An Upside-Down Financial Plan

I don’t think this will be a massive shock to anyone, but human beings are not naturally generous. If sin causes us to live for ourselves—and it does (2 Corinthians 5:15)—then one result of this obsessive self-focus is the effect it has on the way we think about and use our money.

For most of us, what drives the majority of our joys and sorrows when it comes to money is what it is or is not doing for us. When we think of money, we tend to think first of ourselves: What do I need? What do I want? What dream can this money finance? What would I like to do that I have never done before?

I am not suggesting that we are never generous. However, because of the indwelling power of sin and the selfishness of our hearts, when it comes to money, generosity is typically a short scene in a long video of self-interest.

That might sting to read initially, but ask the Holy Spirit to soften your heart to his conviction. Be open to biblical correction. Fire your inner lawyer and examine what the Word of God has to say on this subject. (I can say that because I have an entire inner law firm working to defend my self-righteousness most days!)

The Biblical Story is a Generosity Story

Let me give you the punch line of this article first and then unpack it in greater detail: the biblical story is a generosity story.

It really is true that the narrative in the Bible is a story of God’s giving, giving, and giving. If we read the Bible through the lens of generosity, we will be blown away by how lavishly generous our Lord is. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us” (Ephesians 1:7-8).

No words capture the essence of this lavish generosity story better than these: “For God so loved the world, that he gave…” (John 3:16). Our hope in life and death rests on the fact that our Lord is a bountifully generous King who sent his Son to set up a kingdom marked by a generosity of love, grace, forgiveness, daily mercy, and the faithful supply of all we need. So, when he invites and calls us to seek his kingdom rather than working to store up physical earthly treasures (Matthew 6:19-33), he is calling us not just to value spiritual things more than earthly things, but also to be part of his generosity mission on earth.

Without this overarching and underlying gospel theology of generosity, Christian discussions of money typically center on how to avoid debt, achieve financial stability, plan for retirement, and determine the definition of a tithe. Of course, none of these topics is wrong, and all of them are helpful in some way, but the whole plan is devoid of the larger considerations of the call to be God’s ambassadors on earth. Oftentimes, the default financial plan of a follower of Christ is functionally devoid of gospel perspective and vision, and, because it is, it focuses money and finances on personal need rather than on God’s grand gospel agenda.

Upside-Down Money

Could it be that, when it comes to finances, we have the whole thing upside down? Could it be that the primary purpose for money in our life is not so that we would live, but so that, as God has lavishly done in our life, we would give? Could it be that we need something fundamentally deeper than a commitment to a good budget and reasonable spending? Could it be that what we really need is a brand-new understanding of the purpose of money, one driven by the gospel story? Could it be that reducing generosity to a commitment to tithe completely misses the point of money in God’s gospel economy? Could it be that true transformation of our money lifestyles will only ever begin as the gospel of Jesus Christ sets the agenda for our spending instead of our homing in on a few isolated money passages taken out of their broader gospel context?

When we think of money, we tend to think of it primarily as God’s means of providing for us—and, oh yes, as almost an afterthought, he has called us to give. Could it be that Scripture teaches that God’s primary purpose for money is that we would be tools of his generosity mission on earth—and, oh yes, he also uses it to provide for us daily? Matthew 6:19–34 sets up a clear contrast between storing earthly treasures while obsessing about personal needs and seeking God’s kingdom. Jesus teaches that financial sanity begins with believing that we really do have a heavenly Father who will supply what we need. The radical message of Jesus is that the burden is his and not ours.

God’s promise to provide everything that we need is all over Scripture:

“My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)

“Do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” (Matthew 6:31–32)

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11)

“Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!” (Luke 12:24)

“Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God for help, and wander about for lack of food?” (Job 38:41)

“The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” (Psalm 34:10)

Because God has taken the primary burden of provision off our shoulders and placed it on his own, we are freed to have a grander vision for our money than one merely of personal provision. Our heavenly Father knows what we need and has promised to provide it. Therefore, by his generosity, we are free from financial self-focus and free to be part of his generosity mission on earth. God loves a cheerful giver becausehe is the ultimate cheerful giver. Whenever we live generously, we not only honor his generosity to us but, through our generosity, point others to him.

God’s goal for our financial life is that it would be driven by the grand call of his kingdom, not by personal need or provision. When we reverse that order, we never end up celebrating God’s generosity or committing to a generous life. If we start with ourselves, we will never escape the endless needs, wants, and demands we place on our money. Our money will be dominated by self-focus, and we will try somehow to squeeze God into the plan. We will seek our welfare and hope we have something left for his kingdom, instead of seeking his kingdom and believing that, as we do, he will faithfully provide.

Of course, this is not a call to quit paying our bills or to stop buying groceries. Instead, it is a call to examine our financial lives and make sure that we have the order right. 2 Corinthians 5:15 tells us that Jesus came so that “those who live might no longer live for themselves.” Since the DNA of sin is selfishness, the huge money temptation we all face is for our thoughts, desires, and decisions about money to be dominated by what we want, what we think we need, and how we feel in the moment. One could argue that the sole reason that money is a problem for any of us is the selfishness of sin. And one could further argue that, on this side of eternity, when it comes to the use of money, the kingdom of self will always compete for our wallets with the kingdom of God.

As with everything else in life, we need more than a set of sound principles or rules. What we really need is rescue and surrender. We need to be rescued from ourselves by a mighty and gracious Savior, and we need to surrender to his wise and loving plan for us and our money. We cannot be satisfied with a better budget that has a line item for a tithe if that budget continues to be driven by self-interest.

We know we have money in the right place in our hearts when the culture of acquisition has been replaced with a culture of generosity, when joy in giving overwhelms joy in getting.

Let the Thief No Longer Steal

Paul commands the Ephesians, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need” (4:28). Paul does not say to do this “so that he will have a more legal way to provide for himself.” The shift is from stealing (self-focused) to working in order to give (God and others-focused). The self-centered thief is not meant to become the self-centered worker. God’s grace is radically transformative and has the power to free us from viewing money as our means toward getting and to help us see money as our means for giving.

The money God provides for us is a means of making his invisible generosity visible. We become markers of his generous, providing grace. We bring real help to those in need. We become one of the primary means God uses to fund the work of his generous kingdom of love and grace. That check that allows a husband and wife to spend a needed weekend together away, or that gift that sends a young person on a mission trip, or that gift of someone’s annual college tuition, or the money to buy groceries for a mom and children who are suddenly without a husband, dad, or income is each a way to emulate God’s goodness, generosity, and grace.

In the same way that God gives us rationality so that we would know him and emotions so we could love him, he gives us money so that we will have an actual physical means of passing on the beauty of his generous grace. When it comes to our finances, God calls us to stop beginning with ourselves and hoping that there is money left over for him and instead to accept willingly that the primary purpose of our money is to fund lives of generosity in worship and service of him.

Shouldn’t those who constantly acknowledge the incredible generosity of the Lord be the most joyfully generous community on earth? Shouldn’t the lavish blessings we have received become the blessings we willingly and freely give? Shouldn’t our celebrations of affluence be transformed into lifestyles of generosity?

May God, in faithful grace, continue to liberate us from our bondage to us and, in so doing, liberate our wallets from their bondage to self-focus—freeing us, with our money, to represent our generous Savior well.

“‘See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’ Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. And they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’” (Deuteronomy 1:21-25)