A) TO THE SCRIPTURES.

B) FROM MY FAVORITE BIBLE COMMENTATOR.

 

 

A) TO THE SCRIPTURES

 

 

There are too many Scriptures to list on how to treat the poor.  That is an easy Bible Study you can do for yourself.

 

These Scriptures are about lending to fellow believers and not charging interest:  Exodus 22:25; Leviticus 25:35-37; and Deuteronomy 23:19; 24:10-12.

 

These Scriptures warn about greed and charging excess interest:  Nehemiah 5:7-10; Psalm 15:5; Ezekiel 18:8; and Ezekiel 22:12.

 

These Scriptures encourage you to consider your loan a gift:  Matthew 5:42; Luke 6:34-35; and Luke 11:5-8; or to not expect to be repaid:  Psalm 37:21; 112:5 & 9; Luke 14:14.

 

These Scriptures promise that God will give you blessings if you pay a faithful Tithe:  Ecclesiastes 5:10; Malachi 3:10; and this one teaches us to pay a faithful Tithe:  Proverbs 3:9 (See also Exodus 22:29; 23:19; 34:26; Deuteronomy 26:2; First Corinthians 16:2).

 

These Scriptures teach us not to be in debt:  Proverbs 22:7; Romans 13:8.

 

These Scriptures teach employers to pay their employees on time:  Leviticus 19:13; Deuteronomy 24:14-15; Jeremiah 22:13; Malachi 3:5; James 5:4.

 

This Scripture teaches us to earn our money righteously:  Proverbs 13:11.

 

This Scripture teaches parents to leave an inheritance for their children:  Proverbs 13:22.

 

These Scriptures teach us to work for our pay:  Ecclesiastes 5:18; Psalm 128:2; Proverbs 10:4; 21:25; Isaiah 3:10; First Thessalonians 4:11; Second Thessalonians 3:10.

 

This Scripture teaches two things:  Do not cheat people and be content with ones pay:  Luke 3:14.

 

This Scripture teaches us to consider the cost before starting an expensive venture:  Luke 14:28.

 

Instructions for wealthy people:  Deuteronomy 15:7-14; Job 31:16-20; Proverbs 3:27-28; 19:17; Isaiah 58:6-7; First Timothy 6:17-19; First John 3:17.

 

 

B) FROM MY FAVORITE BIBLE COMMENTATOR

 

 

“[70] One common interest controlled them -- the success of the mission entrusted to [71] them; and covetousness had no place in their lives.  Their love for their brethren and the cause they had espoused, was greater than their love of money and possessions.  Their works testified that they accounted the souls of men of higher value then earthly wealth.  AA:70-71.

 

“From a worldly point of view, money is power; but from the Christian standpoint, love is power.  Intellectual and spiritual strength are involved in this principle.  Pure love has special efficacy to do good, and can do nothing but good.  It prevents discord and misery and brings the truest happiness.  Wealth is often an influence to corrupt and destroy; force is strong to do hurt; but truth and goodness are the properties of pure love.”  AH:195.

 

“[351] God also entrusts men with means.  He gives them power to get wealth.  He waters the earth with the dews of heaven and with the showers of refreshing rain.  He gives the sunlight, which warms the earth, awakening to life the things of nature and causing them to flourish and bear fruit.  And He asks for a return of His own.

 

“Our money has not been given us that we might honor and glorify ourselves.  As faithful stewards we are to use it for the honor and glory of God.  Some think that only a portion of their means is the Lord’s.  When they have set apart a portion for religious and charitable purposes, they regard the remainder as their own, to be used as they see fit.  But in this they mistake.  All we possess is the Lord’s, and we are accountable to Him for the use we make of it.  In the use of every penny, it will be seen whether we love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves.

 

“Money has great value, because it can do great good.  In the hands of God’s children it is food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, and clothing for the naked.  It is a defense for the oppressed, and a means of help to the sick.  But money is of no more value than sand, only as it is put to use in providing for the necessities of life, in blessing others, and advancing the cause of Christ. [352]

 

“Hoarded wealth is not merely useless, it is a curse.  In this life it is a snare to the soul, drawing the affections away from the heavenly treasure.”  COL:352.1.

 

“Our ideas of building and furnishing our institutions are to be molded and fashioned by a true, practical knowledge of what it means to walk humbly with God.  Never should it be thought necessary to give an appearance of wealth.  Never should appearance be depended on as a means of success.  This is a delusion.  The desire to make an appearance that is not in every way appropriate to the work that God has given us to do, an appearance that could be kept up only by expending a large sum of money, is a merciless tyrant.  It is like a canker that is ever eating into the vitals.”  CH:277.2.

 

“The Bible does not condemn the rich man because he is rich; it does not declare the acquisition of wealth to be a sin, nor does it say that money is the root of all evil [1Ti. 6:10; “the LOVE of money is”].  On the contrary, the Scriptures state that it is God Who gives the power to get wealth.  And this ability is a precious talent if consecrated to God and employed to advance His cause.  The Bible does not condemn genius or art; for these come of the wisdom which God gives.  We cannot make the heart purer or holier by clothing the body in sackcloth, or depriving the home of all that ministers to comfort, taste, or convenience.

 

“The Scriptures teach that wealth is a dangerous possession only when placed in competition with the immortal treasure. It is when the earthly and temporal absorbs the thoughts, the affections, the devotion which God claims, that it becomes a snare.”  CS:138.

 

“The love of money, which prompts the acquisition of earthly treasure, was the ruling passion in the Jewish age.  High and eternal considerations were made subordinate to the considerations of securing earthly wealth and influence.  Worldliness usurped the place of God and religion in the soul.  Avaricious greed for wealth exerted such a fascinating, bewitching influence over the life, that it resulted in perverting the nobility, and corrupting the humanity of men, until they were drowned in perdition.  Our Saviour gave a decided warning against hoarding up the treasures of earth.”  CS:142.3.

 

“Men work hard to obtain money; and having gained wealth, they suppose that their money will make their sons gentlemen.  But many such fail to train their sons as they themselves were trained, to hard, useful labor.  Their sons spend the money earned by the labor of others, without understanding its value.  Thus they misuse a talent that the Lord designed should accomplish much good.”  CT:273.1.

 

“He who realizes that his money is a talent from God will use it economically, and will feel it a duty to save that he may give.”  FLB:162.5.

 

“[38] If men and women of this degenerate age have a large amount of earthly treasure, which, in comparison with that paradise of beauty and wealth given the lordly Adam, is very insignificant, they feel themselves above labor, and educate [39] their children to look upon it as degrading.  Such rich parents, by precept and example, instruct their children that money makes the gentleman and the lady.  But our idea of the gentleman and the lady is measured by the intellect and the moral worth.  God estimates not by dress.”  FE38-39.

 

“It is God Who gives men power to get wealth.  The quick, sharp thought, the ability to plan and execute, are from Him.  It is He Who blesses us with health and opens ways for us to acquire means by diligent use of our powers.  And He says to us, ‘A portion of the money I have enabled you to gain is Mine.  Put it into the treasury in tithes, in gifts and offerings, that there may be meat in Mine house -- that there may be something to sustain those who carry the gospel of My grace to the world.”  HP:303.3.

 

“[212] The Bible condemns no man for being rich, if he has acquired his riches honestly.  Not money, but the love of money, is the root of all evil.  It is God Who gives men power to get wealth; and in the hands of him who acts as God’s steward, using his means unselfishly, wealth is a blessing, both to its possessor and to the world.  But many, absorbed in their interest in worldly treasures, become insensible to the claims of God and the needs of their fellow men.  They regard their wealth as a means of glorifying themselves.  They add house to house, and land to land; they fill their homes with luxuries, while all about them are human beings in misery and crime, in disease and death.  Those who thus give their lives to [213] self-serving are developing in themselves, not the attributes of God, but the attributes of the wicked one.”  MH:212-213.

 

“The desire to accumulate wealth is an original affection of our nature, implanted there by our Heavenly Father for noble ends.”  RH, March 1, 1887 paragraph 9.