Coty Pinckney Imagine that you are 18 years old, and have just graduated from high school. You are part of a loving family, and have great respect for your parents.
You father comes to you and says, “Your mother and I have decided we’re going to change our plans for the next four years. As you know, we planned to spend $30,000 per year on college to prepare you for the future. But we’ve decided instead to give you a grant of that amount: $120,000. This grant is for you to use over the next four years or longer to set yourself up for the future. You may choose to attend the college we planned on. But if you think there is a better way to prepare yourself, choose it. With this money, you can travel. You can start a business. You can pay your expenses while you work as an intern in a business. You’re welcome to seek my counsel along the way if you wish, but I won’t require that. I only ask that whenever you pay more than a hundred dollars for something, you let me know what you spent it one. But the money is completely under your control. Indeed, I’ve already transferred it to your account. If you like, you can spend it all today on a (used) Ferrari. I can’t stop you.”
Put aside whether or not the father would be acting wisely. Just ask yourself: If you were in that position, if your father said that to you, how would you make decisions? What would spend the money on? Would you buy the Ferrari?
What God has done for us is somewhat similar to what the father in the story did for his child. All we have is a grant from Him to be used for a purpose. But the purpose in this case is to glorify His Name. He created us for His glory. And we are most satisfied when we fulfill that purpose.
Like the child in the story, we now have a grant, given to us for a purpose. So we’re faced with a question: How do we decide how to spend it? What does Scripture tell us?
The Biblical Motivation for Spending
Let’s look first at possible motivations for spending – both unbiblical and biblical. We’ll see that the key concepts we’ve focused on throughout this series – identity, security, and joy – should motivate and guide our spending.
a) Don’t spend in order to establish your identity
That is: Don’t spend:
- To keep up with others
- To show off
- To assuage your guilt
- So that others think you are something you are not
- To make you feel important or loved
Why not? Because if you are in Christ, you have an identity. You are adopted in to God’s family, you are His child, His heir. And you need do nothing to establish your identity. It is already granted to you.
b) So: Spend in a way that is consistent with that identity
Spend as a beloved child of God, as joint heir with Christ, in ways that show who God is and what He is to you.
c) Don’t spend in order to establish your security
That is:
- Don’t save to establish your financial security,
- Don’t enter the lottery in an attempt to gain financial security,
- Don’t fail to give in order to maintain your financial security.
Why not? Because if you are in Christ, you are secure already. God will never leave you nor forsake you. Nothing will separate you from the love of God that is yours in Christ Jesus.
d) Instead: Use the money God puts in your care wisely and prudently
Guard it and protect it not to establish financial security but because it belongs to someone else. It is His.
e) Don’t think you must spend money on _______ in order to have joy.
Don’t ever think, “If only I could buy a car or a house or the latest fashions or a college education or some piece of sports equipment I would be happy.”
Why not? “In His presence is fullness of joy, at his right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). If you are in Christ, already have the greatest joy possible.
f) Instead, cultivate joy in the privilege of being a conduit of God’s blessings, in spending in such as way as to deepen your joy in God, others’ joy in God, joy in one another, joy in your family.
Thus, we spend out of contentment rather than in order to gain contentment. As we saw several weeks ago, the Apostle Paul writes:
I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11-13)
Satisfied with God now, confident in God’s continued watchcare over us tomorrow, having all our needs met in Him, we can spend for His glory out of sincere concern for our families and for those around us.
Four Key Ideas That Govern Biblical Spending
With those biblical motivations, we will spend to God’s glory. Four key ideas help to channel that spending rightly. The first is an idea we’ve already mentioned:
a) All you have is a grant from God
This truth colors every spending decision. The money in my possession is not mine to use any way I choose. As in the opening story, God has put in my control for a specific purpose. And that purpose is the glory of His Name. That does not necessarily mean we should give away all that we have – though it might mean that for specific individuals. But having our identity, security, and joy in God, knowing what we have is a grant from Him, we hold loosely what God has given us. Furthermore, knowing that it all belongs to Him, we guard it carefully. We protect it. We don’t waste it, we don’t squander it, we protect it from thieves.
b) Opportunity Cost
While this term comes from economics, the underlying Idea is simple. Think back to the opening example. If the child in the story buys the Ferrari, how much will he have left to spend on anything else? Nothing. So the cost of the Ferrari is not just the sticker price. The cost is also the joy, the education, the experience he gives up by not spending those dollars on something else.
So if I give $100 to missions, I give up the opportunity to spend that money on food. The opportunity cost is (at a minimum) the joy and satisfaction of eating $100 worth of food. If I spend $100 on clothes, I give up the opportunity to give that $100 to a friend in need. The opportunity cost is (at a minimum) the joy I would receive from giving, and the joy my friend would get from receiving the gift and filling his needs.
Every expenditure has an opportunity cost, because money is limited. If every time I snapped my fingers a $100 bill would appear in my hand, my expenditures would have no opportunity cost. I could replace whatever I spend immediately by creating more cash. But as long as our income and assets are limited, every expenditure has an opportunity cost.
c) Budgeting & Monitoring Spending
Because there is an opportunity cost of every expenditure, we have an allocation problem. God has given us a grant to be used for His glory. How much should we give away? How much should we spend on housing? How much should we spend on food? Presumably more than zero!
If every time you make a purchase, you have to ask yourself, “Is this best way to glorify God?” you’ll drive yourself crazy. How then can me make these tradeoffs between categories of spending so that we glorify God with our grant?
That’s the role of a budget. A budget is a tool to help you glorify God with your money without driving yourself crazy. Once you have decided on those major tradeoffs between categories, you have freedom to spend up to your budgeted limit, without having to ask questions about every five dollar purchase.
How do you set up a budget to glorify God with your grant?
The first step of budgeting is to keep track of what you are spending now. The budget does you no good unless you monitor what you spend, and abide by your budget limits. Decide on a set of major categories of spending, and track your spending in those categories.
The next step is to pray. Ask God for wisdom concerning how best to use His grant for His glory.
Then plan ahead for the next six months to a year. In light of the opportunity costs of spending in different categories, decide how much you will spend in each, so that you glorify God through what you spend on food, on clothing, through what you give away.
After keeping track of your spending and living within your budget for a while, reassess it. How can you adjust it so that you use this grant for God’s glory even more effectively?
Now, we can’t say there is a biblical mandate to have budget and live within it. But personally I can’t see how I could use the grant God has given Beth and me for His glory without one.
In the weeks ahead, we will discuss helpful tools to use in this regard, and will post some of those on the blog.
d) Diversity
In deciding how to spend money, we all share some similarities:
- All of us receive a grant from God to be used for His glory
- All of us have to decide how to best use this grant for God’s glory
- All of us are faced with opportunity costs for every purchase we make
But in other ways, we are quite different. God calls some to give away all they have. Others follow Him wholeheartedly and give away much less.
For example, in Mark 10 and parallel passages, a man runs up to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus eventually tells him, “Go, sell all you have, give it to the poor (you will have treasures in Heaven) and come, follow me.” Note that Jesus tells not only to give away all his income; He also tells him to give away all his assets.
But in Luke 19 Zaccheus comes to faith, and immediately gives away half of his assets. Jesus then says, “Salvation has come to this house” even though Zaccheus has not done what Jesus asked the rich man in Mark 10 to do.
And then the Apostle Paul, in 1 Timothy 6:17-19, speaking to the rich, tells them not to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, to be generous and ready to share – but he does not tell them that they must give away all or half of their assets; he doesn’t even tell them to give away a certain percentage of their income.
Personally, I have known people who regularly gave away more than 80% of their income. I’ve never done that myself – I’ve never come close to that.
The point is this: We are different. God calls us in different ways. Our love for Him and His glory will be manifested in different ways.
So be careful here. Don’t be proud if God calls you to some extraordinary step of giving, and you obey. Don’t look down your nose at those who haven’t done something similar. Don’t assume that simply because someone else is spending much more than you, that he is immature, or not a genuine believer.
In light, then, of the biblical motivation for spending and these four key ideas, let’s consider four areas of spending:
How Much If Any Should I Spend On:
a) Giving
We will consider giving in more detail in the weeks ahead. But from what we have said so far, it is clear that, if we are to glorify God with the grant He has given us, we will give away a considerable proportion of our income, and perhaps a considerable proportion of our assets too.
Giving cannot be an afterthought. It cannot be the result of having a little left over this month, and then giving that excess away. We must decide upfront the minimum from our income that we will give away, and budget that amount before we spend on anything else.
b) Enjoyment
As we have seen, we are to find joy in God, to be satisfied with Him. We are not to think, “If only I could buy that iphone I could be happy!” So it might seem as if we are not to consider our joy when making spending decisions.
However, Paul says that God “richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17). One way I glory God is by enjoying the good gifts He has given me. That’s a true, biblical statement. Yet it’s also quite a dangerous statement, that can be, and has been, misused. So we will examine this issue also in more detail later. But for now, simply note: A normal Christian’s budget will include spending on enjoyment.
c) Insurance
Some have argued: If my security is in God, why should I buy insurance?
Insurance as we know it did not exist in biblical times, so there is no explicit command in this regard. But there is in Scripture the general command to be careful with the assets you have, to be prudent in guarding them and managing them.
Consider in this regard Proverbs 22:3. Though this verse doesn’t refer directly to money, it is in the middle of a longer passage that predominantly discusses money and finances.
A sensible person sees danger and takes cover, but the inexperienced keep going and are punished. (HCSB)
Insurance is one way to live that out. We see the possible danger to God’s grant from calamity, disease, or death, and sensibly guard against the possibility of loss through paying a relatively small premium for insurance.
Now, we certainly can have wrong motivations in purchasing insurance (as we can have in purchasing any other good or service). Our security must not be in our insurance. Our hope must not be in our ability to guard against loss. But it can be wise, prudent, and sensible for us to insure God’s grant against loss – even while other believers, in the diversity of God’s church, may decide they will not spend on insurance, but are called to trust God even for such protection.
d) Saving and Investments
We said every expenditure on one item has an opportunity cost of not spending on another item. That same idea holds across time. Every dollar I spend today is a dollar I won’t be able to spend tomorrow. Indeed, the cost is more than a dollar, since I can invest the dollar or put it in an interest bearing account, and have more than a dollar to spend in the future.
So in the opening story, you, the child, have the option of buying a used Ferrari today for $120,000. You also have the option of spending $30,000 on your education and living expenses this year, and then next year having more than $90,000 to spend, if you properly and safely invest the $90,000.
Furthermore, the education itself can work in a similar way: If that education makes me a more valuable and productive worker, or a more effective entrepreneur, I will be able to make more income in the future than I would have had I spent that money on the Ferrari.
Just so with the grant God has given me. I can give it away and spend all of it now, or I can invest it and get more to use for His glory tomorrow.
As with insurance, in biblical times there were no banks as we know them today; there was no stock market. However, people did save and make investments. Consider the owner of a vineyard who gets income through selling grapes and wine. He can spend and give away all of that income now, or he can take some of that income, and use it to plan grapevines on more of his land. Then he can do what the man did in Jesus’ parable recorded in Mark 12: “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower.” That looks a lot different than buying a mutual fund, but the underlying idea is the same: It’s an investment, taking money that could be spent today, and instead using it in such a way that it will generate a greater amount in income in the future.
Throughout history, including in biblical times, people have saved and invested. Such saving and investment is part of biblical stories; it is normal human activity.
The decision of how much, if any, to save or invest is similar to all other budgeting decisions. The question is one of opportunity cost: Is there a compelling use for God’s glory now for all of the grant God has given me, or should I save and invest part of that grant so that there will be more money available in the future to be used for God’s glory.
Once again, we need to remind ourselves of the key ideas that govern our spending. We are diverse. God will call some to invest much. Others, equally with God’s glory in mind, will invest none. So don’t assume that those who make different decisions than you are unwise an imprudent, or are failing to trust God and are finding security in their investments.
And, once again, we must check our own motivations: Are we saying that we are investing so that we might have more to spend for God’s glory in the future – but in reality we do find security in those investments?
Conclusion
God has given you a grant to be used for His glory among the nations.
- That grant does not lead to security – He is your security.
- That grant does not lead to joy – He is your joy.
- That grant should not be the source of your identity – you find your identity as His child.
We by nature are objects of His wrath, having rejected Him. But if we are in Christ, we are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” (1 Peter 2:9).
This is our security, our joy, our identity. And God gives us this identity for a purpose: “that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light”
We are God’s people, God’s family. We were in darkness. But by His grace He forgives us through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. He call us to Himself and gives us this grant of time, of life, of money, so that we might proclaim and display His excellencies, so that we might glorify the One who called us out of darkness.
How will you do that – with money? It’s all under your control. The grant is in your hand. And it’s all given to you for a purpose.
How will you fulfill that purpose?