When starting a discussion about personal finance management, we had to ask ourselves: “Does God give us any guidance in the Bible about money and its use?”

Many consider the Bible to be a book about spirituality, with nothing to do with practical matters like personal money management. However, upon studying this topic in the Bible, we were surprised to discover that the New Testament contains almost ten times more verses about money and finances than it does about salvation and faith. In fact, the New Testament has 215 verses related to faith, 218 related to salvation, and 2,084 dealing with money and finances, and the necessity of being accountable for them. Sixteen of Jesus’ thirty-eight parables are about money.

So, the following question arises: Why? Was Jesus trying to extract money? Did He come to earth to raise funds for His ministry? No, of course not! Jesus wasn’t after people’s money; He was after their hearts. He taught us in Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Jesus simply saw that many people considered their money a great treasure. He found that if He could master their money, He could also master their hearts. We believe this is still true today. Jesus doesn’t seek our money; He seeks our hearts. Our relationship with money is merely a reflection of the condition of our hearts.

This is why God has so much to say about finances, and He has given us His Word to instruct us on the matter. To successfully evangelize the world, we will need millions. In fact, I (Earl) have heard that some estimate it would take 2 billion US dollars to succeed in preaching the Gospel worldwide. Christians are awaiting Jesus’ return to earth. Some expected the end of the world by the end of the year 2000. Yet the Word is very clear about when this will happen. Jesus Himself told us that when the Gospel of the Kingdom has been preached as a testimony to every people group, every ethnicity, every nation, then the end will come (Matthew 24:14).

This might sound like a warning a schoolteacher would give us as children when we had to stay at school to finish an unfinished assignment. “When you’ve finished your work, you can go home.” Many would like to go home without first completing their task. Of course, our mission is to go and preach the Gospel to the whole world. We will need finances to accomplish this task.

With money, we can leverage the world’s system to accomplish the work of God’s Kingdom. With money, we can buy television airtime and plane tickets. We can print Bibles. We can go, preach, and make disciples. We can proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

God left us in the world after our new birth so that we could go tell others about Jesus. He didn’t take us up to heaven immediately. His plan is to have a large family made up of men and women, boys and girls, from every language, tribe, and nation, with whom He will spend eternity. He left us here and told us: “Go preach my Gospel.” This will require many people and many resources, including money, if we want this to happen.

A woman engaged in full-time Christian ministry was once reprimanded on the matter of receiving money for the ministry. She was told, “You must not ask for money from those who receive your biblical teaching. Jesus said the Gospel should be given freely. ‘You have received freely, give freely.’” This wise Christian woman responded, “It’s clear you have never tried to bring the Gospel to someone. We have yet to convince the airlines, television networks, printers, and car dealers that we need their resources and that they should deliver their goods and services for free so that we can use them to proclaim the Gospel.”

When we talk about finances, it’s important to distinguish between personal finance management and collective finance management. In this book, we limit ourselves to discussing personal finances. The financial management of a community or the affairs of God’s Kingdom is a very important topic, but it will not be covered in this book. Besides, the first step in managing a business according to the laws of the Kingdom is to manage our personal finances according to biblical order.

I (Earl) came across recent statistics showing that 80% of Christian households in North America experience financial difficulties of some form, ranging from relatively minor problems to the most severe situations. One of the main issues causing 50% of divorces in America today is finances. Relationships have broken down due to poor financial management, disagreements over the use of money, or lack of wisdom concerning contracted loans. Indeed, everyone’s life is significantly impacted by their relationship with finances.

SPIRIT AND TRUTH

In John chapter 4, when Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, He said: God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. In everything we do, it is essential to maintain the balance between spirit and truth. Everything we do as believers should be a part of our worship to God. Thus, in approaching this discussion about our relationship with money and finances, we want to strive, throughout this book, to maintain a constant balance between spirit and truth. What do we mean by this?

The truth aspect mainly relates to the unavoidable natural principles of life, while the spirit aspect relates to everything in the spiritual realm. We must continuously live in accordance with both spirit and truth. For example, understanding the principle of gravity and adhering to it pertains to the truth aspect. Many problems would arise for someone who does not understand the principle of gravity or does not want to respect it.

Let’s take another example: to fly an airplane, one must understand and respect the laws of aerodynamics. Violating these laws can easily lead to death or at least serious injury. However, one should also seek to be led by the Holy Spirit to know when, where, and for what destination to take a plane. It would be equally dangerous to violate the…

This text is an excerpt from the book “Wealth, Riches & Money” written by Craig Hill, Earl Pitts.

We invite you to read the following article “The Power That Governs Money (The Mammon Factor).”