ARTICLE OF THE MONTH
MONEY ANSWERETH ALL THINGS!
(Ecclesiastes 10:19)
By Dr. John Williams

INTRODUCTION

Some key Biblical Principles about Money are listed below:

    1.    Money is Life, Life is Time & Time is Money
2.    Money determines the Standard of Life
3.    Money represents Wealth, Prosperity and Our Well Being
4.    Money gives Peace, Joy and Fulfillment
5.    Money is needed to do Good Works
6.    Money is needed to do the Ministry or to Serve God
7.    Money belongs to God
8.    Money is available to the Children of God without any limits
9.    Money can be multiplied through Giving and Investment
10.                       Money should be Properly Managed
11.                       Money should not be our Goal or God
12.                       Money and wealth are available in this World in Abundance
13.                       Money should be used to Fulfill God’s Purposes

 1.    MONEY IS LIFE, LIFE IS TIME AND TIME IS MONEY
The number of years that a person lives is his life span. Therefore, Time is Life and Life is Time. The longer a person lives the greater is the time that he will have. How long a person lives is not so important as how he spent his time, which is his life. 

In order to fully understand the relationship between Life, Time and Money, we should understand the following facts:

      ·        Money can be earned during ones life
·        Life represents the time that one has to make money
·        Money represents the results achieved in ones life
·        Time can be wasted or used productively to make money
·        When a person spends money he is using what he has earned in his life time
·        When a person has savings to live for a certain length of time, he can get released from his work and use that time as he wishes
·        If a person makes enough money for the rest of his life, he can spend the rest of his life as he wishes, without doing any work
·        When a person borrows money and spends it, he becomes a slave in this world to work for a certain length of time to repay the loan out of his surplus income which is beyond his normal needs
·        Spending money literally means spending the time and spending ones time means spending ones life
·        Time is as precious as life, and so also money is as precious as life
·        Time can be equated to life and the life can be equated to time

 2.    MONEY DETERMINES THE STANDARD OF LIFE
How luxuriously and comfortably one can live in his life, is what is referred to generally as the standard of life. The standard of ones life is determined by the amount of money a person makes or has. Everything costs money in this world. The more the money a person has and spends, the more the things that he can buy which can and will add ones comfort and standard of life. The richer the man, the higher will be the standard of life. The standard of life in a country is generally measured in this world in terms of the following:

      ·        Per capita Income
·        Number of families in a group of one thousand families that own

o       A Car

o       A Refrigerator

o       A Telephone

o       A Television

o       A Computer etc.

·        The Gross National Product

 As explained above, the more the money that a person earns or has, the higher will be the standard of his life.  All the other economic variables in a nation such as ownership, resources, supply, sufficiency, return on investments, employment opportunities etc., will determine the standard of life of the people living in that nation. 

 Therefore it is important to note that money plays a key role in:

·        The Economy of the nation

·        The general Welfare of the people

·        The Health

·        The Standard of Life

·        The general Educational Level of the people

·        The Earning Capacity or Potential

·        The Income Level

·        The Comforts one can have in life

·        The Feeling of Security and the Safety of the Public. 

3.    MONEY REPRESENTS WEALTH, PROSPERITY AND OUR WELL BEING
Because money can be converted into any kind of article, substance, food, appliance, machinery, jewelry, clothing, means of transportation etc., nobody can question the worth or the value of money.   By the same token they can also say that with more money in hand to spend, for taking care of our health, we can have better health and longer life.  Better diet and nutrition will also improve our physical health, which in turn has financial implications.  Therefore, when we say that money is the answer, one should not have any difficulty understanding this truth, namely money answers all things.

 4.    MONEY GIVES PEACE, JOY AND FULFILLMENT

It is needless to explain that money can provide things, which in turn will enhance ones peace and joy.  Further for a person to have fulfillment in life by achieving or doing what ever he wants to do, during his life time, he will certainly need more free time, money and other things which can be acquired only through money.  With money and plenty of physical and financial resources, one would tend to think more creatively to do things during his lifetime that would give him a sense of satisfaction, fulfillment and accomplishment.  Without money a person would not even like to dream dreams or see visions and neither will be spend time to desire anything, make plans or do anything that will cost money. 

5.    MONEY IS NEEDED TO DO GOOD WORKS
No matter what good works a person is interested in doing, whether it is running a school, building a hospital, doing some social work, running an orphanage or an elderly home, or some charitable work, money is the essential ingredient or factor.  A person may be morally, socially and spiritually very good, but lack of resources in his hand or at his disposal will render him useless and unable to do any good works for that matter.  He may look like he is very selfish and self-centered, but the lack of money could be the reason for any one to draw the conclusion or inference, that he is selfish.

 6.    MONEY IS NEEDED TO DO THE MINISTRY OR TO SERVE GOD
Again talking about doing anything spiritual, doing some kind of ministry or serving God, no matter what ones calling is, lack of money will hinder, restrict or obstruct whatever that person desires to do for the extension of God’s Kingdom, and for the propagation of the Gospel.  It is needless to say that the servant of God ministering all over the world, can expand his ministries several times, with a larger financial budget than he has right now.  Again we are talking about the need for more money to do the ministry.  Some individuals set a goal to build hundred churches, while others may set a goal to build one thousand churches, during their lifetime.  The different numbers of churches that they would like to build depends very much upon their financial capacity, and the kind of goals they set and their faith or the capability to get the amount of funds, which will be required, to build one hundred churches as opposed to one thousand churches.

7. MONEY BELONGS TO GOD
    It is very important to realize that as the Bible says, that:

·        “The Earth and the fullness thereof is His” Psalm 24:1

·        “The silver and gold belongs to God” Haggai 2:8

·        “Thousand hills and the cattle belong to God” Psalm 50:10

·        “The Bible also says that God can give power to us to get wealth”    
 Deuteronomy 8:18 

 The Bible has mentioned several principles or spiritual laws to get richer or to increase our financial resources to any extent.  Some of these principles are listed below:

·        Sowing or investing in the Kingdom of God

·        Giving Tithes and offerings to God according to the Bible

·        Giving alms to the poor

·        By believing in our heart and confessing with our mouth that all things are possible, if we believe the promises of God and meet the conditions attached to it.

·        By doing what we have to when we act on faith (faith without work is dead) when we do our part God will definitely do his part.

·        By planning, imagining, designing, dreaming, seeing visions, thinking creatively, coming up with ideas.

·        By forsaking or losing for the sake of the gospel

·        By writing and displaying our desires and visions

·        By confessing what we believe that we will receive

·        By building God’s Kingdom.

 8.    MONEY IS AVAILABLE TO THE CHILDREN OF GOD WITHOUT ANY LIMITS
It is important to know that He has already provided adequate material resources to supply all the needs of the people on the entire face of this earth including the needs of those who minister the gospel and serve God.  While the world is using every technology that is available to them to identify, locate, trap, extract, all kinds of material resources to meet every need of mankind and particularly to enhance life, increase the standard of living, comfort, safety and health.

·        “As many as received Him, to them gave He the power, to become the sons of God”.  John 1:12

·        “A good man leaveth an inheritance to His children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just”.
Proverbs 13:22

·        “For God giveth to a man that is good in His sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner He giveth travail, to gather and heap up, that He may give to him that is good before God.” Ecclesiastes 2:26

·        “He that buy usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, He shall gather it for Him that will pity the poor.” Proverbs 28:8

·        “Beloved, I wish above all things, that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth”. III John 2


9.   MONEY CAN BE MULTIPLIED THROUGH GIVING & INVESTMENT
     a.    Multiplication of Money by Giving

 Giving is a Spiritual Act and a Godly Act.  As a person grows spiritually, he will grow in love and as he grows in love, he will increase his giving.  Giving is not merely a physical act, neither is it just an intellectual act.

The Bible says that by giving according to Biblical Principles will be receiving back much more than what we give.  In other words, when we give as the Bible directs and commands to give, we will be actually investing in the Kingdom of God.  Its worth taking a look at some of the scriptures in the Bible on this subject, which are mentioned below:

·        “Give and it shall be given back to you, a good measure, pressed down and shaken together, will men give unto your bosom”
Luke 6:38

·        “Bring all your tithes into the store house, and prove me now, saith the Lord of Host, if I will not open the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it” Malachi 3:10

·        “If you sow sparingly, you shall also receive sparingly.  If you sow bountifully, you will also receive bountifully”. 
II Corinthians 9:6

·        “In the same measure you give, it shall be measured back to you.” Luke 6:38

·        “Be not deceived, God has not mocked; what you sow is what you reap.”  Galatians 6:7

·        “If any man leaves his house… or land for my sake and the gospels, he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time…. And in the world to come … ” (The return for giving anything for the sake of the gospel will be more than 10,000%)
Mark 10:29-30

 

We should further note that the Bible has clearly indicated giving for different reasons, on different occasions and in different ways:

 b. Multiplication of Money by Investing

It is both a Spiritual and a Natural law to receive some returns when we invest some money.  Like a farmer knows the law of sowing and reaping, all businessmen know the law of investing and getting a return or a profit.  So it is important to make investments in various ways to get profits and returns.  There is no point in blaming God, the Government, our employer or any one for that matter except ourselves for not being a good steward or a good financial manager so far as our assets and earnings are concerned.  It is important to have a financial portfolio in each family consisting of the monthly budget, savings account, investment plans, starting a profit making enterprise to increase the income or some additional job to have a supplementary income. 

Buying lottery tickets and gambling is not an acceptable and a good way of investing.  Borrowing can be done only for investment purposes and not for consumption. 

 10.                     MONEY SHOULD BE PROPERLY MANAGED

A good Stewardship of all fixed and liquid assets is a biblical principle.  Several biblical principles and business management has been covered in the earlier sections.  Stewardship creates an accountability to every one of us, for every talent, dollar, article, piece of property, and anything of value.  We cannot just store things indefinitely without a specific purpose.  The striking illustration given by Jesus Christ about a master who distributed one talent, two talents and five talents, and then asked to give account for it when he came back will expound this point very well.

     11.                     MONEY SHOULD NOT BE OUR GOAL OR GOD

We should control money and money should not control us.  We should serve God and not Mammon.
The Bible says, “Love of money is the root of all evils” I Timothy 6:10

We should note that money is not the root of all evils, but the love of money. 
Concerning money we should heed to three severe warnings given in the Bible :     a. Covetousness: “Beware of Covetousness … Luke 12:15
   b. Pride: Pride will lead to destruction …Proverbs 16:18
   c. Discontentment: Contentment with Godliness is of great value.    
       I Timothy 6:6

 The Bible says that God will give us power to get wealth, anything we do shall prosper etc. Deuteronomy 8:18

 12.                     MONEY IS AVAILABLE IN THIS WORLD IN ABUNDANCE

Natural Resources:
There are enough natural resources on the planet earth to meet every need of every individual living in this world for thousands of years.

Technology:
Every technology of communication, transportation, construction, management etc. has been developed to a degree at which all requirements of human life and for enhancing the standard of life has been developed and manufactured to meet the needs of all human beings collectively.

Things:
Everything that we think of and we need as we designed, manufactured and distributed to the retail outlets for the consumers to enjoy.

Buildings:
The building industry has advanced significantly during last century as never before in the human history to house any kind of organization, institution etc. and for habitation of families.

Silver & Gold:
The availability of silver and gold on earth is immeasurable and interestingly the value of these metals play a key role in determining the value of various currencies of the world as well as the economic status and stability of each nation. 

 13.                     MONEY SHOULD BE USED TO FULFILL GOD’S PURPOSE

It is God’s desire and wish above all things that we all should prosper and be in health even as our soul prospers (III John 2).  Ultimately we should know that the purpose of money and things of value which are available in this world not only to the public at large in certain measures, but it is available to the God’s children and servants until their needs are fully met and they have a surplus to help others around.  We should underestimate the value of money and material things in not only meeting our daily needs for also to accomplish and fulfill God’s purposes and particularly in establishing and extending God’s Kingdom.

  CONCLUSION

Money can be earned and obtained without any limits, through Creativity, Skills and Labor in one sense, and also by keeping God’s commandments, serving God, pitying the poor, building God’s Kingdom, spreading the gospel, giving tithes and offerings according to biblical principles, being good stewards etc.

 

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