Get Rich Quick?

If you had invested a hundred dollars in Bitcoin in July 2010, it would be worth eight billion dollars today. The media is full of stories of twelve-year-olds who started with ten dollars and have become millionaires through various cryptocurrency investments. What could be wrong with that?

When I’ve compared the relatively sedentary pace of my own old-fashioned investments compared to these new currencies, I’ve asked myself, Should cryptocurrency have a chapter in my story? If you haven’t asked it yet, you probably will.

I’m not a financial advisor, but I am a spiritual advisor, and therefore I want to offer a spiritual perspective on investing.

God Calls for Balanced Investments

We begin with the general biblical principle that God encourages us to be good stewards of his gifts and to bring him a return on his investment in us. We see that, for example, in the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14–30), which applies to spiritual as well as financial investment.

Scripture also contains many warnings about an imbalanced pursuit of money. Perhaps the most well-known is: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Tim. 6:10). Loving money too much endangers the soul.

Better be balanced about money than be obsessed with our balance.

I understand the basic principle, but what about high-risk investments, specifically?

God Calls for Patient Investment (20:21)

Proverbs has much to say about money, but one theme is especially relevant to this topic. See if you can identify it from these three verses:

“An inheritance gained hastily, in the beginning, will not be blessed in the end” (20:21).

“The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty” (21:5).

“A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him” (28:22).

Notice three similar words in these verses: hastily, hasty, and hastens. Solomon is warning us against get-rich-quick schemes. There’s something spiritually unwise and morally dangerous about getting too much money too quickly for too little work. What might these dangers be?

• God blesses diligence. It’s better to earn less by working hard than get wealth without working at all. A hard-earned dollar comes with God’s blessing in a way that a fast million doesn’t.
• True wealth is contentment. Contentment with a dollar is greater wealth than being a Bitcoin billionaire.
• Volatile investments change our mindset. The constant fluctuations dominate our mind and determine our moods.
• We will never have enough. When I was sixteen, I bought a twenty-five-cent lottery ticket and immediately won five dollars. What did I do? I immediately bought five dollars of twenty-five-cent lottery tickets and lost it all. But the loss taught me more than the gain. The gain made me gamble for more. The loss made me never gamble again. Very few have the discipline to take the gain and walk away.
• We cannot love God and Bitcoin. We will depend on one and not the other or love the one and hate the other (Matt. 6:24).

Fast money can be fatal money.

Changing Our Story with God’s Story

As I said earlier, I’m not a financial advisor. Get your financial advice from an expert. But do bear these spiritual considerations in mind as you try to honor God with your money.

Summary: Should I invest in get-rich-quick schemes? Weigh the spiritual, emotional, mental, and moral consequences of volatile investments together with the financial considerations so that you please God more than yourself.

Question: What’s your decision when you weigh these considerations?

Prayer: Wise and Secure Father, you own all currencies, therefore help me to steward what portion you have given me so that I honor you and do no harm to myself or others.