When dealing with Proverbs on the topics of money, finances, or wealth—which we can place under the broader category of material possessions—we must proceed with care for three key reasons.

The first reason is the nature of the book of Proverbs. No single line within it communicates the full counsel of the book—or the Bible, for that matter—on any given topic. Sadly, many forget this and treat one proverb as if it represents the entire biblical view. This can lead to distorted thinking—like assuming wealth is always a sign of God’s blessing or that hard work automatically results in riches.

But when you take the entire book into consideration, Proverbs teaches that wealth can be a good gift when it’s pursued wisely, enjoyed with contentment, and shared generously. Proverbs also teaches that wealth can lead to forms of wickedness like hoarding or injustice. Proverbs will say further that poverty can result from laziness, indulgence, or folly, but it will also say that the righteous might endure poverty—that it might just be the result of factors far beyond our control. So, the book invites us into a robust, multifaceted view of material possessions, but it takes a bit of careful work to discover its composite perspective.

The second reason for caution is the nature of Scripture as a whole. The Bible has much to say about money, but like many other scriptural themes, this teaching develops and sharpens over time. As God’s redemptive work unfolds, so does his instruction. Jesus doesn’t contradict Proverbs—he fulfills, clarifies, and completes its perspective. His words bring sharper focus to how we view and handle wealth today, especially for the new humanity of the church that he launched with his resurrection and ascension. The people of God are no longer confined to a Promised Land but are spread throughout the world, so our current expectation regarding material possessions has matured since the time of Proverbs. So, when interpreting Proverbs, we must locate ourselves on the biblical timeline. We’ll do that more in a moment as we dive into the first main theme.

The third reason this subject is delicate is the nature of our own hearts. We instinctively resist being told what to do with what we think of as our money—even though the Bible teaches that all of it belongs to Yahweh. And among the sins we slip into that go unnoticed, greed may top the list. Because we can always find people wealthier than we are, greed is easy to mask and even easier to blame on others. I’m sure many of us think of ourselves as middle-class, but if we expand our pool of comparison to the ends of the earth, we must come to a different conclusion. We are a people of great means, and those means can sometimes induce sins of covetousness and greed for more within us. But we usually think of those leanings as someone else’s problem—someone with more, someone flashier. As a pastor, I’ve had people ask for help with all kinds of struggles, but rarely does anyone ask for God’s help to overcome a greedy heart.

And yet, this is a major subject, one that touches countless areas of our lives—how we think about material possessions affects the decisions we make, the way we spend our time and energy, what we wear, what we pursue, and who we ultimately become.

So yes, this is a delicate subject—but it is also a vital one. And with that in mind, I want to show you three overarching themes from Proverbs that can help us navigate finances today. These are not granular tips—here’s how to set up a budget—they are guiding concepts. I pray they bless and equip you.

1. Material possessions are gifts from God for our enjoyment.

It might surprise you to learn that Proverbs views material possessions as good gifts from God, meant for our enjoyment.

• Proverbs 3:9-10 says: “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.” This is a picture of abundance.
• Proverbs 10:22 adds, “The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.”
• Proverbs also affirms: “The crown of the wise is their wealth” (Prov. 14:24).

• And, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children” (Prov 13:22).

In Proverbs, wealth is not unilaterally condemned. It’s a good gift from a good God, especially as an outflow of diligence and wisdom. Does that make you uncomfortable? It’s understandable. We live in the church age and have been shaped by Christ’s call to sacrifice and simplicity. But when we consider the full biblical storyline, we see that material possessions were originally designed to bless God’s people.

In creation, God formed a materially rich and beautiful world for human flourishing. Work was part of his design, but the world itself was abundant and fruitful. When mankind introduced sin into the world, it distorted our relationship with possessions, disordered desires, produced covetousness, and turned good things into idols. Yet even in a fallen world, material blessings remain good when wisely stewarded and never worshiped.

In Israel’s history, material blessing became a visible sign of God’s covenant provision. If they obeyed God, they would prosper and bless the nations around them. If they disobeyed, material hardship would follow (Deut. 11). Tragically, Israel often turned from God, and the strong often used their resources to oppress the weak. And since they ended up neglecting the sabbath system and the year of Jubilee, the disparity between rich and poor only widened over time. The prophets denounced their exploitation of the poor, their refusal to obey the sabbath laws God had established, and the gap between rich and poor, but they rarely listened.

By Jesus’ time, under Roman domination, that gap had grown extreme. Those loyal to (or sold out to) Rome did very well for themselves, while the general populace limped along under their financial burdens. When Jesus arrived, he lived simply, but it must be noted he was not an ascetic. He enjoyed God’s good gifts—feasting, hospitality, and costly acts of worship (John 12:1-8). He taught that God provides for our needs and that we should trust him regarding material things (Matt. 6:25-33).

With the birth of the Church, God’s people were no longer tied to a Promised Land with and the promise of material prosperity—we are a dispersed people, called to live incarnationally. For the wealthy, this means living generously. For the poor, it means demonstrating the flourishing of life and inner peace that comes from Christ, even amid material lack. The apostles affirmed this same principle. Paul wrote, “God richly provides us with everything to enjoy” while also calling believers to contentment and radical generosity (1 Tim. 6:17).

Ultimately, the biblical story ends not with scarcity but with abundance. All types of people are in God’s church—wealthy, middle-class, impoverished—but in the new creation, God’s people will enjoy material blessings forever, free from greed, scarcity, and injustice (Rev. 21-22). It will be like Eden—only far better.

Perhaps this unsettles you. Perhaps you’ve toiled under a Christian view that sees material possessions as intrinsically evil—or not spiritual. Maybe you feel low-grade guilt when enjoying things like indoor plumbing, a new car, or a good meal. We’ll address financial extremes and sins shortly, but for now, pause and consider this: God’s original design was to materially bless his people.

This truth has shaped me personally. I know that by global standards, living in Monterey, California, I am wealthy. But growing up in a church-planting pastor’s family and now serving as a pastor myself, I’ve lived with financial limitations. It isn’t right for pastors to receive extravagant bonuses or lavish contracts.

Yet, in my childhood, I sometimes absorbed the belief that material things were inherently bad—that holiness and poverty were somehow linked. And while God may call some to embrace simplicity for the sake of mission—and perhaps many more are called to this sacrifice than we know—and while poverty is sometimes the reality a person is born into, we must remember: God’s original intention was to materially bless his people. And one day, when Christ returns, that intention will be fully realized.

2. Material possessions are also a significant means of turning us away from God.

The second thing we need to understand about material possessions is that, because of the fall of humanity into depravity and brokenness, possessions that were meant to be good gifts from God for our enjoyment are also portrayed in Proverbs—and throughout Scripture—as a significant means of turning human hearts away from God.

• Proverbs 11:28 warns that it’s possible to replace trust in God with trust in wealth: “Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf.”
• Proverbs 23:4-5 shows how easily we can cross the line into over-prioritizing wealth: “Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.”
• Near the end of Proverbs, we find a simple and wise prayer: “Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God” (Prov. 30:8-9). This prayer recognizes our soul’s vulnerability in both poverty and wealth. With too much, we are tempted to forget God; with too little, we are tempted to dishonor him.

So, while material possessions can be good gifts from God for our enjoyment, we must be careful—they can also become a significant means of turning us away from him. It is possible to be wealthy and godly, but wealth also presents serious temptations to become ungodly.

Paul echoes this tension at the end of his first letter to Timothy: “Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.” (1 Tim. 6:17, NLT). You can feel the tension even in that one verse. While God richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment, we must be careful not to become proud or place our hope in the riches themselves.

At its core, this is a worship issue. Wealth should be downstream from godliness—a byproduct of wise and faithful living, not something we trust in or hope in. And wealth certainly must never become a replacement for God.

When we look at Israel’s history, we repeatedly see this dynamic at play. Time and again, they turned to worship false gods, and greed was often behind that idolatry. Proverbs warns repeatedly that wealth easily becomes a snare, because it often leads to self-reliance, pride, and the exploitation of others.

So, while we may enjoy the material blessings God provides, we must carefully guard our hearts, remembering that only God—not our possessions—is worthy of our ultimate trust and worship. We must recognize the spiritual dangers that accompany wealth or material possessions.

Jesus identified this issue when a rich young ruler came to him and asked what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. The man believed he had kept the commandments and lived a morally upright life. But when Jesus told him, “Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and then come, follow me,” he went away sorrowful—because he had great possessions (Mark 10:17-25).

Without realizing it, the rich young ruler had slowly, steadily built himself a prison. His material ease destroyed his flexibility, dulled his sense of adventure, and ultimately compromised his allegiance to Yahweh. He couldn’t move in obedience to Christ because he couldn’t imagine life without his wealth. Jesus wasn’t saying his possessions were sinful—but for him, they had bound him.

Wealth can work like that. Like a parachute designed to save your life by slowing your descent and bringing you safely to the ground. But if you land in deep water, the very thing that saved you becomes the thing that threatens to kill you. Its weight begins to pull you under. Unless you cut it loose, it will drown you.

That’s how wealth can function in our lives. It may be God’s provision and blessing—but if we cling to it when it’s time to let it go, it will drag us down. Fire can warm a home, but when unchecked, it can burn it to the ground.

So we must search our hearts carefully—to make sure we are not quietly being drawn away from God by the very things he’s given us. Stay tuned—at the end of this teaching, I am going to give you six suggestions to help you guard against being drawn away from God by material possessions.

3. Material possessions are a major category of redemption.

Proverbs makes the case that how we handle material possessions is a major category of our redemption. When God redeems us—when he sets us free and liberates us from the grip of materialism—that transformation will show up in visible, practical ways.

First, redemption regarding material possesssions shows up in financial wisdom.

Proverbs teaches that a redeemed life will develop a saving, investing, and frugally wise outlook on finances.

• “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children” (Prov. 13:22).
• “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it” (Prov. 13:11).

In other words, the person growing in this area doesn’t just think about their own needs; they think generationally. They steward what they have wisely and patiently.

Second, redemption regarding material possesssions produces contentment.

As God works in someone’s life, they begin to loosen their grip on the endless pursuit of more, and instead, they learn to rest in what God provides. Proverbs offers a cluster of these “better than” sayings:

• “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it” (*Prov. 15:16).
• “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it” (Prov. 15:17).
• “Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife” (Prov. 17:1).
• “Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice” (Prov. 16:8).

This is what Paul meant when he told the Philippian church he had learned the secret of contentment (Phil. 4:11). He could live with much or with little because his satisfaction wasn’t tied to his material condition—it was anchored in God.

Third, and most importantly, redemption regarding material possesssions produces sacrificial generosity.

The clearest evidence that someone is being freed from the clutches of money is that they become generous—joyfully and sacrificially generous.

• Proverbs 11:24-25 says, “One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.”
• Proverbs 19:17 tells us, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.”
• Proverbs 14:21 simply says, “Blessed is he who is generous to the poor.”

In the Old Testament, some of this generosity was built right into the fabric of Israel’s national life. Their laws required tithes, taxes, and offerings to support the priesthood and to care for the poor and needy. God made it clear that he has a special place in his heart for what we might call the mercy quadrant: the widow, the fatherless, the foreigner, and the poor (Deut. 10:18-19; 24:19-21). And God’s people were called to care for them.

This same emphasis is carried into the New Testament. Though we’re no longer under the law of Moses, believers are still called to generous care for vulnerable women, fatherless children, foreigners, and the poor (James 1:27, Gal. 2:10). And Scripture also makes it clear that gospel workers—such as pastors, especially those who labor in teaching and preaching, and missionaries—should, when approriate and possible, be financially supported by the church (1 Tim. 5:17-18, Gal. 6:6, 3 John 5-6).

So, if you’re wondering whether God is freeing you from the grip of materialism, just look at your life. Do you handle money with wisdom? Have you learned the secret of contentment? Are you growing in joyful, sacrificial generosity? All that is major evidence that the gospel is shaping how you think about material things.

Conclusion

I’d like to conclude with some practical advice on how to guard yourself against greed. I’m sure many of us here would consider ourselves to be middle class or below. But that’s only because of the comparisons we make within our own society. If we were to speak with people living in poorer parts of the world—or even in the poor areas of our own nation—we’d likely conclude that, by most standards, we are fairly wealthy people.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this teaching, it’s rare for us to identify greed or covetousness as an issue in our own hearts. So, let me close by offering you some practical ways to guard against it.

1. Surround yourself with people who have less than you.

As I said during our study in the book of James, if all your friends have heated bathroom floors, it’s good to remember—that’s not normal. Spending time with people who have less helps reprioritize your heart, gives you perspective, and—if you have a Christ-saturated heart—builds compassion.

2. Surround yourself with people who are more generous than you.

This one can be hard to discern because many generous people take Jesus’ words seriously and keep their giving private. They don’t want to trumpet what they’ve done; they don’t want people to hear about it. But over the years, I’ve found that a few frank conversations or candid reflections from Christians I admire—people willing to share some of the parameters of their giving lifestyle—have been incredibly helpful as I seek to grow in this area.

3. Analyze your spending each year with a goal to become more generous than the year before—in both quantity and ratio.

See if you can increase your giving percentage each year and then watch what God might do. Proverbs 27:23 encourages us to “know well the condition of our flocks.” In modern terms, that means you should have a budget—and that budget should include a thoughtful, prayerful plan for generosity.

4. Consider what you could easily do without—then go for it.

Proverbs 23:4-5 says, “Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist.” Proverbs consistently encourages Christ-like contentment and warns against the endless pursuit of more. Take time to honestly reflect: What could you live without? Then, make the decision to go without it.

5. Practice gratitude for God’s provision in your life.

Proverbs 10:22 says, “The blessing of the Lord makes rich.” Recognize that all you have comes from God, and thank him specifically for the ways he has provided for you. Gratitude fosters contentment, and contentment breaks greed’s hold on your heart.

6. Count what matters most to you in life.

When we step back and truly assess our lives, we realize that the best things—those that lead to emotional well-being, deep joy, and lasting satisfaction—are not produced by material possessions or financial means. They come through our relationship with God, our relationships with others, the hope that we are being changed into the image of Christ, and the joy of participating in his mission here on earth.

These are the things that matter most. We need to count them often, continually reorient our lives around them, and commit ourselves to them.

Because while material possessions can be a blessing from God, they also have the potential to turn our hearts away from him. So, let’s allow him to pull us out of our personal Egypt, to rewire the desires within our hearts, and to set us free—free to love him, to serve him, to love others, and to serve others—for his honor and glory.

Bibliography

Blomberg, Craig L. Neither Poverty Nor Riches: A Biblical Theology of Possessions. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1999.

Keller, Timothy, and Kathy Keller. God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Book of Proverbs. New York: Viking, 2017.

Longman, Tremper III. Proverbs. Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006.

Study Questions

Head (Knowledge, Facts, Understanding)

1. According to Proverbs, how should we understand the relationship between wealth, hard work, and God’s blessing (Proverbs 3:9-10; 10:22)?
2. How does the biblical timeline—from creation to the church age—help us interpret Proverbs’ teachings on wealth and material possessions?
3. What specific warnings does Proverbs give about the spiritual dangers of wealth, and how are these echoed in the New Testament (Proverbs 11:28; 23:4-5; 1 Timothy 6:17)?

Heart (Feelings, Impressions, Desires)

1. When you reflect on your own view of money, do you tend to see it more as a blessing to enjoy or a danger to guard against? Why?
2. How does the idea that God originally designed material blessings for His people challenge or comfort you personally?
3. Are there areas in your heart where material possessions have become a source of trust or security, rather than God Himself? How does this realization make you feel?

Hands (Actions, Commitments, Decisions, Beliefs)

1. What specific steps could you take this week to cultivate contentment and break the cycle of materialism in your life?
2. How might you practice sacrificial generosity this month, either through financial giving or practical service to those in need?
3. Will you commit to evaluating your spending and giving patterns annually, as suggested, to intentionally grow in generosity? What would that practically look like for you?