Chapter

One

GOD AND MONEY

W hen a man asked Jesus what good he had to do to have

eternal life, Jesus asked him whether he had obeyed the
commandments. When he asked which, Jesus recited a few
representative ones. The man replied he had kept (all) the
commandments1. Jesus then told him that if he wished to be perfect,
he needed to sell all and give to the poor. Scripture records that
he turned away sorrowful2. It is recorded that this man had great
possessions.
There was one commandment he did not obey and that was the
first commandment of having no other gods besides God. In telling
the man to sell all his possessions, Jesus was reminding him of the
first commandment: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out
of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no
other gods before me.”3 His possessions were his god. Yet there is no
explicit commandment that one must not accumulate possessions
or wealth. Wealth was in existence at the time that Abraham
purchased a burying place for his wife Sarah4. Wealth is a good
servant, but Jesus saw into the heart of his questioner, that wealth
had become this man’s master, in other words, his god.
The question facing Christians today is whether wealth is a
servant or master. It can become a master but it can also be treated
as just a servant. Why is it so difficult to put God first when it comes
to wealth or money or possessions?

The Long Supply Chain

Much of the answer lies in the nature of economic activity today.
When a child is asked “Where does food come from?” Back would
come the answer, “The refrigerator”! Obvious though this is, many
adults tend to adopt this erroneous line of thinking. The Christian

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2  GOD AND MONEY

answer is that “food comes from God”. However the roundabout

nature of production tempts us to forget God. There is a long supply
chain, starting with the growing of crops and animal husbandry in
farms. Then comes their processing and transportation to the port
and across oceans. Last but not least is the shop where the food is
retailed, and the home refrigerator in which the food is stored until
required.
In this long supply chain, money is used. We need to reflect
on how money is a social invention, a reflection on which is found
in chapter two. Through the use of money we can know the price of
everything though its intrinsic value is actually nothing.
We next need to reflect how the process of buying and
selling through the use of money enables production to expand,
as elaborated in chapter three. Money did this in speeding up a
growth in objective thinking, money itself being an object, such
objective thinking being behind the growth in output of goods and
services. Production expands through enterprises making of profits
using money. In chapter four, this process is shown to result in
unnecessary product differentiation, such that there is poverty in
the midst of abundance. Production is also expanded through the
use of technology paid for by the profits made. Chapter five reflects
on personhood being much more than technology.
Last but not least, production is expanded through corporate
life. Corporate life generates conflicts in values and can reduce our
personal life with God, as reflected in Chapter six. The conclusion
in chapter seven is that God is in money but money is not God. The
many gifts God gives to us (the use of money in pricing, the increase
in production from the use of money, the incentivisation through
money or profits being made in product differentiation, the use of
technology made possible through money and the corporatisation
of economic activity also largely through money) need to be
counterbalanced through gratitude and praise to God if they are
not to become the gods of our age.
Bob Goudzwaard in his book Idols Of Our Time5 identified
several ideologies as idols, namely, “the ideology of revolution”,
“the ideology of nation”, “the ideology of material prosperity” and
“the ideology of guaranteed security”. In much the same way many
aspects of economic life today can become our idols. The poor today
may see money as providing the little food they have and so may
worship money. It may however be easier for them not to worship
money since they have very little and are open to God speaking
 God and Money 3

to them. Those who are rich in contrast may see money as behind
everything they have and do not put God first at all.
Jesus went on to say that ‘Only with difficulty will a rich
person enter the kingdom of heaven’.6 When his disciples reacted
with astonishment, Jesus answered ‘With man this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible.’7 With an appreciation of who
God is, money and wealth need not be a god. It is God who gives,
and man should regard the long supply chain as a gift. Without
God, man will tend to view this chain as what he and mankind
himself generated. Human pride and greed change aspects of the
supply chain into false gods.

Nature Gods
In the past and in many agriculture-based societies today, there is
the acknowledgement that it is the fertile land, the sunshine and
the rain which enable food to be grown or cultivated. People thus
erroneously attributed abundant crops to the sun or climate or soil
and made gods out of them. The pages of the bible tell us of these
objects being worshipped, rather than the one true God.
Today God is hidden by the human pride and greed which can
arise from the long supply chain of today. Even though the chain is
long, God is there
• in the use of money for crops to be handled,
• in the accumulation of money as an asset
• the investment of money in the form of the technology used
in processing and transport,
• the incentivisation provided by money in product
differentiation
• the use of technology used in production, transport and
distribution and
• the corporatisation of money in the many enterprises which
enable food to be finally found in our refrigerator.

We need to see how God is behind the use of money in these

various ways so that it is God who ought to be praised. We need to
reflect on how man subverts the gifts of God by not placing limits on
the use and the expansion of these gifts. The rich can be saved, so
also the poor, as all of us tend to be seduced by the power of money.
Man has invented money in its various expressions, but it is God
who creates the food, clothing and shelter which we enjoy.
4  GOD AND MONEY

God as Creator
The first verse in the Bible stated that ‘In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth’ (Genesis 1:1). The word “create” means
that something is made from nothing. On this verse, the Christian
economist Donald Hay commented that “the word ‘creator’ is only
used of God in the Old Testament.” It means to bring something into
existence from nothing (his italics) and without an intermediary.
Furthermore, once it is brought into existence, it is sustained and
perfected by his word of power (Hebrews 1:3).8 Hay goes on to say
that:

“the doctrine of creation has three implications. First it

makes objective knowledge of the physical world possible.
God’s character is consistent, so is the world that he has
made. Second, the doctrine reminds us that it is God’s
world, not ours. He controls it by his word… Third, our
worship should be directed to the creator and not the
creation. A materialistic creed, or even materialism
itself, allows the created order to usurp the creator in our
affections and spiritual strivings.”9

As God created man in his image, man is enabled through God-

given objective wisdom and knowledge to know how to be a good
steward of God’s creation.

Man as Steward
Psalm 8:4-6 depicts man as God’s steward of God’s creation: “what is
man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care
for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly
beings and crowned him with glory and honour. You have given
him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things
under his feet…” These verses echo the words found in Genesis 2:15
“the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to
work it and keep it”. In this respect, Hay commented that though
the description of man’s dominion is in terms of subduing nature
and controlling it, yet

this is offset by language which speaks of respect of

nature, and an obligation to care for it… the action of
keeping and tilling a garden suggests care rather than
exploitation… man’s role in nature is not passive, but
 God and Money 5

involves tilling and keeping the garden. The naming of

animals may suggest some elements of intellectual effort
and scientific endeavor, as man seeks to understand, and
to differentiate, the various elements of his creation.10

The intellectual effort and scientific endeavour referred to by Hays

is expressed partly through the use of money in the various ways
listed above. However godly stewardship means that such effort
and endeavour is subordinate to the third implication that there
should be worship of the Creator.
For there to be such worship, man needs to have fellowship
with God. It is through such fellowship that man became a good
steward over the created order. However both the man and the
woman rebelled against God when they chose to be deceived by
Satan when Satan asked, “Did God actually say, ‘you shall not eat
of any tree in the garden?’ ”11 First the woman fell, then the man.12
Though man and woman represented the highest of the created
order, they fell from that position. They were both expelled from
the garden of Eden where they had been placed as stewards. The
stewardship which man exercises today is a fallen stewardship.

Fallen Stewardship as the Building of Cities

The narrative does not end with the expulsion. Man and woman
continued to transgress against God through their children
and many generations thereafter. One particular aspect of the
consequence of the fall is the construction of a city by Cain after he
had killed his brother Abel, this being particularly emphasised by
Jacques Ellul.13
Genesis 4:16-17 records the building of a city by Cain. “Then
Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the
land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain knew his wife, and she conceived
and bore Enoch. When he built a city he called the name of the city
after the name of his son, Enoch.” Hay commented that Cain first
perpetuated his life in the life of a child. Second, Cain searched for
security in the building of a city. Hay commented,

For the Eden of God, man substitutes his own constructed

environment. He constructs a new, relatively secure,
world. He realizes man’s wisdom in material form, bending
natural materials to his own ends.14
6  GOD AND MONEY

So great was the sin that emerged that God sent a flood to destroy all
life (Genesis 7:23-24). After the flood, God renewed his covenant with
Noah and his family (Genesis 9:1), the only ones found righteous.
From Noah came three sons, one of whom was Ham. Yet Hay goes
on to say that the role of the city emerges even more strongly in
the description of the work of Nimrod, the grandson of Ham, in
Genesis 10:6-12.15 A curse had been set on Ham that he will be a
servant and a slave (Genesis 9:25-27). Nimrod reacts to the curse
by seeking power in the building of cities: he is better understood
as a conqueror and plunderer. The city is the centre from which he
wages war: among the cities he builds is the city of Babel (Babylon).
God then acted in destroying the unity of purpose, as expressed in
Babel, of rebellion against God. The multiplicity of languages that
resulted destroyed communication between people and once again,
people are scattered and became wanderers as Cain was.
Today we also attempt to construct what seems to us a
relatively secure world through the use of money not only to
facilitate exchange but also to expand production. Today’s cities are
more much elaborate than those in the time of Cain: they involve
the use of money, markets, technology and corporatisation. We need
to reflect that we should not repeat the construction of man-made
worlds against the God who creates all matter.

Renewal of the Covenant

Today you and I are descendants of the Noah who obeyed God. God
renewed his covenant with man by the injunction given to Noah: “Be
fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…every moving thing that
lives shall be food for you” (Genesis 9:1,3). Man and woman have
indeed multiplied and today human beings number over 7 billion
on the same earth God created many centuries ago. This itself is
a miracle. How can the same planet earth today support so many
times the eight persons that were in the ark with Noah?
Much of the answer lies in the construction of cities. Today about
60% of the world population is housed in cities. Cities contain within
themselves the use of money in facilitating exchange, together with
a complex differentiation of goods and services, the use of money
in incentivising production, the application of technology and the
widespread corporatisation of economic activity, again through
the use of money. Economic activity has now become highly man-
centred through a long supply chain. Yet without God, there would
 God and Money 7

not be anything that is created. The enjoyment and sustaining of

what God created requires us to put God first, not man.
God created planet Earth.

Planet Earth
Planet Earth is the only object in the universe known to harbour life.
It is the densest planet in the solar system. Most people up to the
16th century believed earth to be stationary and at the centre of the
universe. In the 17th century Galileo Galilei and others developed
an understanding of physics that led to the gradual acceptance of
the idea that the earth moves around the sun. The invention of
the telescope led to the discovery of other planets and moons. The
nearest star to the earth is the sun. From the sun, the earth gets the
energy to sustain life, though its distance from the earth is equal to
(1.496x10)8 km. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye from
earth during the night.
These appear as a multitude of fixed luminous points in the sky
due to their immense distance from the earth. The motion of the sun
against the background stars (and the horizon) was used to create
calendars which were used to regulate agricultural practices16. Our
sun as a star belongs to the Milky Way Galaxy or constellation of
stars called the Milky Way. Yet recent estimates of the number
of galaxies in the observable universe range from 200 billion to 3
trillion or more! There are more stars than the grains of sand on
planet earth. No wonder the psalmist exclaimed, “When I look at
your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of
him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4).
God also created the human being in a human body.

The Human Body

The human body is made up of cells, the building blocks of life, more
than 10 trillion (1012) of them being in a human body. There are
more cells in the human body than there are galaxies! Psalm 139
truly states that “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made” (Psalm 139:14). Yet the human being is more than a human
body. God breathed into the body and gave His life into it. “Then
the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living
8  GOD AND MONEY

creature” (Genesis 2:7).

This verse comes before Genesis 2:1517 which emphasises the
responsibility of man towards the created order. When God breathed
into Adam his life, it means that Adam is the image of God, which
is what the first account of creation states, in Genesis 1:27 “in the
image of God (God) created him.”

Created in the Image of God

The fact that we are made in the image of God means that we can
relate to, and be accountable to God. It is to God then that we must
turn to discover how we can be proper stewards of God’s created
order. Man needs first to know who God is, in order to properly
exercise dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the
heavens and over every living thing that moves on this earth18.
Without knowing God, man may lapse into seeing his exercise
of stewardship as if it was an act of creation, and so he credits to
himself the growing and the harvesting of crops, their transport and
sale in urban centres and so on. Man ends up in the mistaken belief
that food comes from the refrigerator. Without a consciousness of
God, we tend to carry out our responsibility as workers, managers,
savers and investors, as accountability only to other human beings.
We are indeed accountable to other persons, but more important is
our primary accountability to God as the creator and preserver of
the created order. Secondary is our accountability to other persons.
To whom can we turn to in order to be a good steward?

God as Sustainer
A good model is God Himself. God in his infinite wisdom did not
create only to let what was created run down or disintegrate. His act
of creation included that of permitting what was created to sustain
the created order. Hence we talk of the oxygen or the nitrogen cycle.
Leaves fall only to fertilise the soil from where new plants can grow
with new leaves. Nature through death contains within itself the
seeds for new life. Water evaporates into clouds which bring rain
somewhere else. Even human waste enters into a nitrogen cycle.
Good stewardship involves recognising the existence of these
cycles so that we work with nature, and not against it. We are not
just to produce from the earth what we need in material terms. We
need also to replenish it so that planet Earth will continue to sustain
many more generations to come. God as sustainer complements
 God and Money 9

God the creator in the capacity of God to rejoice in what has been
created. The most important day in creation is the seventh day. We
read in the Genesis account that at the end of each day, God said
that it was good. However God said that it was very good at the end
of the sixth day. On that day God made man in God’s image.
On the seventh day God rested. Man too must rest and give
thanks to God. That day we do not see the repetition of the phrase
“there was evening and there was morning”. The seventh day is a
continuous day of resting in the enjoyment of what God created.
We work and exercise stewardship in order that we can praise God,
in the same way that God the steward fellowships with God the
creator in the seventh day, the day of rest.
God creates but God also rests. So too us, from week to week.
The Sabbath calls us to such an act. If we do not, we will lapse into
taking pride in what we have done as stewards, and forget that the
more important act, that of creation, is done by God. God created
man to be a living soul, to have a relationship with God in the
exercise of man’s stewardship of what God has created. Fellowship
with God is what is primarily important. Good stewardship is
merely part of that fellowship.