The Bible & Money Management
Many religious people will tell you that money is the root of all evil. I am not certain where that quote comes from, but it hardly seems likely it comes from the Bible.
No, money is not the root of all evil, lust for money is the root of all evil. Placing the acquisition of money above God, others, and justice is the root of evil.
In fact, there is much sage advice about money management in the Bible. This comes from Proverbs 6:6-11:
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest-
11 and poverty will come on you like a bandit
and scarcity like an armed man.
Over at Free Money Finance every Sunday is a blog with something about what the Bible says about money. Well, the latest installment (as of this writing) elicited the following comment:
I have been a subscriber of your RSS feed for a little over a year now. When a post is good, I even click on it and see the relevant ads and click on one.
I know that you write religious/money articles, but today I have had enough. It’s not what was in your latest article. It is that I am wasting my time reading it. I subscribed for financial advice, not religious advice. Why keep subscribing when there are other bloggers writing about something I am interested in?
Sorry, and thank you for your posts about finance
That folks, is the comment of a closed mind. As long as FMF does not address money management using either the “B-word” or the “G-word” all is fine, introduce those boogey-words and then despite the presentation of sound money management principles it becomes a religious lecture not worth listening to. Not only does the reader propose to not read FMF on Sunday, but drop it all-together. In my opinion, this reader is not interested in money management advice.
Trying to change myself and you on thrift and savings! It is hard to save save save in a spend spend spend world, but it is better to save than spend!