One would be tempted to think that the most common topic Jesus spoke on was faith, prayer or love. While those certainly were part of many of His sermons, He taught more on finances than anything else.
One of the reasons we as the church haven’t made a bigger impact on modern society is because we haven’t successfully applied God’s principles to everything He has entrusted us with. This is especially true with finances.
I know money can be a sore subject for people. Some people get offended when ministers even talk about money. The reason for this is that there has been a lot of wrong teaching, usually motivated by greed, regarding finances.
Did you know that God views stewarding your finances as basic Christianity? Jesus said that if you can’t be faithful in your finances, then you can’t be trusted with anything else (Luke 16:11). God doesn’t operate according to this world’s system and economy.
The very first thing we need to understand about finances is that we are stewards of what God has given us. A steward is a person who manages the assets, especially the financial affairs, of another.
As stewards, we need to recognize that the money we have is not really ours; it’s what God has given us to manage.
How you handle your finances is a very spiritual issue. According to Luke 16:11, your finances how you manage and respect them is a test God uses to assess whether you’re ready for higher levels of blessing, prosperity, responsibility, and greater authority. In this verse, Jesus clearly taught that God watches how you manage your money, and that is what helps Him determine if you are ready for promotion. This is precisely what Jesus meant when He said, “If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?”
It is very important to understand what Jesus is telling us in this verse. In the Greek, the word “faithful” is the word pistoi, which expresses the picture of a person who is known to be faithful, responsible, conscientious, and trustworthy.
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This is in comparison to a person who is impetuous, thoughtless, rash, irresponsible, and therefore not trustworthy. Therefore, this verse could be taken to mean: “If you are impetuous, thoughtless, rash, irresponsible, and untrustworthy with unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?”
Whatever this “unrighteous mammon” is in this verse, it is so important that managing it unwisely has the power to disqualify us from receiving true riches from God. So it is very important that we understand what the “unrighteous mammon” is that Jesus is speaking about in this verse!
The word “unrighteous” comes from the Greek word adikia, which in this verse is used to convey the idea of something unspiritual, common, worldly, or something that belongs to the realm of human beings. The word “mammon” is the word mamonas, a very old Greek word that denotes money or wealth. When these words “unrighteous mammon” are used together as they are in this verse, it denotes common, worldly money, along with all of its buying power in this earthly sphere.
Furthermore, when Jesus referred to “true riches,” the word “true” is the Greek word alethinos, which means real, bona fide, genuine, indisputable, or authentic. You see, money, which seems so powerful in this earthly realm with all of its buying power, is nothing compared to the power of God. Heavenly power and heavenly riches far surpass the power and authority of money. For those who have proven themselves faithful and reliable, God will upgrade the level of spiritual power and authority that operates through them. But according to Jesus’ words in Luke 16:11, before God upgrades this level of spiritual power and authority in a person’s life, first He watches to see how he or she manages money that’s the big test.
In other words, if you are not faithful, responsible, conscientious, and trustworthy with money — which is a lower form of power in this earthly realm — why would God promote you to greater levels of spiritual power, responsibility, and authority?
How you manage your money and what you do with it is far more important than you may have ever realized. It’s good that you want to get your finances in shape and get out of debt, but you need to know that how you handle your money is a big test. If God finds you faithful with money, the lowest form of power in the world today, He will know you can be trusted with real spiritual riches that are unequaled in power.
When you think that money comes by your own sweat and tears, then you keep a much tighter hold on it. You become attached to your money, and it actually becomes your master. But when you see yourself as a steward and recognize that your money belongs to God, it totally changes the role it plays in your life. It no longer controls you and takes its intended place as a tool.
This simple change in mindset is vastly different from the world’s, but it makes all the difference! You may have made a firm commitment to the Lord concerning spiritual things, but when it comes to money, you see it as a private possession, where God has little to no say. But He needs to be Lord over all of your life. Instead of seeing yourself as the owner, you need to think, I am a steward of what God has entrusted to me. God has blessed me with these talents and abilities. God has blessed me with my job. God has given me all of the resources I have. It is not up to me to run my finances the way I want.
Until we have this mindset, nothing else the Bible says about finances or anything else is going to work. We have to see ourselves as stewards of God’s resources. We can’t violate this and hope to prosper.
It’s not enough that God is the source of your resources; you have to recognize Him as the source of your resources. This doesn’t mean you sit at home and do nothing. When you recognize that you’re a steward, you do what He tells you to do, and the Bible says that “if any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thess. 3:10b). So, God will direct you to work, but even though you work, don’t start seeing yourself as the owner of what you’ve received. God is the one who has given you the increase (1 Cor. 3:7). He blesses you with every good thing in your life so that you can steward what He has given.
God knows you have needs, and He wants you to be taken care of. Remember, He doesn’t mind if you live in a nice house and drive a nice car, as long as you aren’t consuming all your finances on yourself. When you get the attitude of a giver and walk it out over time, He will cause you to prosper. If God can get money through you, He’ll get it to you and it won’t be long before you have plenty left over for yourself.
We have been redeemed from the curse of the Law, and we aren’t under the bondage of legalism to tithing, but we should also recognize that tithing was a biblical principle before the Law came along. Abraham wasn’t living under the Law, yet he tithed (Gen. 14:20). The main passage people use to teach on the tithe is out of Malachi 3 - “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein, have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse”.
It’s true that the verse says we “are cursed with a curse” if we don’t tithe but this is exactly what we have been redeemed from.
The main motivation for tithing today should be out of love for God because He first loved us (1 John 4:19) and out of love for people, to bless them.
