10 Challenging Quotes About Money

This post is not Craig’s top 10 favorite money quotes of all time.  Instead, I grabbed some books off my bookshelf or fired up the Kindle and looked for statements that I’ve highlighted.  My goal is to challenge your thinking and introduce you to a few good Christian authors.  I hope that one of these quotes will resonate with you and provide you with some food for thought today.

But pleasure, money, power, and safety are all, as far as they go, good things. The badness consists in pursuing them by the wrong method, or in the wrong way, or too much.  I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little.

C.S. Lewis. Mere Christianity

Proportionate to what? Proportionate to the accumulated wealth of one’s family? Proportionate to one’s income and the demands upon it, which vary from family to family? Proportionate to one’s sense of security and the degree of anxiety with which one lives? Proportionate to the keenness of our awareness of those who suffer? Proportionate to our sense of justice and of God’s ownership of all wealth? Proportionate to our sense of stewardship for those who follow after us? And so on, and so forth. The answer of course, is in proportion to all of these things.

Elizabeth O’Connor as quoted in Richard Foster and James Bryan Smith, Devotional Classics

Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.  Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.

Agur, Proverbs 30:8b-9

Modest living means that, even within our most limited means, we recognize our obligation to our hungry and needy world neighbors, and those of our world who still have not heard the Gospel.  There is no financial state in which the responsibility of giving is lifted from us.

Maxine Hancock, Living on Less and Liking it More

In God’s economy, money isn’t just added or subtracted; it multiplies and divides in all kinds of bizarre ways.  Grace triumphs over calculation. Love counts more than numbers.

Mark Powley, Consumer Detox: Less Stuff, More Life

In examining a particular activity or purchase, we can ask: What is driving us? For what purpose are we doing this activity, or getting that item? If you’re like me, most of the time the questions do not even occur to you. … Happiness does not lie in the next acquisition. ▷ ¿Para Qué Sirve El Caimito? 【Usos, Beneficios y Propiedades】

Arthur Simon, How Much is Enough

Nevertheless, in light of the larger patterns of Jesus is teaching which we will observe, we dare not underestimate the potential deceitfulness of wealth to keep people out of the kingdom.

Craig Blomberg, Neither Poverty nor Riches

Most people spend their lives trying to make their heart’s fondest dreams come true. Isn’t that what life is all about, “the pursuit of happiness”? We search endlessly for ways to acquire the things we desire, and we are willing to sacrifice much to achieve them. We never imagine that getting our heart’s deepest desires might be the worst thing that can ever happen to us.

Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters 

Sometimes I feel like when I make decisions that are remotely biblical, people who call themselves Christians are the first to criticize and say I’m crazy, that I’m taking the Bible too literally, or that I’m not thinking about my family’s well-being.

Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

The point is not simply to meet a temporary need or change a startling statistic; the point is to exalt the glory of Christ as we express the gospel of Christ through the radical generosity of our lives.

David Platt, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

Do you have a favorite quote you’d like to share in the comments?  Does one of these quotes stand out to you?

Other Great Articles:

1. Rich Young Ruler: Challenging Bible Verses About Money
2. Dealing With Challenging Bible Verses About Money
3. The Secret to Generosity | Five Favorite Quotes