Money is Spiritual
By: Deji Yesufu
This essay is inspired by the situation that we find ourselves in Nigeria in the year 2025. It appears that things have never been this difficult before. Food is extremely expensive, and transportation is getting costlier even though the cost of fuel is going down. School fees, cost of clothing, car repairs, etc – everything gets dearer and dearer by the passing day. Yet, salary earners have not gotten a corresponding increase in their salaries. As I think of how things have turned in Nigeria, I remember 1984. My siblings and I were living in Funtua, present-day Katsina State – then it was Kaduna State. My mother was the French teacher at the Federal Government Girls College (FGGC), Bakori. We stayed at the staff quarters – in a three-bedroom apartment. It was that year that the word “austerity” entered my vocabulary. The military government of Muhammadu Buhari had made it clear to the country that we must now begin to take austere measures, especially with things relating to the economy. Before that time, oil money had fed everything, and Nigerians were used to free government handouts. The Buhari government began to bring an end to that. What surprises me now, as I think about things back then, was that as difficult as things were, we survived. We certainly were not earning as much then as we earn now (I understand that the naira had a lot more value then than it has now, but things were not any less difficult). I have come to this realization that money is spiritual. It is not how much you have that matters; your worldview will determine how much money you will keep, how wisely you will use money, and how well you will enjoy life. A lot of what I will write here comes from years of thinking these things through from a biblical perspective.
When the Bible encourages us to be content, the holy writ wants us to understand that the richest person is the one who is content with whatever he has. It means that if a wealthy man is not content, he will walk around with the mentality of a poor person. While a poor and content person will live his life as if he is extremely wealthy. The very tenth commandment of the laws God enumerated verbatim to the children of Israel at Sinai states unequivocally: “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour wife; nor his male servant; nor his female servant; nor his ox; nor his donkey; nor anything that is your neighbour’s”. In other words, do not covet whatever is not yours – be content with such as you have. The reality of life is that God has given us everything we need for each moment and each day of our lives. Now, as a man thinks so he is. If a poor person is content with whatever he has, he would develop the mental attitude of a rich person. With time, the poor will come out of their poverty and become rich. The spirituality of money is greatly etched in our thinking. There is no greater tragedy in life than to see rich people think and talk like poor men. Most of the corruption that ravages Nigeria exhumes from the mentality of men who may be rich but whose mindset is so gravely covetous that they are never satisfied with whatever they have. Contentment, like godliness, is a great gain. If you develop the mindset of being content, money will come to you – and you will never lack.
Another way to look at the spirituality of money is to consider what I call the Achan principle. Achan was a Jew in the congregation of Israel – his story can be found in Joshua chapter seven. The Jews had entered the promised land and had begun to experience victory against their enemies. God gave specific instructions that the spoils of war were not to be taken and everything must be devoted to destruction. Achan, still susceptible to greed and covetousness, took some gold and garments from the things meant to be destroyed and kept them in the congregation of God’s people. This was not known to the leaders of Israel, and God did not spare them for their ignorance. God ensured they lost the next battle until the sin of Achan was discovered and expunged. In the same manner, your money, your bank account, is like the resources God has given the nation of Israel. Nothing “Achan” must enter it or we risk retribution from God. The Achan principle demands that every kobo that enters my account is from a genuine source. Ensure you are not in league with thieves; do not cut corners to make money; do not defraud people; earn your money from a clean source – as much as it lies with you. Stealing is a no-no. If you ensure that the source of your income is clean, you may not earn much at first. But with time your resources will grow. It includes also knowing the moral compass of the people you are doing business with. Do not overlook their faults. If these people are morally bankrupt, you want to separate your finances from them. If Achan enters your resources, it can destroy all your increase.
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A third principle around the spirituality of money exhumes from the very words of Jesus: “it is more blessed to give than to receive” – generosity is a blessing. It was Martin Luther who said that the last thing that is converted in people is usually their pockets. It means that while I rejoice over a person’s commitment to religion, I usually am not convinced of their commitment to a cause until they begin to give willingly towards that cause. Money is like a man’s lifeline. When you take your money and give to a cause, you are putting your life on the line for that cause. It is the reason why I do not feel convinced to collect offerings in the missions I lead in Ibadan. While, at the moment, we still cannot collect offerings because we are not yet a constituted church, I believe that even after we have been constituted, there will never be an “offering time” in Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. God’s people will begin to give freely to the church when two things happen: when they understand the message enough to support it; and, when God blesses them with the resources to give. At some point, all that some members of the church might have may be just money to transport themselves to church. That money must be acknowledged as part of their “giving” to the local church. Subsequently, God’s people will give more. Giving is a very spiritual act. Any kind of forceful persuasion to give that does not exhume from a deep heart commitment to giving to the Lord Jesus himself, will not be blessed. Now, as God’s people give to the Lord – no matter how little, the Lord will increase their capacity to give more. This is why the doctrine of tithing is completely unbiblical because what it denotes is that there must be some compulsion in giving. The words of Jesus are enough: it is more blessed to give than to receive. Those who give with the right motive will know an increase in their finances.
The spirituality of money also means that we must understand that God is our provider. It means that God, as Maker of heaven and earth, is also committed to ensuring that you and I have food to eat, clothes to wear, and shelter over our heads. God may not meet all that we want, but he is certainly committed to meeting all that we need. How then does one explain the problem of famine, widespread hunger in the land, and war? Well, some of these things come via “the acts of God”. Famine are natural occurrence that could occur when the rains fail to fall on the land, or when a crisis deprive people of sustenance. But even amid the worst calamities, many people have testified of the faithfulness of God in sustaining humanity. Despite the widespread death and hunger that ravaged Eastern Nigeria during the Nigerian Civil War, there are still plenty of testimonies of supernatural provision to the Ibos. Some of the most enduring revivals in Nigeria occurred in Ibo land during the civil war. God is faithful means that God will do his part of the bargain – he will provide for his creation. So, while it is prudent to make plans for the future and so on, it is also important that will leave open the gracious miracles of God in sustaining the humanity he made. When God sends rain on the good and the evil, he is telling us symbolically that beyond our words and actions, he commits to providing for us. One such way is that God ensures that we have all the money that we need at every point in time. This is the spirituality of money.
Fifthly, as we think about the spirituality of money, we cannot overlook the time-tested principle of honest work. All kinds of work, whether it is honest or not, will be rewarded financially. However, honest work does not come with negative consequences. It has both the blessing of financial reward and spiritual upliftment. When God created man, he put him in a garden to work it. There is a close relation between living, working, and seeing productivity from the fruit of our labours. Money is usually paid to a system that brings value to another. If you have a system where one person’s productivity is more than what ten people are doing in that system, it will not be out of place to pay that one person the salary of the ten people combined. One gentleman told me that he had to resume his work again because the job he was doing online had been taken over by artificial intelligence. They simply laid people off because AI can now do the job of a thousand people at the same time, and even do it better. So, rather than pursuing how much could be paid to you for doing a job, be more earnest about the value you bring to a system. When you build your skill set; when you gain knowledge; when you can make convincing arguments; when you can write essays that no artificial intelligence in this world can ever articulate, you will always be in business. People will pay you for the value you bring to their system. Money is spiritual because money will usually evade individuals who prioritize the pursuit of cash; as against the pursuit of bringing value to a system.
Now, money as spiritual, cannot be limited to the five points I have discussed in this essay. There is certainly a lot more that one can learn about money. There is a place of prudence also: using money wisely. There is the place of planning; there is the place of informed risk-taking that business people embark on; etc. By and large, as we learn to be content and look to God for provision, our finances will improve. It does not matter what happens to the economy, God’s people will always experience provision. They will just realize that God meets every need they have. They will see that the bank account never runs dry, and they will have reasons to glorify God. The doctrine of the spirituality of money is a doctrine we will use the rest of our lives learning. Hopefully somebody else can list a lot more than the five I have mentioned in this article. May the Lord bless the works of our hands, and ensure that we always have resources to meet whatever need that comes our way.
Amen.
Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY and VICTOR BANJO.
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