Power to Get Wealth: The Basics of Biblical Personal Finance

Biblical economic theory has been the subject of many thousands of pages in recent decades, the pioneering work of writers—predominantly though not exclusively Dr. Gary North—taking seriously the law of God in its total application to all of life and working to uncover its full implications for Christian living today (Prov. 25:2).

In this short article, I’d like to offer an initial exploration of a covenantal framework for thinking about how to best steward the financial resources one has under one’s control. My intention is to provide a helpful framework for personal financial decision-making and planning that is both practical as well as true to the emphases in God’s covenant. I won’t be covering tithing, the percentages of tithing, when or whether long-term business loans are acceptable, or the application of the Jubilee laws and the sabbath-year debt releases, nor will I discuss fiat currency, silver or gold, or the economy as a whole.

To be considered covenantal, your personal finance strategy must consider and address the following four points:

1. Deploying your financial capital1 in various ways so that it will multiply and promote further economic activity,

2. Earning, budgeting, and distributing personal capital in the defense of, and ministry to, the abused and oppressed,

3. Earning, budgeting, and distributing personal capital to fund the work of Christian education, and

4. Setting a clear personal example of financial integrity, and promoting covenant-keeping personal finance practices in those under your
influence.

Pursue Wealth for Kingdom Pursuits

In Deuteronomy 8:18, Moses warns the people in no uncertain terms that, when they enter into the Promised Land and inherit the wealth which is stored up for them, they must be on guard against forgetting the Lord in the midst of all this wealth. Moses commands them:

But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. (Deut. 8:18)

It is here that we have perhaps the clearest explanation of the purpose of money in the Christian life. The purpose of wealth is to provide the fuel for the spreading and growth of God’s covenant on earth, to be the earthly means by which His promises are brought about, as He swore unto the foregoing generations.

Personal Finance and the Dominion Mandate

When God entered into covenant with Adam, He outlined the stipulations for the covenant:

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Gen. 1:28)

God’s command to Adam was to develop the resources of creation, beginning with naming the animals. God’s entrusting of resources to Adam implies that man must steward those resources in a certain way. Discussing this implication, Dr. Gary North comments:

The owner [God] expects a positive rate of return on his investment. The steward’s task is to provide this. He does so by the means of the productivity of the assets transferred to him by the owner. There is to be a surplus out of which the owner is paid.2

Jesus reinforces the responsibility to seek a return on God’s investment in the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14–30), strongly commending the two faithful servants who had produced a 100% return on their master’s investments, and blasting the servant who refused to steward the funds wisely, hiding them in the ground instead.

Thus, we must give proactive thought to how we might best deploy our finances toward business enterprises that will offer a return on our investment, and that will facilitate and support the development of resources for the further progress of mankind. Moreover, we must also give consideration to how we may order our finances for more effective output of our own individual calling.3

Personal Finance and Justice & Healing for the Oppressed

As we continue reading through the Scriptures, a common refrain of the prophets was that God was angry at the oppression and abuse that was occurring. In Isaiah 58, the Lord castigates the people of Israel: outwardly, they were maintaining the externals of worship, feasting, and sacrifice, but were missing the point:

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? (Isa. 58:6–7)

God provides a stern corrective: without neglecting the ceremonial elements of the covenant, the people were to orient themselves in terms of ministry to those who have been hurt and abused.4

These stipulations are reaffirmed by St. Paul in Ephesians 4:28: “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour…that he may have to give to him that needeth.” St. James likewise instructs Christians to be equipped to minister to those who have been truly abused and in need of necessities:

If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? (James 2:16–17)

This is a mark of God’s kingdom, that “the Sun of righteousness” shall “arise with healing in his wings” (Mal. 4:2). Christian self-government, not the socialist state, advances the Kingdom.

Thus, we must intentionally earn, budget, and distribute funds and resources to those who have been oppressed and abused, and who are in need of protection, legal advocacy and justice, basic necessities, and healing or “binding up” of all sorts.

Personal Finance and Christian Education

The Levites in Scripture are commonly associated with the work of the temple, the priests, and the sacrifices. However, in a very real sense, the Levites were the custodians of God’s law. The Ark of the Covenant, housed within the Temple, held the second set of the Ten Commandments which God gave to Moses (Ex. 25:16, I Kings 8:9). The king was to “write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites” (Deut. 17:18). In II Chronicles 17:7–9 and Nehemiah 8:7–8 we’re told of Levites who had the responsibilities to train the people in understanding the law of God.

In Numbers 18:24, God makes clear that a major portion of the tithes belong to the Levites, to support them as they do the work of the Lord: “But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as an heave offering unto the LORD, I have given to the Levites to inherit” (Num. 18:24).

In I Corinthians 9:6–15, St. Paul explains to the church at Corinth, using both logic and an appeal to Deuteronomy 25:4, that they must fund the work of the ministry. While not directly referencing the word tithe, this is ethically the same principle as that in Numbers 18:24.

Thus, we must intentionally earn, budget, and distribute funds to underwrite and support those who are working to proclaim the Gospel, developing application of the Scriptures to the pressing issues of today, and furthering training in Biblical literacy.

Personal Finance and Financial Discipleship

The king in Scripture was to have as a primary kingly responsibility that of reading and copying the law of God (Deut. 17:18). This practice was to sharpen his understanding of God’s covenant and commands with the goal that “he may learn to fear the LORD his God” (Deut. 17:19) as well as to grow in sanctification, “to keep all the words of this law and these statutes…and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left” (Deut. 17:19–20).

Moreover, the kingly duties involved diligently searching things out (Prov. 25:2), as well as rendering justice and judgment in matters so difficult that others could not solve them (Prov. 25:5, Psa. 32:1). The judgment involved in these matters was informed by constant study of the law of God required in Deuteronomy 17. As we read in Biblical history, King Josiah brought about immense reform across the land (II Kings 22:1–23:27, II Chron. 34:1–35:27). Likewise, King Hezekiah (II Kings 18:1–20:21, II Chron. 29:1–32:33) pursued a staggering level of reform out of his devotion to the Lord and his commitment to protect and promote obedience to God’s covenant
(II Chron. 31:20–21).5

Our true King, Jesus, in Matthew 5:17–19, spoke,

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Dr. B.B. Warfield writes of this passage:

So far from coming to abrogate the law, He comes then to get the law kept; not merely to republish it, in all its reach, whether of the jots and tittles of its former publication, or of its most deeply cutting and widely reaching interpretation, but to reproduce it in actual lives, to write it on the hearts of men and in their actual living.6

Thus, we must intentionally educate ourselves on how God’s law applies to our own economics, model sound financial planning and discipline, and teach adherence to the covenantal economic principles outlined in this article to those within our influence.

Conclusion

There is much more that can be said on this topic, and we’ve barely scratched the surface. Let these studies provoke us to take a second look at our own financial planner. Perhaps we need to adjust some of our envelopes, begin learning about different types of investments, or work to get on top of our own finances so we can set an example for our children.

Dr. Rushdoony writes,

…the purpose of wealth is the establishment of God’s covenant; its goal is that man prosper in his task of possessing the earth, subduing it and exercising dominion over it…. Man must seek to subdue the earth and gain wealth as a means of restitution and restoration, as a means of establishing God’s dominion in every realm. 

Kyle Shepherd is a writer and researcher living in Alabama with his wife and children. He has assisted with Chalcedon’s book production since 2012 and serves as the General Editor for the Journal of Christian Liberty. His chief area of study is on God’s covenant and how it directs us in matters of abuse, justice, and wholeness.

1. It’s worth mentioning at the outset that capital and resources go beyond simply financial assets; they can include food and clothing as indicated in James 2:16, but for the sake of brevity we’ll keep the discussion to the vocabulary of finance.

2. Gary North, Sovereignty & Dominion: An Economic Commentary on Genesis (Moulton, AL: Axehead Press, 2022), 45.

3. Dr. North defines calling as “the most important thing you can do in which you would be most difficult to replace.” North, many places, including The Covenantal Structure of Christian Economics (Moulton, AL: Axehead Press, 2024), 99.

4. God spares no expense in communicating the blessing that will come from this reorientation, and it is worth quoting in full: “then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward….And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in” (Isa. 58:10–12).

5. King Hezekiah was so devoted to God’s covenant that he was providentially granted a key editorial role in the writing and canonization of the Hebrew Scriptures. See Phillip Kayser, The Canon of Scripture (n.p.: Biblical Blueprints, [2021] 2023) for more details.

6. Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield, “Jesus’ Mission, According To His Own Testimony,” in Warfield, Biblical Doctrines (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1929), 298.

7. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, [1973] 2020), 535.