Why Does the Bible Talk About Money So Much?

When people ask the question about why is money or wealth addressed so much in the Bible, what do you think they're actually wrestling with when they ask that question?

Right, yeah.

Why is this question important? And, you know, I, I think it has something to do with our unspoken notions about who God is and what His intentions are toward us.

Um, how you answer that question is, is going to frame what kind of heart you think God has, what kind of heart Jesus has, and what is He, what is He after by talking about it so much.

So for example, I think, I think our, our tendency a lot of times is to think that, that God or Jesus is after some kind of rule-based ethics-

Right

... ethical system, uh, that He's trying to teach us, you know, how to follow, how to follow some rules when it comes to, uh, what we do with our, uh, money and possessions.

And so if, if, if that's, if that's what you think God's intention is, then right away-

Mm

... you're framing God as a certain kind of person.

You're framing Jesus as a certain kind of person.

So I, I... and, and that can make people f- uncomfortable.

It...

I mean, actually some people would find that, uh, unattractive.

Offensive.

Or, or offensive.

I would, I would say offensive.

Right.

Yeah.

Right.

And that was, that was kind of where I, I was going with my next question is why do you think this topic feels so personal, sometimes borderline offensive to people? I know that, um, I guess statistically in churches, it...

giving is not addressed, uh, very often, or certainly not for, like, multiple... you know, they're not doing a whole sermon series on generosity typically.

So why do you think we shy away from that so much?

Yeah.

Well, I don't envy pastors at all, uh, on this, because, um, they're right to sense that there's some lan- there's some landmines.