Money, Business, and the Bibleنموونە

How You Handle Money is Important to God

God cares about how you handle the money He gives you. From the beginning, God has called His people to manage their money and resources differently than the world. In the Old Testament, God established the first fruit offerings when He brought His people into the Promised Land. This offering is the first of the harvest to be given back to God to teach His people to trust and prioritize Him. God also established giving back to the poor - “do not harvest to the edges of your fields,” Leviticus 23:22 - as a way to teach generosity, taking care of others, and not to live over-extended. Then, comes Malachi, the prophet, where God tells His people that they have fallen short in this area of money. As you can see from today’s passage, God is very serious about how we steward what He has entrusted to us. As God’s people today, how we handle money and business should look different from the world today.

God teaches His people to give back in tithes and offerings. Giving our first 10% to God sounds difficult, but it teaches us to put God first. This is being a child of God 101. The first 10% of whatever we make doesn’t belong to us but to God. In fact, it all belongs to Him. How awesome that He allows us to keep 90% and He only asks for 10% back. Jesus even affirms tithing in the New Testament when He tells the Pharisees, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices - mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law - justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” Matthew 23:23. Jesus affirms the religious leaders tithing - even a tenth of their spices back to God, but He reprimands them for neglecting justice, mercy and faithfulness to the poor. Tithing 10% is the basic level, and as you grow as a Christ-follower, you will want to grow in generosity.