Investing from a Biblical Perspective // Living Generously, Part 7

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

So, the God and money thing. Hasn’t that little combination caused a lot of confusion over the years? And a lot of people struggle to understand where does savings, where does the idea of investment fit into God’s plan? Or should we just give it all away? See, that’s where the confusion comes in.

Berni: Alex, great to have you on the program today.

Alex: Great to be back Berni.

Berni: Hey mate, is there a difference between investing from a secular perspective and a biblical perspective?

Alex: Absolutely. Look, I think there are just two key differences here. One is the purpose behind it and the second is the principles by which you invest.

So what I really mean by that ... well with purpose ... you and I both have a common friend who’s a wealthy individual who’s used his money to fund a film studio. And that film studio is designed to be used to promote Christian media around the world and to train people up and create the next generation of Christians in the media.

But he’s also done another thing, he’s bought a coffee shop where he’s used that coffee shop to bring women out of the sex trade and get them out of prostitution into a normal job and a normal lifestyle.

So the important thing I’m trying to draw out of that is his wealth has a purpose. Now that’s at the extreme end because that’s someone who, you know, has a lot of money. But I met an amazing pastor, probably three years ago, and she had given away four cars. She was not affluent in any way. Probably lived mostly I suspect month to month but she had given away four cars to help people in her church, single mothers in many cases.

So wealth in the Christian world is not a bad thing. We often have painted wealth as a bad thing, a bit dirty, a bit negative. But wealth when it’s channelled to the right purpose can be really powerful. It can be ... you know, it can really change other people’s lives. Lift people out of poverty, advance the gospel, there are so many things you can do with wealth.

Berni: Other than hoarding it.

Alex: So yeah, that’s a very good point. Because there’s a distinction between saving and hoarding. Saving is just setting money aside for a future goal and a future purpose.

Hoarding usually means there’s no specific purpose for it. It’s money that just accumulates over time for no good reason. And usually it’s a sign of a problem, like, as I say it could be a problem like, you know, fear that you’re going to run out of money one day.

So hoarding and saving are actually quite different. Saving is a biblical principle.

Berni: OK.

Alex: In fact, if when we ... if you read Proverbs 6 it talks about the example of the ant. How the ant saves and stores away for the future. And we as Christians should do the same thing. We need to store. I mean, the Bible talks about storing up treasure in heaven but we’re also to set money aside for the future to allow for the fact that circumstances change.

Berni: OK, so the first thing was the difference between secular and biblical investing was having a purpose. What’s the second thing?

Alex: The second thing is the principles and the principles by which you invest. So the way the secular world tends to ... it’s all about kind of getting rich as quick as possible. Whereas the Bible uses things like patience. We need to be patient and invest for the longer term.

We also need to do thorough research. We’re living in a society now where people don’t want to take responsibility any more for their actions. So often when ... they’ll buy an investment either through an adviser or just through a product provider. They’ll then blame someone when that investment goes bad. On one hand you can sort of partly understand why.

But the thing from a biblical perspective ... if we need to actually do our due diligence we need to ... you know the Bible talks about things like being diligent. I mean there’s many passages that speak to this. But we also need to plan things, we need to research things to make sure that what we’re putting God’s money into is likely to be a viable investment and it’s actually likely to achieve the goal for which it set out.

Berni: Now I know there’s someone listening right now who’s a Christian who says, ‘Hang on a minute, what’s this guy talking about? The Bible doesn’t talk about accumulating wealth. That’s wrong, you should actually ... to be a good Christian you should be poor.’

Alex: It’s a ...

Berni: If you want to be poor go into ministry. But OK, go on.

Alex: Look I think that’s really a false teaching that’s being going around for a very long, long time. And it’s almost a counter response to the other teaching that goes around which is that God wants you to be rich. And the kind of health and wealth gospel.

And so my view sits square in the middle of that and that’s what I call, you know, the concept of stewardship. And we go ... if we look at the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 it speaks to the fact that the workers were all given different amounts of resources and they had to get a return on it.

Berni: Yeah.

Alex: In fact, depending on which version of the Bible you read, in one it’s called the parable of the gold bags and the one I actually like, it’s called the parable of the loaned money.

And the reason why I like that is it’s a really good way of thinking about it. The money that we have is on loan from God. And we have to get a return on that money. Now that return is not necessarily a percentage return, it’s an eternal return. So whatever money you’ve got, you’ve got to use that money to get an eternal return on investment if you like. Now that could be helping the poor, it could be advancing the gospel, it could be all sorts of different things to different people.

And God, I think, puts things on your heart that you feel particularly passionate about using the money for. But either way it has to have a purpose and then we need of course to invest according to the biblical principles.

Berni: OK, investing out there though can be a dirty business. I mean, there are organisations ... I mean you go and buy shares or you buy products in a fund and there are a whole bunch of ethical issues about what they invest in and ... How do you deal with that?

Alex: Look, I think it’s tough and this is why the research side of things is so important. And as I say, this is where Christians have to take responsibility. They actually have to do something. In fact, there’s a passage in Proverbs 18 which talks about due diligence. It says:

One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys.

So we need to actually ... we can’t be slackers. We actually have to do thorough research and be diligent. To make sure that what we’re investing in is something that doesn’t harm people, it doesn’t harm animals, it doesn’t harm the environment, and all those sorts of things.

Now some things are very black and white. So some things are really easy, you know. Christians shouldn’t be buying cigarette companies or casinos. Those sorts of things are very simple. But some things are a bit greyer. So if you took, like, an alcohol company. Now most Christians drink. Jesus turned water into wine. So most people actually think, you know, a liquor company, maybe it’s a bit grey because we know also liquor can lead to alcoholism and all sorts of other things.

So these things are grey and I think you really need to seek God and say, ‘God, is this an investment that I can comfortably own?’ You also have to look at it more deeply than that. So it could be things like; What are the practices of the company? Do they treat their staff properly? Do they pay their staff properly? There are many things that you need to research to make sure that that investment lines up with biblical values.

Berni: When it comes to investing, where do you start? Someone’s visiting and they go, "OK, I do want to invest, I’ve got some money. I have a purpose for the future. I want to invest. How do I start?"

Alex: Yeap! Well the first thing you need to do is save. OK?

Berni: Oh damn! Really?

Alex: Because if you don’t save ... then

Berni: Oh dear.

Alex: Then clearly you’re not going to have anything to invest. That’s the first thing. So you need to save. Second thing is start on the research process to actually work out what are the sorts of investments that you might be considering. And part of that is understanding risk. All investments have some level of risk attached to them. OK.

So I call it the sleep at night test. How will you sleep at night knowing how that money’s invested? And one of the ways to deal with risk, and this is actually something that modern day financial advisers talk about. But it’s actually straight out of the Bible, in fact it’s out of Ecclesiastes. It says this, it says:

Invest in seven ventures, yes in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.

That’s Ecclesiastes.

Berni: Wow, spreading risk.

Alex: Yeah, diversification. So that’s what financial planners will tell you today but it’s actually straight out of the Bible. We need to diversify. And when we look at the world today that’s, you know, increasingly uncertain. I don’t like using that expression because I think things are always uncertain in one sense because you ... no one knows the future.

But when we look at the things going on around the world today you do need to diversify. There is risk in many nations and so that biblical principle of spreading your money, not having all your eggs in one basket, makes very good sense.

Berni: Alex, thanks for that. Some stuff there to think about. wealthwithpurpose.com is your website?

Alex: That’s right.

Berni: I really encourage you to go and have a look at it. It’s ... Alex is in the business of helping people to deal with their finances in a biblical way. So I really appreciate some of the wisdom you’ve shared with us today.

Alex: Thanks Berni, my pleasure.

Berni: Again some amazing insights from Alex, thanks for that.