What is money and success all about? What is success, and how do you and I live it? As Christian men and women, we need to get this right. There’s a lot at stake, and as a friend of mine used to say, “We don’t have much time.” If there is one penultimate question in life, it might be, “What is the secret of a successful life?” We can chase the meaning of success by pursuing the opinions of men, and we can spend a lifetime pursuing success by trial and error, or we can learn what God thinks about success and live it. This book examines the Bible to learn what God thinks about money and success. The author does not jump to conclusions, but sets aside all the secular arguments to analyze exactly what the Bible teaches us about success, money, and happiness. You just might be surprised to find out how much God wants you to succeed.

A Christian can stand on the right side of money and success where it is a means to live and support a family and facilitates service to God with humility and honor. This is where peace and contentment is found, and a deep sense of joy. Family relationships thrive in this environment, and children grow up prepared to live an honorable life with biblical priorities. In the long term, the rewards are great for generations.

On the other hand, a Christian can stand on the wrong side of money and success, and chase fame and fortune their whole lives. The script does not end well for such a person in this life or the next.

The subject of money (and its companion success) is either the first or the second biggest problem for nearly all Christians . . . throughout the millennia. I don’t have to tell you what the other problem area is. Arguably sex is money’s biggest competitor for the most destructive sin in human history. The reality is these two typically go hand-in-hand, meaning those who chase money with a passion also spend their dark hours fulfilling fleshly lusts. These two combined are the devil’s playground and create the “perfect storm” that can sink any ship. This book takes on one of these topics—money.

The big challenge in trying to share biblical wisdom on this subject is that the vast majority of young people are looking in an entirely different direction. The American culture has impressed on them the world’s philosophy that happiness is found in being wealthy and successful. Almost everyone I know has chased money and success their whole lives, even those who are devoted Christians. Few live with hearts that are content from their early years.

No one today wants to hear about money unless it is how to get rich quick. Life has become the constant and never-ending pursuit of money and success and fame. If a preacher isn’t promising riches and grand success with all the material rewards life has to offer, he’ll never be the pastor of a mega-church. The sad reality is that the biggest churches in America have preachers who promise everyone great riches, but guess what? The ones actually getting filthy rich are the pastors, not their congregations.

The Wrong Path for Money and Success

If you go down the wrong path pursuing money and success contrary to God’s desire for you, you don’t just make a royal mess of your own life and miss out on a lifetime of a rich and intimate relationship with God, but you break a lot of other hearts along the way. You’ll destroy your relationship with your spouse, and your children will say they never knew you.

There’s nothing wrong with working hard, and there’s nothing wrong with reaping the rewards of your hard work, right? True, unless you’ve gone far away from God, only pretending to love him, even if you did so sincerely on your part. Most Christians who have made money their god truly do not think they have. They’ll deny it all day long. Oh, how truly self-deceptive the heart can be!

This book will teach you how to walk on the right side of money and success, to live a life that honors God with your money and possessions, and to teach your children by your example how to honor God with all your first fruits, presenting your own life your reasonable service to the one who is your Savior. Ironically, the consequences of living the principles found in this book—in the Bible—will actually be your greatest guide to achieving the most wealth you can earn on this earth during your lifetime. God’s wants to bless you abundantly, just not quite like you might define that blessing.

I hope you find this book refreshing, if not a call to live humbly for God and not worldly things. I’m certainly not opposed to being successful and making wheel barrels full of money, but I surely hope this book steers you away from making money and success your god while proclaiming sincerely that “money isn’t my God.”

Money and Success in This Book

This book walks you through God’s thoughts and what he wants for you and me as explained in the Bible from cover to cover. You’ll see exactly how God defines money and success, and you’ll discover many biblical characters that exemplify the beliefs and behaviors that please God, as well as the people who did not please God. By the time you finish Money and Success For Christians you will have no doubt what God thinks about money and success, and you’ll have a map to guide you along this incredible journey called life.

You can read through this book casually and enjoy your first time reading, and you can come back to refer to it at your convenience. But there’s another good use for this book. You can use it as an extremely thorough Bible study on the subjects of money and success. Let me unpack this idea for you.

There’s a powerful feature in this edition that was not in my original book titled Success and Eternity. In the digital version all the Bible verses are now linked to an online Bible, so if you have a wireless connection to the Internet, you can touch the verse and it will take you to an online Bible where you can read the verse in its context, and if you want to, you can read it in many different versions. I have no affiliation with the online Bible, and I would ignore any links to sign up for additional services. Of course, all of our books can be read on a Kindle device or any Apple or Android with the Kindle app.

As a result of how this book is put together, this is one of the most thorough Bible studies on the subject of money and success you’ll find, and you’ll see the proof of that with hundreds of verses that are the source of all the principles in this book. Unlike many books on money written to the Christian audience, this book is short on opinion and long on Biblical proof texts.

May God be glorified as you live His Word faithfully.