My Thoughts on Money (a Christian view)
The below is the transcript for my seminar talk I gave on 20/03/2022 at my church, Macquarie Baptist Church. I have also used similar variations of this talk at West Sydney Chinese Christian Church; Gracepoint Presbyterian Church; and Chinese and Australian Baptist Church - West Ryde. To be clear, these are just my views of money as informed by my understanding of the Bible. Whilst some of my views have evolved since 2022, not a lot has changed principally. Open to feedback as always…
The original slide intro page I used for my church seminar talk back in Mar 2022
“There are more idols in the world than there are realities” – Friedrich Nietzsche (Philosopher).
Thank you Tim Blencowe (Senior Pastor from Macquarie Baptist Church) for inviting me to speak today on a topic that is close to my heart, given my voluntary role serving in our church’s investment committee, stewarding the church’s capital (or money) with the rest of the team members for our church’s future.
To start us off I have a question for you all. How many people here invest in stocks? How many have made money? How many have lost money?
I came here today as a Christian practitioner from the world of investing, to talk about a topic that is often taboo in church. Money.
Personal website plug - tell them to check it out: https://michaelli.io/
The need for financial stewardship
With the absence of God growing in Western culture, the 1800s philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that we humans would replace God with money. That doesn’t look so far from the truth when you think about it today. The danger with money is that the developed world often perceives the more money you have as being more successful. It seems like an innocent enough endeavour…
However, Jesus talks more about money than any other topic in the Bible. In fact, 11 of 39 parables from Jesus talk about money!
For example, in Luke 12:15, Jesus says “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Money is an inevitable part of our reality as Christians who live in this broken world.
I’ve seen the worst of money. The example that comes to mind recently was when I read in the Wall St Journal on 17 June 2020, a 20-year-old Robinhood customer in the US suiciding because of a negative $700k balance they saw in their account from trading options in the stock market… Whilst that’s an extreme example, hopefully, it reveals to you why we need to be careful with money... I took that personally as an investor myself.
We desperately need God’s word to inform us, so that we know how to biblically approach money.
There are 4 actions I want to discuss today as it relates to money. Giving, saving, spending, and investing.
(1) Giving
What does the Bible say about giving?
All money is God’s money. That seems like a no brainer for most Christians. Yet it is hard to overlook the many ways that Christians have displayed poor stewardship of their God given gifts.
Read James 1:16-17, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
Giving honours God because it rightly values money as a gift that he has given to us.
It is right to give to the work of the local church and its extended ministries, for Paul wrote to the Philippian church that “the gifts you sent” were a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God (Philippians 4:18).
Paul directly encouraged giving to support those who work in leading and teaching the church (1 Timothy 5:17-18). Elsewhere he also told the Corinthian Christians that they should “strive to excel in building up the church” (1 Corinthians 14:12), and surely that applies to the giving that Christians do to support the work of the church.
So how should we think about giving?
The Christian has freedom to decide what causes to give to and how much they want to give.
There are many great causes to give to and there is freedom to choose where that money should go. It is certainly good to give to the ministry work at your local church, to support your pastors and those who are leading and doing the work of teaching (1 Corinthians 14:12).
It is also great to support other church related organisations, like university campus ministries, mission agencies, Christian colleges, and the like. These organisations all play a great role in advancing the work of the Kingdom.
In many of my own personal giving endeavours (e.g. Macquarie Baptist Church, City Bible Forum, Campus Bible Study, etc), I automate it through my CBA bank account on a regular basis, and I’ve found it easier over the years to give more when I set things up automatically.
Again, we as Christians have the freedom to decide what causes to give to and how much you want to give and the ONLY motivation for giving is willing generosity, from the heart, for the cause of Christ.
There is simply no number of percentage to apply. As soon as we name a percentage, even if we call it a “principle" or a “guide", we create a legalistic bar for people to somehow try to measure themselves against.
Christians are called to give generously, cheerfully and consistently.
Give with a cheerful heart – that is what pleases God the most. If the amount you are giving is causing you to give with a sense of unwillingness and hesitation, you are free in your heart to decide how much you are able to give (see 2 Corinthians 9:7).
However, learn to trust in God that He is able to produce in you a generous heart by His sufficient, transforming grace, to empower you to give abundantly in every good work (2 Corinthians 9:7-8). If by God’s grace, the impoverished Macedonians were able to joyfully give what little they had, then God is certainly able to help you “excel in this grace of giving” (2 Corinthians 8:7).
The apostle Paul also taught all his churches to establish a regular rhythm of giving (see 1 Corinthians 16:1-2). By implication this means we as Christians should also set up regular payments to our churches to demonstrate our love and commitment to our pastors who care for our souls.
Here’s an example with a ministry trainee at UNSW that I give to regularly.
I’ve had the privilege of a friend read the Bible with me back in 2014 in high school during Thursday lunch times, and he used to tell me about his wishes to do Christian ministry even then. He’s now in his final year of ministry traineeship. I knew his heart was in a good place with mission and I was very cheerful to give regularly to my friend when he asked.
Giving is a tremendous blessing.
God calls us to give because He invites us to participate in the advancement of His heavenly kingdom. Through our wise stewardship of His resources, we get to witness the kingdom grow in miraculous ways: more un-evangelised souls get to know Christ, to become disciples of Christ, and to grow in spiritual maturity to be more like Christ.
So I’ve been part of City Bible Forum since 2019, and they run a program called Headstart on Monday nights during school terms for Christian young workers. I witnessed people at Headstart bring their non-Christian colleagues, and I witnessed the tireless work that the organisers put in every week to make the show run for the 100+ zoom attendees every Monday night. It was a blessing to support City Bible Forum.
What a joy it is to invest in ministries to see others know and grow to be like Jesus! This is why he said “It is better to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
King Solomon also understood the blessing of self-sacrificial giving when he writes that as ‘one man gives freely, yet gains even more… The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself.” Yes, those who give will receive, too. (Proverbs 11:24-25).
As an investor, I cannot help but see things through the lens of investing. I find that a healthy way of looking at “giving” is to see this action as investing in God’s kingdom, and every day I feel blessed to have the capital to be able to do this, and I hope some of you can see that for yourselves too.
(2) Saving
What does the Bible say about saving?
Some Christians are sceptical about saving, since they believe that storing money reflects an idolatrous and ungenerous heart that places money above God.
Matthew 6:24 says “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
Conversely, some are driven to spend every cent that they make in the name of “faithful stewardship” because they worry saving will mean no money for churches, missionaries, etc.
However, the Bible does teach us that saving is a good activity that all wise Christians should do.
When Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of the entire country of Egypt (Genesis 41:41), he quickly got to work storing all the grain during the “seven plentiful years” in preparation for the seven years of severe famine ahead (Genesis 41:56-57). Joseph’s wise decision to save all the food as in their storehouses over those seven years provided sustenance for the whole country and even for the neighbouring countries who were impacted by the famine. Egypt never fell into a food crisis and the lineage of Jacob was preserved – a fruitful decision that was made by a man who was “discerning and wise” (41:33) and in whom “the Spirit of God” dwelt (41:38).
Joseph was no 21st century fund manager, but he certainly was wise with the idea of saving.
Saving is a wise activity to do, and Christians can save for the future in a manner where their hearts align with God and not with money.
So how should we think about saving?
Saving money for unforeseen circumstances is wise practice.
Life is often unpredictable. Many of us will experience moments in our lives where we may be unable to work for various reasons, whether it is deciding later on to commence further studies or being made redundant.
Since we cannot know what the future holds, it would be wise to reserve some savings in the bank to prepare for these contingencies, in order to continue to “be dependent on no one” (1 Thessalonians 4:12).
My sister wisely and regularly kept money aside in an “emergency fund” in the event of “disasters”. During COVID in April 2020, she lost her optometry job for several months, but had to continue paying for rent, childcare, groceries, etc. Thankfully she had enough funds to financially support herself for the next few months, until she could return to work again part time. This is definitely wisdom in saving for unforeseen circumstances.
Saving money in order to make big purchases that we couldn’t afford otherwise, is wise too.
Proverbs 13:11 says that “wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.”
When I was in primary school, my mum used to give me 10c every time I did a “chore”. Back then, I thought 10c was a lot… I wanted a Nintendo DS back then, which cost ~$200 (not adjusted for inlation!). So being the “fund manager” kid that I was, I estimated I needed to do ~2000 chores for my mum. So, if you divide that by 365 days, that implies I needed to do ~5.5 chores per day consistently for a year, to save up for my NDS.
I did that, and finally got my NDS and I eventually got pretty addicted with Mario Kart… But the point of that example was in hindsight, my mum had taught me that making big purchases often requires discipline and patience in saving.
Another point to consider is to acknowledge the risks with borrowing money.
Whilst the Bible does not prohibit borrowing, borrowing can place borrowers in rather compromising positions where they lose a bit of their freedom to use their money for other purposes (see Proverbs 22:7).
To that end, I avoid debt where at all possible. I have no credit cards, and unlike some friends I know, I avoid taking out loans to buy stocks in the stock market. I also don’t Afterpay even though I invested in that stock ironically. That’s not saying you should avoid debt altogether, but be wise in discerning why you are borrowing money in the first place and understand if the purchase warrants borrowing.
Always examine whether you are saving for treasures on earth or heaven.
I cannot do this talk without acknowledging the sheer power that money possesses. No one is immune to greed. In our society, it is often tempting to save far beyond what is necessary, and to rationalise our stingy saving as “faithful stewardship” of God’s resources.
That is why we must examine our heart carefully, as Matthew 6:21 reminds us “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.
What I do when ensuring that I’m saving wisely, is to recognise that every saving decision is a God decision.
A question that friends often come to me for advice on as the supposed “finance guru”, is “how much should I save?” I typically answer by asking back the question, “why are you saving?” Ultimately these kinds of saving decisions boil down to what your “motive” as a Christian is. Is it to save so that you can be a missionary later? Is it to save so that you can pay off your university debt? Is it to save so you can have your 20th overseas holiday? It takes the Holy Spirit to guide you in being honest about what your motive is with saving.
Practically, I find doing a pros vs cons table on a big purchase you’re saving for could also be helpful to rationalise your thoughts objectively.
Have long and short-term priorities when it comes to saving.
I find a good way to think about savings is breaking it down into the long-term and short-term.
My first priority is always saving for God’s kingdom, i.e., money for church, mission, organisations, etc. Second is long-term savings, so thinking about retirement fund (i.e., superannuation), university or other higher education, etc. Third is then short-term savings, like an emergency fund, so perhaps 3-6 months of regular spending you’d need to live. After that, I prioritise spending and investing. There is no perfect answer but praying to God and surrounding yourself with wise brothers and sisters to counsel and support you helps.
I rely on 2 mentors to keep me in check when it comes to my motives for saving money and not being carried away by temptations that often come with saving. I meet them every half year at a minimum, and I often discuss any problems I am having with saving. For me, it’s often temptations in the heart of saving too much and not giving enough. Having 2 older Christian brothers in the same industry as me who keep me accountable helps immensely. I am a big supporter of having mentors.
(3) Spending
What does the Bible say about spending?
I’m going to read 3 Bible verses:
Proverbs 21:17 – “Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.”
Proverbs 21:20 – “Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.”
Proverbs 29:3 – “He who loves wisdom makes his father glad, but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth.”
Notice the verbs in those above passages, like “devouring” and “squandering”. God wants us to spend wisely and not squander.
So how should we think about spending?
Christians should spend and avoid being stingy or hoarding.
In 1 Timothy 6:17, “God richly provides us with everything to enjoy”. We are told to enjoy what we spend.
Furthermore, we must spend something to provide for ourselves food, clothing, shelter, and other things. When people work, they earn wages, and in that way, they gain money to spend on necessities for their lives (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12).
I’m definitely a culprit of stinginess. If you grew up in a Chinese family, you’re taught to only buy things on discount at Coles/Woolworths. The irony is that I’ve seen Chinese parents buy things they don’t really need, but bought anyway because they had a “50% off discount tag”.
At work in the pre-COVID days, there was a Suncorp food court next to my office in Wynyard where I used to order the same $7 teriyaki chicken rice bowl every day. My colleagues were quick to point out it wasn’t the healthiest option, even if I was saving a few dollars here and there… In hindsight, that was an unhealthy diet.
I’ve now upgraded to eating salads that cost a little more, like $12 in the Stock Market and $10 taco bowls from GYG. I’m open to other ideas for lunch if anybody has any!
The lesson here is to not be too stingy to the point that it detrimentally affects other areas of your life, or friends and family around you. I feel a lot more healthy now that I’m eating a variety of lunches and spending just a bit more to stay healthy. Spend wisely.
Christians have freedom to decide how much we spend on ourselves.
Should you spend $50 on a basic table from Ikea? Or should you spend over $600 on a motorised standing table? How do we determine whether an item is an absolute need or simply an excessive want? The answer is, it depends.
What I can say is that Christians have freedom to choose how they spend their money on goods and services for their personal use and enjoyment. Therefore, on matters that are not expressly forbidden in Scripture, we cannot pass judgment on our fellow brothers and sisters whom we perceive to have made some rather questionable purchases with their God-given money – let God be the judge of that (see Romans 14:12-16).
An example here is my need to have both an Xbox S and a PS5 early in 2021. Some people may think this isn’t necessarily the best use of my capital. But I spent ~$1200 to buy those gaming consoles because we own Microsoft and Sony shares in the fund at Antipodes and these purchases were believe it or not, for research. Of course, that doesn’t mean after I researched and compared the specs and user interface/experience of both consoles, I just threw it away. I now play Rocket League on my PS5, and I discovered soccer with cars is actually really fun.
We won’t always understand the reasons why others make particular purchases. So, we generally refrain from judging them, lest we fall into a sort of legalistic lifestyle where we start placing limits on what we can and can’t spend on. There is no scriptural evidence that God has prescribed on spending limits. And that is liberating. Imagine if you couldn’t buy a PC, phone, or car?!
Your spending decisions reflect what you most care about.
That’s another no-brainer. In fact, 99% of my spending in clothes goes to Uniqlo for their basic colours and stock standard shirts and pants. I read Mark Zuckerberg stocks his wardrobe with only a grey shirt, and blue jeans which he wears daily to avoid wasting time on picking clothes to wear.
In a similar way, I buy and wear the same clothes from Uniqlo consistently to ensure the same thing. What that likely says about me, is I value time. Though my mum who used to work at GAP would say it also means I have no fashion sense…
When you scan through your bank statements, what are your biggest purchases? And what do they reveal about what you value? What you do with every cent says something about what God means to you.
How we spend our money can be a witness for God.
I’m not saying living for Christ and living luxuriously are two mutually exclusive pursuits. However, what we adorn ourselves with communicates what we most treasure. And as living ambassadors for Christ, this is something we need to think seriously about.
The apostle Peter instructs women to not let their adornment be merely external, but to let them show their beauty by their godly character (see 1 Peter 3:2-5). Peter does not prohibit the braiding of hair or wearing of jewellery, but he makes a clear general point that the most effective method of witnessing to Christ for women, especially in the context of witnessing to their unbelieving husbands, is how one conducts themselves in a godly manner.
Do your friends find it difficult to distinguish between whether you care more about the gospel or your lavish lifestyle? If so, would you consider giving up your Christian freedom to spend loosely on pleasures, in order to make less of yourself, and make more of the risen Christ who has given you all the riches of the world?
I’m going to take you all back to the late 1800s, to a man I admire, John Rockefeller, who was the richest man in the modern world with ~US$423b in net worth (and it’s not Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos just yet, if you adjust for inflation). He’s often cited as the man who built America.
He was the owner of Standard Oil, which at its peak controlled 90% of the US oil refining market. Back then oil was the most important commodity for cars, lamps, heating, etc.
What amazed me most when I dug into researching about Rockefeller, outside of all the noise of him being a hated monopolist, was that he was a man of great faith in God, who attended church on Sunday, also teaching Sunday school, as well as doing prayer meetings on Friday nights.
He also gave millions of dollars that he made, to churches and missionaries. And when journalists hoped to find an extravagant lifestyle that they could expose, you could imagine they ran into a proverbial brick wall. He lived a very modest life and made time for his family despite being the richest man in the world.
(4) Investing
What does the Bible say about investing?
I met my mentor Albert Hung, back in 2017, thanks to my dad connecting me to him as a church friend. He has played a pivotal role in my life since then, inspiring me to leave my job as a cadet in Deloitte after 3 years, then encouraging me to take a risk in my last year of university to intern at his fund, and after gaining work experience I landed my current job as an Investment Analyst now at Antipodes.
So back then, I met him for yumcha in North Sydney and asked a naïve question, which was “why does God need investors?”
His answer was that God had entrusted us as investors to allocate other people’s capital to its highest and best use in God’s world, into businesses that achieve this outcome.
In the Bible, stewardship is the fulfilment of God’s mandate to fill the earth, subdue it, work it, and care for it (Genesis 1:28-30, Genesis 2:15).
God’s original creation is shown in Genesis as a garden filled with plants and animals and people in perfect communion with God. The garden is good, but it is not meant to stay unchanged forever. When the Bible looks ahead to the fulfillment of God’s creation it shows us a world filled with people from every nation praising God.
In Revelations 21, we see they are no longer in a garden, but a city with foundations, walls, gates, tree-lined streets, iron, gold, domesticated animals, and merchant ships. This development of creation from a garden to a city filled with people and their cultural elements is the conclusion of God’s mandate to fill the earth, subdue it, work it and care for it.
Allocating resources well over time so that they grow is vital to fulfilling this creation mandate. I can think of many examples of how investing helps humans obey God’s creation mandate.
A personal example is my investment I have made in Sydney Science College, which is Sydney’s first STEM private high school. I knew the co-principals because they were originally my tutors for chemistry and physics back in 2013-14. A lot of students gave feedback on wishing the current education system of Australia could change for the better. So the principals got a licence from NESA to start a school back in 2019, and they raised capital from close friends and families, including myself, and we now have 25 students attending in years 11/12.
Without investing, people would live each day with only the resources they themselves have accumulated without other people’s capital. The economic growth humanity has experienced over the centuries would not be possible without willing investors. Things we take for granted, like Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint we produce stuff on, to the iPhones and Mac Books we use every day to communicate and stay connected. Notice that Microsoft and Apple were stocks that needed investors in the public market to become what they are today…
So how should we think about investing?
It is good to invest your money where it can benefit other people.
I would recommend Christians to consider how their savings can play a role in enabling businesses to deliver goods and services for customers and providing jobs for people.
My mentor often cites the Parable of the Talents, where the wicked servant was obliged to, at the very least, invest his master’s money in the bank in order to accumulate some interest (Matthew 25:27).
Depositing money into the bank vault means that banks can lend more money to other people, who will use that money for productive and beneficial activities. It’s much better than just burying it in the ground for nobody to enjoy… Arguably, investing is productive.
Investing is not gambling.
First of all, there is always risk no matter what you do with your money. You bury it, and it could rot. You can hide it under your bed, but your house may burn down. You can put it in the bank, but the banks may fail, and the government that insures it may fail. Put it in stocks with differing philosophies of principle protection, and they all may go bankrupt.
Investing means letting another person use your money for enterprises that you believe contribute to the common good, while gambling means supporting a system that is counterproductive to the common good and is especially destructive for the poor.
Investing is not usually an all-or-nothing kind of risk. You may lose part of what you invest and pull out, while in gambling ordinarily all is lost, or something is gained.
Investing lets you choose your degree of risk with greater clarity and probability than most gambling actions do.
I can definitely attest to that at Antipodes Partners, when we say “investing”. We spend weeks researching a company, talking to management, competitors, customers, suppliers, then building models to value the company. What separates us from gambling is that we follow an investment process strictly and don’t deviate from it…
There is nothing wrong with investing in the stock market in and of itself. Even if your top priority is maximising returns in the stock market. But the question you should ask yourself then if this is so, is where are your true motivations? Are you trusting money more than God?
The way Paul puts it is that “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:17-19)
Never invest in what you know is evil.
By example, I don’t invest personally in stocks that I know are outright evil by the nature of their business model. I don’t invest in tobacco companies or gambling companies for example.
But how can we trust that the investment industry is not also a system of evil in the same way that a casino is?
You cannot know that… But that’s true of every dollar you spend in the marketplace. Any grocery store may be running a racket behind the scenes. Any petrol station you fill up at may be ripping off customers with machines that are set falsely. Any clothing chain may exploit foreign workers where you get your shirt. Any company you invest in may support causes you deplore like gambling, smoking, etc.
I would say the rule is to do the due diligence you can before you invest. Listen, observe, question. Never invest in what you know is evil in your heart. Let the Holy Spirit guide you here.
But any thought that none of our spending and none of our investing will be misused by others is totally naive. You’re not responsible for all that somebody might do to misuse your money any more than a salt manufacturer is responsible for high blood pressure, or that a car manufacturer is responsible for all car accidents.
Pray before you invest in anything.
In 2016, I led Sunday school for a group of year 8 and 9 teenagers in a church in Hurstville and we covered the book of James.
I’m reminded of James 5:16, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
In early 2020, stock markets around the world crashed 30-35% in a matter of a few weeks. Antipodes’ funds under management at the time, went from $9b to $7b within 2 weeks. I figured if this kept going for another 8 weeks we’d be out of money.
It was an incredibly stressful time for all professional investors including myself, given the market was selling off from fears of COVID slowing down the economy.
One night, I was out in my balcony, and I thought about James 5:16 and I prayed to God to give me the confidence to trust in him no matter what the outcome was for me. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know God holds the future.
I slept that night, and the next day, I was inspired with the peace to trust in God. I spoke with my team and we rationalised that a lot of software, internet and media stocks like Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Sony, etc were undervalued and unfairly punished for what in hindsight makes now total sense that people would be working from home, buying stuff online, interacting with friends virtually, and playing video games at home.
God had given me an almost once-in-a-decade event (since the GFC in 2007-08) to invest in high-quality companies that would support the world in lockdown, and that would benefit from the COVID pandemic for attractively cheap prices. The rest was history.
From then on, I have continued to pray every day in my workplace, and before any investment decision I make. To be clear, I don’t pray that God will make me money from my investment, but rather I pray for wisdom like King Solomon, that I can make a wise decision that glorifies God ultimately in the capital He has entrusted with me.
(5) Conclusion
I’ve covered the need for financial stewardship, and the 4 dimensions we can think about money today, namely when it comes to giving, saving, spending, and investing.
Our reputation as witnesses for Christ is on the line. How are we showing that Christ is our greatest treasure by the way we give, save, spend, and invest? For where your treasure is, there your heart is also.
I just want to end with this quote from the businessman I admire, John Rockefeller, the richest man that the modern world has ever seen so far. He wasn’t perfect, but I think he understood that only Jesus was perfect.
He said, “There is nothing in this world that can compare with the Christian fellowship; nothing that can satisfy but Christ”.
I believe the power to make money is a gift from God - just as are the instincts for art, music, literature, the doctor’s talent, the nurse’s, yours - to be developed and used to the best of our ability for the good of mankind. - John D Rockefeller, in “Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr” (2004).
