Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. – 1 Corinthians 4:2

Today's Scripture Reading (March 28, 2024): 1 Corinthians 4

I am saving for retirement. I believe that it is the responsible thing to do. Some people seem to think that I am good with money. The truth is that I have learned a few fundamental truths, and I both practice and teach certain financial concepts, but I am far from being any kind of economic expert. The concepts I practice aren't mysterious and aren't easy to practice, but they are worth learning and following.

One concept is that the path to getting rich begins not with making a lot of money but living within your means. The amount of money you bring in is not some abstract concept, and when you total it all up, your expenses need to be less than that amount of money you have raised over a specific period.

Another concept is that debt is terrible. Our society is built around the idea of borrowing money. But the truth that no one advertises is that by borrowing money, we make the lender rich and the borrower poor. I know too many people who are approaching their golden years, and their debt is strangling them. So, make every effort to pay down the debt. (An aside, our nations are way too far in debt. I shudder to think of all the good things our governments could do for their citizens if we did not have to service their out-of-control debt or if we could spend the money we use to pay the interest on our debt to support our society. But that is a different conversation.)

Running alongside the idea that debt is bad, you need a rainy day or an emergency fund if you want to stay out of debt. Most of us go into debt because an emergency arises, and we don't have the money we need to take care of the problem. The best way around that is to have an emergency fund equal to three to six months of expenses. Then, regardless of what might happen, you have the funds available to take care of the emergency.

All of this describes how I try to live, sometimes more successfully than at other times. But it also ends what I know about money. So, I trust a financial adviser to invest my money because they know more than I do about investing and other essential money practices. They are the ones who invest and suggest various economic strategies. As far as money goes, these people have earned my trust and have proven faithful.

Paul reminds the Corinthian Church, and by extension us, that they, and we, are not the owners of the Christian Church. We are the stewards of something that belongs to God. And we need to prove to be faithful with what God has entrusted to our care. We will never own the church, but our job is to manage it, enabling it to remain strong through the generations. So that one day, we will hand off a healthy church to those responsible for it after we are gone.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 5