We have already established that wealth can be a blessing from God. But wealth is by no means the highest blessing which God can bestow. As you set your priorities for the vocation of money-management, a number of things should be in line ahead of profit. Before we get money right, we have to get our priorities right. But to get our priorities right, we have to know what priorities are.
We all know what is meant when a cliche is invoked — setting priorities means “more quality time with the kids,” for example. But too often we just invoke such a phrase as though it were a mantra, and the content of our priorities just assumed (which means they are picked up from the culture around us). But we cannot measure such things by assumed standards. A man spends a third of his life asleep, but it would be wrong to assume that sleeping has a higher priority for him than, say, worship does. Time is not the only standard. By what standard must we set our priorities when it comes to the question of wealth? The Bible tells us explicitly. What is better than wealth? What should we rather have than great riches? Again, the Bible tells us.
We have already addressed the importance of getting wisdom before wealth. The point is made again and again in Proverbs so it will not hurt to make it again here. The writer of Proverbs was a great believer in repetition. “Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding; for her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, and her gain than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things you may desire cannot compare with her” (Prov. 3:13-5). “How much better to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver” (Prov. 16:16). “There is gold and a multitude of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel” (Prov. 20:15). Such comparisons are made for a reason. God wants us to weigh in our minds the relative value of gold, silver, and gems over against the value of wisdom, knowledge and understanding. So self-consciously and deliberately, we should make the comparison. How would we behave if our teacher at school, or preacher at church, scattered gold coins across floor? Would we pay closer attention to what was going on than we do now? The words of Scripture are the words of wisdom.
Now this is very important. When we set priorities in a carnal (and very foolish way), we want to compare the value of having 100K to having 50K. Robert P. Greedybuckets III prefers the former, and Ron Sider prefers the latter. The 50K is all right because you have to have some money in order to buy all the hairshirts a guilty white guy must go through. But the Bible doesn’t really make this kind of comparison. Everything else being equal, it is better to have 100K than 50K. It is better to be healthy than sick. Fine. But other things are rarely equal, which is why the Scriptures speak in the way cited above. It is better to have 50K with wisdom than 100K without it. Wisdom is better than money, so make your choices, when you have to make them, well.
Another point of comparison is found in the relationship of money and righteousness. “Better is a little with righteousness, than vast revenues without justice” (Prov. 16:8). “Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than one perverse in his ways, though he be rich” (Prov. 28:6). “Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than one who is perverse in his lips, and is a fool” (Prov. 19:1). It is better to be poor, if one has integrity and righteousness, than to be rich and perverse, rich and unjust.
Another thing that we should prefer to wealth is a good name. “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold. The rich and the poor have this in common, the Lord is the maker of them all” (Prov. 22:1-2). A good name is especially important in the word of vocation, business, and work. What constitutes a good name in business? Christians must seek a good name through: 1. Work managed with wisdom; 2. work conducted with absolute honesty in fact; 3. work done with absolute honesty in appearance; 4. hard work; 5. work completed on time; 6. not taking advantage in work done for brothers; 7. work which does not depend upon a “scheme”; and 8. work which understands propriety. The loss of a good name is hard to repair. The fact that you might lose your reputation is not “unfair,” but rather one of the ordinary costs of doing business. People recommend businesses, or not, all the time. This is as it should be.
We should also prefer contentment to wealth — which indicates, incidentally, that wealth is not the creator of contetenment. “Remove falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food allotted to me; lest I be full and deny You, and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God” (Prov. 30:8-9). Fundamentally, this is a prayer for contentment. “Lord, please give me a portion suited for me. If I get more than that I will be tempted one way. If I get less than that, I will be tempted in another.” It may sound odd, but many Christians have not learned contentment with their blessings, any more than they have with their trials.
Humility is better than wealth also. “Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud” (Prov. 16:19). Pride is often thought to be the badge of the fat cats; rather, it is their shame.
And last, there is calm, quietness, and love. “Better is a dry morsel with quietness, than a house full of feasting with strife” (Prov. 17:1). “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure with trouble. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a fatted calf with hatred” (Prov. 15:16-17). As you structure your household in the pursuit of wealth that is blessed by God, have you remembered this?
Scripture does not tell us that money displaces all such blessings automatically. But our fallen world functions in such a way that brings us to intersections frequently, where we must decide whether to go right or left. Let us say that going left is toward Fat City, and to go right is to go toward wisdom, or a good name, or contentment, or humility, or calm at the dinner table. The Bible tells us, consistently, to go right. And we often discover, if we do so with a sincere heart, that God blesses us the same way He did with Solomon. Because we did not grasp for the thing we ought not to have preferred, we receive what we chose, along with material blessing as well. We should treat this as a gracious promise, received by faith, and not something for us to view with a calculating eye.