Is It A Sin To Be Rich?

Hello beloved child of God, I hope you’re fine by God’s grace and I hope you’ve had a wonderful week in the presence of The Lord.

As for me, I’m doing great thanks to God and I’m having a wonderful week.

Every week I have a LIVE Instagram Bible study which lasts for like 30 minutes and during those Bible studies we discuss on my latest blog post.

Lately, as we were talking about how to discern God’s Will for where to live, we entered a conversation about finances and about the income of megachurch pastors.

It was quite interesting, but because of time constraints, and because that wasn’t the topic of The Bible study, I wasn’t able to get deep in that conversation.

Nevertheless, I know it brought up a very important topic because many Christians judge other Christians for being rich(financially blessed by God), and many Christians feel guilty for being rich.

Many people condemn megachurch Pastors for having a lot of money, while God is The One who blessed them abundantly financially. Most of those Pastors worked hard for that, took time in the presence of The Holy Spirit and wrote books that saved lives. Most of them earn their money in a completely legal way and give their tithes and offerings to God, and help the poor in their community and even in other communities, and pay their taxes, but when they buy a new pair of shoes or a new car, they are being judged for being extravagant, and the people who are harder on them are mostly Christians. That shouldn’t be so.

We should rejoice in The Lord and thank Him for the success of our brothers and sisters in Christ, instead of judging them for succeeding.

A few months ago, Pastor John Grey was being judged by other Christians on social media for offering an expensive car to his wife. This is a man who has already shown generosity in his community, people know his heart but they said “that money could have been used for the poor”.

What I replied to those writing stuff like that on Facebook was “You’re totally right. The money you used to buy your smartphone could have served to feed the poor. So you should sell your smartphone and give the money to the poor.”

It’s easier to judge people for what they’re doing with their money, while forgetting that we too we could practice self denial with our money. To you, it may be extravagant that someone buys a new car instead of giving that money to the poor, but to someone else it would appear extravagant that you have three meals per day while you could have sacrificed one of those meals to feed the poor.

Matthew 7:1‭-‬5 NIV

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

By focusing on judging other, we forget that we too could be judged.

Let’s not forget that many Old Testament Bible characters were abundantly blessed financially by God (Abraham, Lot, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, Job etc.). Imagine if the richest people in the world were Christians. We would be the ones making decisions for what is shown on TV because we would be the ones paying for those things to be produced and we would be able to decide to evangelise through every TV series and even in the news. Even food which is sold to us would be different because as Christians we would say no to some foods which are unhealthy for human consumption. Even school programs would be dictated by us and we would ban sex education designed to teach sexual immorality to kids. Think of the impact we would have in evangelising the whole world. In order to travel to the whole world to preach the Gospel we need money. God blesses us financially so that we will lack nothing for our mission here on Earth.

Nevertheless, it’s time to answer this question Biblically.”Is it a sin to be rich?”.

Actually the issue is not how much money you have, the issue is “How did you get that money?” and “How are you managing that money”

1. How Did You Get That Money?

Proverbs 28:6 NIV

Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse.

1 Timothy 6:9‭-‬10 NLT

But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

People earn their money either honestly or dishonestly.

Some people earn money through theft, corruption, embezzlement of public funds etc., while other people earn their money through hard work or smart work (ex writing books, selling stuff honestly, teaching, using their skills etc).

If you earn your money honestly and become rich, then it’s not a sin to be rich. You earned that money honestly.

Meanwhile, if you went through evil practices to get that money, that money doesn’t have good roots and your being rich doesn’t come from God. So, it’s sinful.

2. How Do You Manage Your Money?

1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

How you manage your money, your riches, your assets matters a lot.

Suppose you earned your money in a dishonest way, you would probably not manage it in an honest manner. You would probably spend it improperly (or at least a good portion of it).

Some people use their money to buy drugs, alcohol, to go to night clubs, to make orgies, to pay prostitutes, to buy sex slaves etc. This use of money doesn’t glorify God and in this line we can say that their riches draw them further away from God because they use it to purchase tickets into a sinful lifestyle.

Also, some people may earn their money honestly but fail to apply simple Biblical principles like giving tithes and offerings, and taking part in their community (like in Acts of The Apostles) to help the poor, widows, orphans and believers in general. They didn’t earn it Inna sinful way, but they’re managing it in a sinful way.

In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), those who are rewarded are those who multiplied what they had. If God blesses you financially and you never think of investing to multiply, and that you instead spend all the money or just hide it, you’re not doing good to yourself.

Matthew 25:19‭-‬21‭, ‬24‭-‬30 NIV

“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. “ ‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

There should be a balance in the way you manage your money such that, you use your money to glorify God.

You use your money to glorify God when you:

• Give your tithes (1st ten percent of your income) and offerings regularly
• Help the poor and the needy out of love for God (and it doesn’t have to be people faraway on the other side of the globe. You can start with your family members who need help)
• Take good care of yourself
• Invest and multiply

Craig Hill for example, recommends to budget our money as Jews do

• Tithes : 10%
• Offerings : 10%
• Savings: 10%
• Investment: 20%
• Spending: 50%

This brings us to the fact that your money has to be managed by putting God first (when you give your first ten percent and when you make financial decisions). You have to plan ahead for the percentages of your income and how you’re going to spend it.

Malachi 3:10‭-‬12 NLT

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

2 Corinthians 9:7‭-‬8 NLT

You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.

What is real is, you can’t help ALL THE POOR PEOPLE IN THE WORLD ALL BY YOURSELF. This means that you have to accept the fact that, some people will consider what you do for the poor as insignificant, and they’ll instead blame you for not doing more (while most of them aren’t even doing as much as you’re doing for the poor by the way).

You can’t help everyone on Earth, but if every Christian at his own level does something to help the needy around him, then the effect is increased because we’re all doing something.

The fact that God blesses you financially doesn’t mean that He has given you the burden to feed ALL the poor and needy in the world. This is impossible by the way. Only God can do that, and He wants to do that not just through the obedience and finances of mega Pastors but through all of us who call ourselves Christians. If everyone does something with a percentage of his income, the impact will be greater than blaming someone who is regularly giving much because they dared to buy something nice for themselves.

Conclusion

If you’ve earned your money in an honest manner, and if you manage it in a way which glorifies God—giving your tithes and offerings, helping the poor with part of your money, taking care of yourself and your family, spending in an intelligent manner, and investing to multiply, then you’re not letting money to be your master but you’re using your money to glorify God and in this line you are NOT sinning by being rich, you’re just managing correctly what God gave you.

Instead of blaming other Christians for being rich, let’s start managing our money correctly.

Prayer

Father Lord God Almighty, teach me to stop judging other Christians for how they manage their money, because I don’t even really know everything about how they manage it. Help me focus on changing my attitude towards money and managing it in a way which glorifies Your Name, in Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen.

It’s Now Your Turn

Have you been judging other Christians for how they manage their money?

Do you think you manage ALL your money in a way which honors God?

Please let us know in the comments section

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God bless you

Victoria Eyog