What Does God Say About Wealth?

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Matthew 6:19-21

Jesus is not banning savings accounts. He is naming a law of the heart: treasure drags the heart behind it, wherever the treasure goes. Moth, rust, and thieves are His shorthand for something you already know, that everything on earth leaks. So He points to a vault nothing can breach. Store the weight of your life there.

“And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”

Luke 12:15

Jesus says this to a man asking Him to referee an inheritance fight. He declines the case and warns both brothers instead. Take heed, beware: strong language for something as respectable as wanting more. Then the line worth memorizing: your life does not consist in the abundance of what you possess. You are not your net worth.

“But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

1 Timothy 6:9-10

Read the wording carefully. Money is not called the root of all evil here. The love of money is. Paul aims at the wanting, not the having: they that will be rich, meaning those set on it, fall into the snare. And the closing image is physical, pierced through with many sorrows. The chase wounds the one doing the chasing.

“He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.”

Ecclesiastes 5:10

Solomon writes as the richest man of his age, so this is field data, not theory. He tried silver and it did not satisfy. He tried abundance and the appetite grew with the supply. That is the trap: if money is what you love, there is no such number as enough.

“He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch.”

Proverbs 11:28

Trust is the operative word. The proverb never condemns riches, only leaning on them. Money is a useful tool and a terrible foundation. On the other side stands the alternative: the righteous flourish like a branch, alive and fed by something deeper than a balance.

“Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.”

Proverbs 30:8-9

This may be the most honest money prayer in the Bible. Agur asks for neither poverty nor riches because he knows his own heart. Too much, and he forgets God; too little, and he dishonors God. He asks for enough and lets God define the word. Few people have ever prayed this and meant it; be one of them.

“Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”

1 Timothy 6:17-19

Here is God's direct instruction to the rich, and it is not sell everything. Three commands instead. Do not be highminded, do not trust the money, which Paul calls uncertain by nature, and be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to share. Wealth in Scripture is a stewardship you answer for, and this is the job description.