CRUCIAL

QUESTIONS

No. | 23

How Should I Think about Money?

R.C. Sproul

Reformation Trust a division of ligonier ministries, orlando, fl

How Should I Think about Money?

© 2016 by R.C. Sproul

Published by Reformation Trust Publishing

A division of Ligonier Ministries

421 Ligonier Court, Sanford, FL 32771

Ligonier.org

ReformationTrust.com

Corporate Graphics

July 2016

First edition

ISBN 978-1-56769-507-6 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-56769-691-2 (ePub)

ISBN 978-1-56769-692-9 (Kindle)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher, Reformation Trust Publishing. The only exception is brief quotations in published reviews.

Cover design: Vanessa Ayala

Series template design: Gearbox Studios

All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sproul, R. C. (Robert Charles), 1939- author.

Title: How should I think about money? / by R.C. Sproul.

Description: Orlando, FL : Reformation Trust Publishing, 2016. | Series: Crucial questions series ; No. 23

Identifiers: LCCN 2016011431 | ISBN 9781567695076

Subjects: LCSH: Christian stewardship. | Money--Religious aspects--Christianity. | Economics--Religious aspects--Christianity. | Wealth--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Classification: LCC BV772 .S69 2016 | DDC 241/.68--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/201601143

Contents

One—Taking Care of Our House

Two—Reasons for Poverty

Three—The Building of Wealth

Four—The Theory of Value

Five—What Is Money?

Six—Inflation

Seven—Interest

Eight—Participating in Ownership

Chapter One

Taking Care of Our House

We all appreciate words of commendation from those we serve—our coaches, bosses, or others in positions of authority. This desire for commendation reaches its apex when it comes to our greatest authority, our Lord and King, Jesus Christ. A word of commendation from Christ is the ultimate commendation for our servanthood. Every Christian longs to hear a certain phrase at the end of his life, words that will come from the mouth of Christ: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

The concept in the New Testament that describes and defines what it means to be a servant before Christ is the word stewardship. In these pages, we will explore this idea. There is a link between the biblical concept of stewardship and the academic discipline of economics, which will also be addressed.

Economics and the ethical and emotional issues that surround it are frequent topics of discussion and front-page news items. This is particularly true in an election year, when much of the debate focuses on economic issues. What we don’t see initially is that other issues, such as education and abortion, ...