Bible verses about money

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The last line of Jesus' teaching on treasure, and the one that explains the rest. He does not say the heart chooses the treasure; He says the treasure pulls the heart.

A generous soul will prosper, and he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

A proverb from Solomon's collection, and one of the Bible's plainest claims about giving. The giver is the one who ends up refreshed, which is the opposite of how generosity looks from the outside.

The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.

Not a command but an observation, and an honest one. The proverb does not forbid borrowing; it tells you plainly what borrowing costs, so that you count it before you sign.

Kindness to the poor is a loan to the LORD, and He will repay the lender.

Giving to the poor is described as lending to God, which puts the repayment in His hands rather than the recipient's. A verse for the moment you wonder whether the help will be wasted.

He who loves money is never satisfied by money, and he who loves wealth is never satisfied by income. This too is futile.

The Teacher, traditionally identified with Solomon, had more money than anyone in Israel and reports that it never once satisfied. He is not moralizing; he is giving evidence.

Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver.

Paul is raising money for famine relief in Jerusalem, and he refuses to pressure anyone. The amount is left to each heart; the only thing he asks is that the giving be glad.

Whoever is faithful with very little will also be faithful with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

The close of the parable of the shrewd manager. Faithfulness with money is treated as a small thing, and as the very thing that shows whether a person can be trusted with more than money.

And He said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves against every form of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Said to a man who wanted Jesus to settle an inheritance. Greed is called something to guard against, like a thief, and the reason is a sentence worth learning on its own: a life is not its possessions.

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

Often misquoted as money is the root of all evil. Paul says the love of it, and he says all kinds, and then he describes the damage he has watched it do to people he knew.

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”

The command is to be content, and the reason is a promise about God's presence, not about provision. The writer quotes Deuteronomy and Joshua: you will not be left, so you do not have to grab.

No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Jesus names money, and nothing else, as the rival master to God. The verse is not against having it; it is against serving it, and it says the two masters cannot share.

In everything, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

Paul, saying goodbye to the Ephesian elders, quotes a saying of Jesus that the Gospels do not record. He had worked with his hands to prove it, and he wanted them to remember the working as much as the words.

Of course, godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, so we cannot carry anything out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.

Paul to his young colleague Timothy, on what counts as gain. The math is simple: you arrive with nothing, you leave with nothing, and food and clothing in between is enough to be content.

Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread that is my portion. Otherwise, I may have too much and deny You, saying, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, profaning the name of my God.

Agur, one of the few named authors in Proverbs, asks for the middle. Riches might make him forget God and poverty might make him steal, and he knows himself well enough to fear both.