Of all the possible God substitutes, it is money. The Bible confirms what we hear on the news, that money exerts a huge power over our lives. But the gospel can bring a radical change of a person’s relationship to money and possessions. So how can believers live by the wisdom in the Book of Proverbs and become radically generous rather than hoarding their wealth? Dr Tim Keller unpacks the teachings from the Book of Proverbs to provide keys to living a generous life.
Money reveals what is in the heart
Money never exists in and of itself- it always exists in someone’s life. Money magnifies and amplifies whatever is in the heart. Dr Keller quotes Proverbs 10:16:
“The wages of the righteous is life. But the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.”
When money comes into the life of a righteous person it creates life. Conversely, an unrighteous person with money can cause great grief to a community. Dr Keller quotes Hebrew scholar Bruce Waltskey:
“In the book of Proverbs, the wicked person is someone who disadvantages the community to advantage himself. A righteous person is someone who disadvantages himself to build up the community.”
The righteous person looks at the money they have made and feels that the money belongs to the community, not just them. If they are a business owner, they will be more generous with the salaries offered to employees and more generous with the prices given to customers.
The righteous person is interested in whether the business profits the community or town, not just solely profit. This is unlike the unrighteous person, who looks at the money they accumulate as belonging to themselves and this leads to societal disintegration and spiritual degradation for the person who hoards it. As Keller points out:
“Money doesn’t just have the power to make or break communities. It has the power to make or break your soul.”
The more money you have the greater the temptation to become shallow
Money has enormous power to make you dishonest, shallow or arrogant, says Dr Keller. He quotes Proverbs 11:1 (NIV):
“The LORD detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him.”
The treadmill of making and spending money can “hollow out” your character, reflects Keller. Making a lot of money takes a lot of time- you may need two jobs or you have a career that is all consuming. Making money and spending money makes you very busy and leaves you with very little time with God, or alone with yourself and your friendships. It can hollow out your character so you don’t have the strength, the endurance, the poise needed when confronted with life challenges. This is exactly what Proverbs warns against:
“Wealth is worthless on the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.” Proverbs 11:4 (NIV)
You may find you don’t have the depth of character needed to manage disruptions in your exterior world because you’ve invested in temporal things- the optics of how things look. On the day of wrath, you are not ready.
Being able to create lots of wealth can also lead to an overconfidence in one’s own gifts and talents. Dr. Keller quotes Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) who once remarked:
“To see a man humble under prosperity is the greatest rarity in the world.”
Keller explains it like this: if you are gifted or smart in one area, it can make you think you are gifted in all areas so you don’t take advice. The reality is you are just smarter at making money although your heart can make you think you are smarter in all areas of life. You can end up with an arrogance that is similar to Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus where his wealth and power made him proud and blinded him to the power of God.
Why does money have so much power over people?
When things are really unsafe in the world, where do you run? Where do you go? When the day of wrath happens, there is only one safe haven, the name of the LORD. Who He is, His attributes can keep a believer in a place of perfect peace, even though there is turmoil around.
Keller notes that the Bible warns about money becoming a substitute for God. Money offers to be your God by giving you a false sense of security, an inflated identity and by fuelling your idolatories. It becomes your fortress during times of trouble. Again Dr Keller points to the Book of Proverbs which notes the contrast between the security offered by the Lord and by wealth:
“The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it a wall too high to scale.” Proverbs 10:15 (NIV)
Keller explains why the bible uses the metaphor of a fortified city to describe the sense of comfort wealth can bring. In ancient times, cities were the only places that were really secure. Outside the city you had wild animals, tribal justice and foreign armies. Inside a city you could develop art and culture, a market economy and be safe from outside influences.
‘There is no greater metaphor of status and significance in ancient times than to live in a city’ says Dr Keller. That feeling of strength through wealth still pervades modern culture. If you are rich enough you can go against the world, you feel totally safe and secure.
Keller reminds his audience that money is worthless on the day of wrath. Money cannot help you face death, it cannot help you face a broken heart. It’s true for many people that money is a false god. But even for those who do not hoard money, the personal use of money can show to us where our true heart treasure lies or as Keller articulates:
“Money will show what is your false God. Whatever has captured your heart, your money will just flow. What is it easy to spend on?”
You reap what you sow
The Bible teaches the more you sow and scatter your grain in the Kingdom, the more of a harvest you will reap. Likewise the more you hoard your seed the more you reap. Keller points to the Apostle Paul’s teaching on giving:
“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” 2 Corinthians 9:6 (NIV)
For many believers Dr Keller warns, Jesus is not our only salvation. Almost all of us could be giving more generously but we can hoard what has been given to us. Money rules us, shapes us and distorts us.
So, how do you break the power of money over your life? In order to become a radical giver, Dr Keller says believers need to look at the Cross of Calvary where we see the ultimate example of God scattering His gifts to the poor, so that society can be united.
“The cross proves that Jesus will do anything for you.”
When you scatter your gifts to the poor you are uniting society. When the well off hoard their money and spend it on themselves you have a divided society or as Keller puts it “Scattering gathers and gathering scatters.”
To hear more from Dr Keller on The Wisdom of Generosity, listen here.
