Should a Christian invest money in the stock market?

We have read your letter with deep interest and we can enter into your feelings. We believe the Christian is bound to provide for his family, day by day — bound to educate his children and put them in the way of earning an honest livelihood. All this is so plainly commanded in the New Testament as to admit of no question. But these sacred duties leave wholly untouched the question of hoarding up and of speculation. We do not believe in these latter at all. We believe that hoarding covers the soul with rust and speculation fills the heart and mind with care and anxiety.

We love and honor diligent and honest toil, but Scripture tells us that “the love of money is the [a] root of all evil” and we do not believe that God's blessing rests upon His children when they become shareholders in worldly companies. You yourself, dear friend, have proved this. We think you would have done better had you purchased a house, either to live in or rent, than to invest your money in such a company as you describe. But all these matters must be arranged between the Lord and one's own conscience. We merely add that there is a vast difference between committing actual sin and falling short of a high toned discipleship and personal devotedness. For ourselves, we earnestly long for the latter. We believe there is a sad lack of it in our day.

The expression, “that they may receive you” is idiomatic and may be rendered as follows, “that they may be the means of receiving you.” This is the true way to use riches, the very best mode of investing capital. It will yield a hundred fold, and where is the bank that can come up to this? Many of God's people have lately been called to taste the bitter fruit of seeking after what they considered profitable investments. It is a question if the tremendous crashing of banks and limited companies has not been the result of God's dealing with His children who were connected with them. The very best thing we can do with our money is to spend it for the Lord. Then, instead of being rust on our souls, it will be treasure in heaven. But we must remember that Luke 16:9 and 1 Timothy 6:17-19 are addressed to disciples, not to the unconverted. If this be lost sight of, we shall only cast dust in the eyes of men by leading them to suppose that the gift of God can be purchased with money. To one who thought this of old, Peter said, “Thy money perish with thee.”

But what is the profit to which the Lord turns His prudence? Man's title is null; but in fact earthly things are still in his hand. The disciple then, if prudent after a heavenly sort, will not seek to accumulate or retain the means many men call his own; he will profit by the rich grace of God who does not call him to asceticism, while he delivers him from selfishness. For him as for Israel of the age to come it is no question of a state of things that shall not pass away; but on the contrary all judged and soon to give place to the kingdom which shall not be moved, with its "heavenly things" (John 3) for those who meanwhile are dead and risen with Christ. Hence what the steward did knavishly disciples are to do by grace. Knowing that the fashion of this world passes, the eye is on the everlasting dwellings; and instead of disposing of the world as their own (the true meaning of καταχρώμενοι in 1 Corinthians 7:31, not "abusing" but using for oneself even if there were no misuse whatever. See also 1 Corinthians 9:18), and so either hoarding or selfishly enjoying, they give away right and left thus making to themselves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness. This is one of the greatest snares (for the love of money is a root of all evil) turned into a means of benefiting man, glorifying God, and proving that one's heart is not in the covetous present of fallen condemned man, but in the heavenly future of God. It is the character of those who get to heaven, not the means of being delivered from hell.

Now we come to another division of the chapter (vers. 19-24). As far as the christian is concerned, if he has money he simply has it as a steward. In early days they had all things common, when all the saints were in Jerusalem. But that could not be carried out now. We have further instructions since failure has come in; see 1 Tim. 6:6-10, 17-19, where raiment should read "covering"; the word in the original takes in a roof as well as raiment. That fits in a good deal with this chapter. Those who have money like to invest it wisely, and the Lord shows here how to do it. "He that gives to the poor, lends to the Lord." One could not have a safer investment, or better interest. We do not know what a day or an hour may bring forth. Three years ago people in Belgium little thought what would occur. Riches take to themselves wings and fly away. They will never fly away if invested thus. Heaven is the place to store them. The Lord is showing the place in which to deposit treasure. It is individual. What a blessed thing to be able to rightly appreciate what we have in heaven, and thus have our hearts set on things above, not on things on the earth!

"If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who shall entrust to you the true?" The true riches cannot be entrusted where the heart has been false in that which is so trifling in the Lord's eyes as "the unrighteous mammon."406 Nor is it only that present honour and riches are not "the true," but the mere counters of the hour. There is the further consideration: "If ye have not been faithful in that which is another's, who shall give unto you your407 own?" Present property is not strictly one's own. The whole course of the Christian here is really that of one acting for another, even Christ. We are servants in trust for the Lord. The Christian ought to regard his time, his money, his abilities, his property, as the goods of his Master; and his business is to serve his Master, faithfully carrying out His will. This is of immense importance; because covetousness consists in endeavouring to make earthly things which God has not given your own. The wisdom of the disciple is to count what appears to belong to him as really his Master's. "Your own": so Blass, with ℵAD, etc., all cursives, the Latt. Syrrpesch hcl hier Memph. Goth. Arm. Aeth. Hort, followed by Weiss, favours "our own," the reading of B and L. See, further, note 407 in Appendix.

Secondly Paul shows us the privileges attaching to wealth. It may be used in the service of God, in the help of His people; and thus he who starts by being rich in money may end in being rich in good works, and this is wealth of a more enduring kind. Earthly riches are uncertain, and he who lays it up in store for himself may find his store sadly depleted just when most needed. He who uses his riches in the service of God is laying up in store a good foundation of reward in eternity and meanwhile his trust is in the living God, who after all does not deny us what is good but gives it to us richly for our enjoyment. It is just those who hold and use their possessions as stewards responsible to God that can be trusted to enjoy God's good gifts without misusing them.

To read these words of our Lord as if they had any reference to men seeking salvation would be disastrous. Salvation is by grace alone, and it is founded upon the Saviour's atoning blood. This cannot be too earnestly or too frequently insisted upon. But those who are saved have serious responsibilities concerning which they must each one give account at the judgement-seat of Christ. Hence each "disciple" should take a leaf out of the book of the unjust steward and use the brief period of life here with a view to blessing and reward in the life beyond. Perhaps there is nothing concerning which even true Christians fail more deeply than in the matter of money. Riches are called "the mammon of unrighteousness," because they are the fruit of sin. Such conditions as now prevail, one rich and another poor, could have no place in an unfallen world. A grave responsibility therefore rests upon the Christian as to how he disposes of that which he holds, be it little or much. He is indeed a steward; to Another he must render an account. He who spends all upon himself, reserving only his threepenny-piece for God, is living for the present only; he who uses his substance for God in the midst of a needy world is making friends by means of his possessions. There is no thought in Luke 16:9 of the objects of our benefactions welcoming us into the habitations above. Reference to the Greek shows that the Lord spoke in the third person — "that ye may be received." The one who welcomes the self-denying disciple to rest and reward is none other than the living God Himself, who is prepared to abundantly honour in another world those who have surrendered aught in this world for the sake of His name, and under the constraining influence of His mighty grace.

If any wish to call those servants of God who are endowed with wealth His stewards, we shall not object. Wealth is a trust from God, just as other things, material and spiritual, are. The wealthy Christian may acknowledge the money that he possesses as a solemn trust, and may show the fidelity of his stewardship in his administration of it as the servant of Christ. If he is one entrusted by his fellow-Christians with funds to administer on their behalf, he is, of course, responsible to them. But his primary responsibility even in this is to the One whose servant and steward he is.

In Christianity all we possess is sometimes viewed as belonging to God, and we are but stewards of what God has given us (Luke 16:11-12): but our present possessions are also viewed as our own (Acts 5:4), with the responsibility of using them aright. Those who are rich are not exhorted to give a tenth, but are to "be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate" (1 Tim. 6:18). All who give are to do it with simplicity (Rom. 12:8). even if we are not able, like the poor widow, to give all our living (Mark 12:41-44), or like the disciples of the Lord who left all to follow Him (Luke 18:28).

Certainly. This is but God-honouring. A lazy Christian is a disgrace to the coat he wears. But it is one thing to do our business heartily, and another to be so occupied with it that Christ is shut out, and instead of feeding on the bread that comes down from heaven—HIMSELF—to be feeding on the dry husks of business. To start with, you should run your business as the Lord’s steward, and for His glory primarily, not for your own profit. When this is the case the dull routine of business has a halo of glory around it, and commonplace actions are invested with a dignity, before which the crown and sceptre sink into utter insignificance.