the basics of the faith and those truths that were common across all of the various interpretations and denominations of Christianity.  It was this idea of the core, or most basic, or most essential beliefs that Lewis had in mind when he used the term “mere” in the title of his book.

I’ve read Mere Christianity multiple times over the years and found it fresh and inspiring each time.  It’s one of my top 50 “non-money-related” books, in fact.

It falls in my “non-money-related” list in part because I don’t recall Lewis saying anything about money in any of his discussions of the basic or “mere” Christian doctrines.  The Christian Bible and the early church fathers certainly have lots to say about money and possessions, but those particular teachings are for people who have already become Christians through faith in Jesus and repentance for their sins. 

For people who are still evaluating the claims of Christianity before making a decision, both the Christian Bible and the early church fathers are very clear — salvation is a priceless but undeserved and unpurchaseable gift.  It has nothing to do with money.  No amount of wealth, or good deeds, or gifts to the poor or to charity, or any other laudable act can “buy” God’s love or his forgiveness of one’s sins.

The good news of the Christian gospel (and we are reminded of this every Christmas season in the angels’ announcement to the poor shepherds in the dark fields around Bethlehem) is for all people, everywhere, both rich and poor!

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For those who have already surrendered their lives to Jesus and received God’s forgiveness by grace and through faith, the Christian Bible is replete with practical instruction on a host of money topics, including wealth, work, taxes, debt, spending, and giving. 

Orlando businessman and Navy veteran Howard Dayton became a Christian at age 27 but he continued to be (as he now describes his former self) a “money worshiper.”  At the urging of a business partner, Dayton began an exhaustive search of the Christian Bible and made a list of more than 2,300 separate places in the text related to money and money issues.  Dayton (who’s still going strong at age 79) says his life was radically and permanently changed by what he learned while creating that list so many years ago.

I’ve not read Dayton’s list (even though it’s available free on the web) but my reading in other places makes me confident that all 2,300 can be sorted into just a few basic themes.  So…with credit to Lewis for the idea, to Colson for the motivation, and to Dayton for the example … here’s my personal list of the essential or the “mere” Christian money principles.  AKA “What Christians believe (or should believe, IMO) about money and possessions.”

1. Christians believe that God is creator and owner of everything, and that humans are just temporary managers of what God has placed into their hands.  Their homes and cars and banking and investment accounts may be legally titled in their names and be under their control, but Christians are mindful that they will leave those things behind at some point and those same houses, land, business interests, and other assets will then fall to someone else to manage.  Older Christians often use the Middle English term “steward” for their role, but more modern terms like “manager” or “caretaker” or “trustee” work just as well.  Everything a Christian appears to “own” is really just on loan to him or her, to manage for a limited time.
2. Christians believe that God sees and cares what they do with the assets he has given them to manage, and that one day in the distant future they will have to give an accounting of their earning, spending, investing, and giving decisions.  Christians believe that God expects them to be both productive and generous.  They believe that wise decisions will be rewarded by God in some way, either in this life or in the next. This management is a lifelong task, it seems, and difficult to perform well.  (Perhaps that’s why there are so many helpful passages on money and possessions in the Christian Bible?)  The apostle John wrote a careful account (a “gospel”) of what he remembered seeing and hearing during his time following Jesus around.  John was clear to his readers that Jesus did and said a lot more than he could capture in his written account.  What was captured by John and the other gospel writers and included in the Christian Bible includes lots of cautions and instructions from Jesus about money and wealth.  If what the gospel writers documented is a representative sample of all of Jesus’s words, he said more about money and possessions than most any other topic.
3. Christians believe that God will always meet their material needs, but that having a large income and/or great wealth is not a reliable indicator of God’s approval.  Christians readily admit that some of the heroes of the Christian Bible were wealthy, and that some of those were made wealthy by God following tests of their faith, but they also point out that as many of the Bible’s other heroes were not at all wealthy and struggled materially in spite of their apparent faithfulness and good deeds.  Jesus himself was poor.  He travelled on foot, he often associated with social outcasts, and by his own admission had no home of his own.  He regularly needed material care from those around him.  His earliest and most famous followers were working class fishermen who never became wealthy.  In fact, most of Jesus’s followers suffered greatly because of their association with him—just as he had repeatedly warned them they would. Christians say that sometimes God does give some people great wealth, but they also say he’s never obligated to.  And in every case the great wealth comes with the responsibility to handle it with care.  With increases in wealth come increases in responsibility, they say.  King David (one of ancient Israel’s kings) is recorded as once having asked God to protect him from becoming either very rich or very poor.  He apparently saw danger in both extremes and prayed earnestly to avoid them. Christians believe that God may choose some people for lives of wealth and others for lives of poverty, and that he makes those choices for reasons of his own.  Christians believe they are to be industrious, to work and earn and give and save and invest, but to never put faith in anything they accumulate and to not seek to be wealthy.  Christians believe that contentment is one of the signs of maturity as a Jesus follower.  And they believe that the single-minded pursuit of ever greater annual income and ever greater accumulated wealth is the source of all kinds of evil.
4. Finally, Christians believe that a good life is a generous life.  And that giving to others is one of God’s expectations of Christians.  They believe God expects generous giving by wealthy and poor Christians alike, and that he is more interested in the attitude of the giver than in the amount given.  Cheerful and sacrificial giving pleases God, apparently, and it was a notable characteristic of the earliest Christian churches.  Those first churches were small groups of Christians, some rich and some poor, who suffered persecution for their faith and yet repeatedly gave money and material support to the poor and to Christian causes far in excess of their means.  This sacrificial giving gave them real joy, apparently.  Their hope was in Jesus, not in money of possessions.

No thoughtful Christian would say that following Jesus is easy.  And what the Christian Bible teaches about money and possessions is often difficult to accept.  It’s human nature to be fearful and greedy, to seek only pleasure and comfort, to want more rather than less, to be prideful, and to be discontent (even at Thanksgiving and at Christmas) and ungrateful.  The thoughtful Christians I know expect to struggle in all kinds of ways from time to time.  But they believe that in their struggles to follow the teachings of Jesus they are growing in their faith, becoming more like him, and better stewards every day.

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Notes:

Clive Staples Lewis lived a fascinating life.  He was wounded in WW1, he wrote and spoke and taught for many years at the highest levels of English scholarship, and he died on the same day as JFK and Aldous Huxley.

Chuck Colson, of Watergate fame, wrote 25+ books during his life.  One of his best is Born Again, a memoir of his early life and conversion to Christianity published in 1975.

Howard Dayton was a self-described “money worshipper” who in 1973 decided to undertake a personal and exhaustive study of what the Christian Bible says about money.  That project changed the trajectory of his life, he says, and he went on to author 8 books on handling money God’s way.

Drop Chris a line if you’d like to learn more.