Certainly, however, the temptation for us as believers is not to keep too little, but to keep too much. The real danger is idolatry, where the heart puts money above God, trusts money more than God, and depends on money more than God. To make money into a god violates the essence of the first and second Commandments. This temptation affects both rich and poor.
Was Joseph wrong when he advised Pharaoh in Genesis 41, to stockpile grain for the coming famine? True, we normally don’t have inside information on specific lengths of coming hard times, but we do know that hard times come to families; health problems, job loss, and other unforeseen challenges abound in this world of uncertainty.
Proverbs 13:11 warns, “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.” This refers to having the foresight to set aside some savings. Proverbs 21:5 says, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” While hastiness normally relates to spending money, not saving it, and very rarely giving it, “the plans of the diligent” seem to include saving.
Having reasonable savings can be an attempt to avoid having too little, but as with the rich man in Luke 12, putting too much into savings will make it into our god. The nature of the body of Christ should be to care for those in legitimate need, not at all as a justification of people spending irresponsibly, and then, depending on fellow Christians to bail them out. This is where wisdom and discernment comes in, which is why Paul speaks of the “true widow” who is really in need and deserves the church’s support, as opposed to those who have other sources of income, such as relatives who should be helping them, or who have persistently lived irresponsibly, e.g. “if a man will not work, let him not eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
My own belief, not only based upon Jesus’ call to some to give away everything, but His commendation of the poor widow, who gave away “all she had to live on,” is that God sees very differently people who have no savings because they have spent all they have, and those who have little to live on because they have given away so much. My understanding is that He will provide for the giver in ways that He may not provide for the spender.
Second Corinthians 8:2 says the Macedonian Christians, who were in severe affliction, out of an abundance of joy and their “extreme poverty overflowed in a rich generosity.” That’s an example of people who gave radically, even though it appeared they couldn’t afford to give at all. And God clearly approves.
I believe Scripture teaches that a reasonable amount of savings is appropriate, taking into account the ebb and flow of life where we are likely to have more financial needs later than we may have right now. However, our tendency is to act like the rich fool, where savings becomes the object of our trust and the source of our contentment and sense of safety. When saving becomes our god, then we become idolaters.
A final passage that comes to mind is 2 Corinthians 8:14-15: “At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written, ‘the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.’” This proves that it is not wrong in and of itself to have “plenty,” but our assumption should be that plenty is available to give to others who are in need.
God’s design is neither for us to have “too much” or “too little.” Generous giving solves both problems, the problem of us having too much, lest we trust in it instead of in God, and having too little, which God also considers a problem.
The prayer of Proverbs 30:8–9 has bearing on the commendable desire to avoid poverty, with its temptations, and the great danger of accumulating too much wealth, with its temptations: “Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”
At the heart of this question is the matter of our hearts. Rich or poor, God wants our undivided worship and attention. We should immediately jettison anything that diverts our attention away from the Giver.
This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.
