Investing – The Lowedown

Matthew 6

¹⁹“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. ²¹Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.

²²“Your eye is a lamp for your body. A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul. ²³But an evil eye shuts out the light and plunges you into darkness. If the light you think you have is really darkness, how deep that darkness will be!

²⁴“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. (Matthew 6:19-24, NLT)

The Daily DAVEotional

What does Jesus think about money and wealth?

Many insist that Jesus condemned wealth. Numerous passages are cited as proof that Jesus was a wealth buster. This passage is among them.

The argument that this passage condemns wealth goes something like this:

- Jesus clearly teaches that we are NOT to store up treasures (i.e. money/possessions) on earth because those things have no eternal value. Instead, we should focus our efforts on storing up treasures in heaven.
- Furthermore, Jesus warned that wherever our treasure is our heart will be also. So if we are storing up treasures on earth, then our heart will be focused on earthly things, whereas if our treasures are stored in heaven, then our heart will be focused on heavenly, or spiritual things.
- Hence, Jesus clearly is teaching against earthly wealth.

I’ve written many blog posts on this issue, arguing that the Bible does not condemn wealth or the rich. This includes Jesus. Some of the more pertinent “wealth-condemning” passages are addressed here (Luke 12), here (1 Timothy 6), and here (Ecclesiastes 5).

As is the case in those other passages, this passage, though using money (or treasures) as a context, is actually addressing a deeper issue.

This passage is addressing the issue of what we invest in. The question being posed is how exactly will we orient our lives?

On the one hand, we can orient our lives to pursue material possessions. This attitude is known as materialism.

Materialism is an ideology or an attitude that elevates material possessions above all else. Similar to being greedy, a person who is materialistic attempts to accumulate as many material goods as possible, seeking security, pleasure and even status through the things they own.

If you’re a person who lived through the 1980’s, you may remember a popular bumper sticker from that decade that read:

“He who dies with the most toys wins!”

This bumper sticker accurately and succinctly summarizes the main premise of materialism, that somehow, the main goal in life is to accumulate things, as if we’re all playing a giant game of Monopoly.

Jesus warns against this approach. When he talks about “storing up treasures on earth” I can’t help but think of someone who owns every new gadget and gizmo and even enjoys flaunting his innumerable toys to others.

In ancient times, one of the ways people flaunted their wealth and promoted their status was through their clothing. People didn’t have luxury cars they could drive around to show off their status, and they didn’t have the plethora of clothing options that we have today. But it was possible to have expensive clothes (see Matthew 11:8).

Jesus is saying that expensive clothes can be eaten by moths and rust can destroy fancy jewelry. Furthermore, any treasured item can be stolen. Of what value is it then?

The alternative to an ideology of materialism is to be kingdom-minded. Jesus urges His listeners to store up for themselves “treasures in heaven”. What exactly does that mean?

Jesus is talking about investing our time, our money, our very lives into things that will not be destroyed….EVER.

There are only 3 things that will last forever: God, His Word, and people. Therefore, it makes sense to invest our time and our treasure (money) into things that will have eternal impact – things that will make an eternal difference.

So Jesus is not saying wealth is bad and he’s certainly not condemning people who are rich. What he is condemning is materialism – the attitude that by hoarding material possessions, I will somehow experience purpose, meaning and fulfillment in life.

Jesus says that “where your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.” He also says that we cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve both God and money.

It turns out that materialism is self-defeating. If you make it your focus to accumulate things, then those things will ultimately become your focus. Essentially, it will become an idol in your life, squeezing God out of His rightful place at the center of your life.

So we have a choice. We can live by the bumper sticker adage that “He who dies with the most toys wins”, reveling in our many possessions while flaunting our status to others. Or we can recognize the futility of that approach, and choose to follow the suggestion of Jesus by serving God and living in such a way that our lives impact others for eternity.

Jesus reminds us that our earthly possessions don’t last and therefore are of no value to us in the next life.

As the rival 1980’s bumper sticker retorted,

“He who dies with the most toys still dies.”

Reflection

How would you respond to someone who says that Jesus is against money and wealth?

Based on this passage, what do you think is the purpose or value of owning things?

Jesus is speaking against materialism, the idea that material possessions will bring meaning, security and even success. Do you think materialism is something that only wealthy people struggle with? Explain.

What do you think are some practical steps a person can take to avoid materialism?

What are some of the ways our culture promotes materialism?

What are some practical ways a person can “store up treasures in heaven”?

Photo by Dave Lowe

Ecclesiastes 11

²Divide your gifts among many, for you do not know what risks might lie ahead. (Ecclesiastes 11:2, NLT)

The Daily DAVEotional

The Bible has a lot to say about money and wealth. Despite what many people in our culture think today, the Bible doesn’t condemn wealth or making money. Actually, Jesus himself encourages the wise steward to multiply the resources entrusted to him/her by God and to seek to make a profit. I’ve written a number of blog posts on the subject of whether wealth is immoral. You can read my previous posts here, here and here. Additionally, I wrote about God’s stance towards the rich here.

Though the Bible encourages people to make a profit and to multiply their financial resources, it doesn’t give a lot of guidance on how exactly we’re supposed to do that. When it comes to investing, the Bible has little to say that will yield any specific steps or strategies to guide us.

There is one verse however, that gives some financial wisdom on the topic of investing, and it’s found in Ecclesiastes 11:2.

In this verse, Solomon tells us to divide our “gifts” among many in order to hedge against risk.

What’s he talking about?

I like the way the NIV states this verse. It says it this way:

²Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land. (Ecclesiastes 11:2, NIV)

In this verse, Solomon is encouraging the reader to divide his investments into 7 or 8 different portions. Essentially, he’s encouraging the reader to diversify their assets in order to hedge against a potential disaster.

I found a blog post by Alice A. Anacioco to be especially helpful. She explains this passage this way:

You may be surprised to read King Solomon offering financial counsel as he nears the end of Ecclesiastes. But accordingly, Solomon was deeply involved in international trades with merchants. And just like today, one of the main trade commodities was grain.

The merchants of Solomon’s day would load their grains on ships and send them off. But instead of loading all of their grains in just one ship, he tells his merchants to put them in several ships and send them out in a diversified way so that if one of the ships should sink, he would not lose everything.

The main advice the Bible gives when it comes to investing is to diversify your investments. The idea is to spread your money out among different types of assets so that if one type of asset is negatively impacted by an economic event, the other assets may be unaffected and as a result, the entire portfolio will not be completely devastated.

Be careful though. Many people assume they are following this advice because they have placed their investment money into mutual funds. Many financial advisors will advise their clients to diversify their stock portfolio among many different stocks so that if one company performs badly, the positive performances of the other stocks may shield the portfolio from being completely torpedoed.

Mutual funds provide some level of inherent diversity because a mutual fund is already a portfolio of many stocks. Hence, if one company within the fund goes down, other companies may go up and thus the value of the fund may go up as well despite the poor performance of one or a few companies.

But being invested in a number of stocks or even mutual funds does not mean you are diversified. To truly be diversified and hedged against disastrous economic events, one needs to have their funds invested in different asset classes altogether.

Think about it. Stocks and mutual funds are part of the same asset class. When the market crashed in 2000 due to the dotcom bubble bursting, many people who had all their money in the stock market had their entire portfolio decimated. Again, in 2008 when the market crashed as a result of the real estate bubble bursting, many who were “diversified” because they owned many different stocks or mutual funds took major hits to their bottom line.

I have heard and seen too many stories of people who had their entire nest egg cut in half or worse by one of these two market events. And for those who were in retirement when it happened, the results have been disastrous. There simply is no time to rebound from these market crashes when you’re already taking disbursements during retirement.

Solomon’s advice is basically “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. So if you really want to diversify, don’t have all your money in stocks and mutual funds. Invest in other assets as well (such as real estate, precious metals, commodities, etc.) That way, if the stock market crashes, as it inevitably will do, only a portion of your entire portfolio will be affected. And who knows, even while the market is crashing, perhaps the other assets will be unaffected or even increase. You may find that you are gaining overall instead of losing it all.

Reflection

What is or has been your investing strategy?

What steps have you taken or are you taking to diversify your financial portfolio?

Besides stocks and mutual funds, what are some other asset classes you could invest in to begin to create a truly diversified portfolio?

Photo by Precondo CA on Unsplash