Beyond the Bottom Line: God's Design for Our Work, Wealth, and World
But all of that—every single action, every decision about money, every business practice—flows from one central source: our intimate, personal relationship with God. This is the core of what I mean by spirituality.
You cannot live out the principles of God’s economy if you do not know the Economist. You cannot faithfully steward a resource you have never been introduced to. You cannot stand for a Kingdom you are not intimately familiar with.
This is why I chose to focus on spirituality. It is the foundation upon which everything else is built.
Headlines about inflation, market swings, and economic uncertainty can easily dominate our conversations and fuel our anxiety. In such a climate, it is tempting to either white-knuckle our finances in fear or chase after prosperity with everything we have.
But what if our approach to the economy, our personal finances, our work, and our business practices was meant to be about so much more than survival or accumulation?
The Bible is filled with wisdom on resources, not as an end in themselves, but as tools for a greater purpose. God’s design for economics is not rooted in scarcity or greed; it is rooted in the principles of stewardship, creativity, and radical generosity. It is an economy of the Kingdom.
The world says: “It is your money. You earned it.”
God’s Word says: “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1).
This is the foundational shift that changes everything. Stewardship is the recognition that we are not owners, but managers. Everything we have—our skills, our time, our paychecks, our investments—is a trust from God.
This changes our financial questions from:
- “How much of my money should I give?”
- To “How does God want me to deploy His resources?”
Faithful stewardship means managing our finances with wisdom and integrity—creating a budget, avoiding debt, and planning for the future. It is not about being miserly; it is about being intentional so we can be effective and generous with all God has entrusted to us.
The world often defines success by profit margins and market share. But a biblical view of entrepreneurship and work is fundamentally about service.
When God placed Adam in the Garden, He gave him a job: to work it and take care of it (Genesis 2:15). This was creativity and cultivation before the Fall—a holy calling.
The world often pursues profit at the expense of people and the planet. But a holistic Christian view rejects this false choice.
Sustainable economic practices are a direct application of stewardship. We are called to care for God’s creation (Genesis 2:15), not exploit it to exhaustion. This means businesses can lead the way in:
- Environmental Care: Reducing waste, conserving resources, and innovating greener solutions. This is good stewardship of the literal earth God owns.
- Long-Term Thinking: Moving beyond quarterly reports to consider the long-term impact of our decisions on our communities, employees, and environment. This reflects God’s eternal perspective.
The Ultimate Goal: Generosity That Reveals the Gospel
Why does God entrust us with resources? So, we can build bigger barns for ourselves? (Luke 12:13-21 tells us how that ends).
The ultimate purpose of God’s economy is generosity. His design for prosperity is always circular, not linear. We are blessed to be a blessing (Genesis 12:2).
“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously… God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:6-7).
This is not a “prosperity gospel” promise of guaranteed returns. It is a principle of the Kingdom: resources that are hoarded stagnate, but resources that are generously deployed into God’s work—feeding the hungry, supporting the church, empowering the orphan, advancing justice—have an eternal ROI.
When we use our money to serve others, when we build businesses that honour people, and when we care for the earth, we do more than just make a living. We paint a picture of a generous, creative, and caring God. We become living proof of a different kind of economy—one where the bottom line is love.