Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

How does following Jesus influence the way you view and use money?

‘Disciple’ is one of those words that you hear so much around church that it can lose its meaning. To be a disciple means to follow a teacher, observing their way of life and making it a part of your own.

When I was a child, I was sort of like a disciple of my father. I was around him any chance I got, watching him closely, copying him, asking questions about what he thought and why he did things in certain ways. All this influenced the way I viewed the world and how I tried to act in it.

Whether we realise it or not, we are always observing the people and world around us. Learning, copying, trying new things, taking it all in. It’s all making us who we are.

In our world today, there are many different voices and influences. Sometimes they contradict each other, pulling us in different directions. It can be hard to know who is right, who has our best interests in mind, or even who might be exploiting us in some way.

In the age of social media, influences are now also influencers, part of an algorithm that we meditate on throughout our days. These influencers shape us into followers, slowly learning to think and act like they would like us to.

We are all disciples.

But what does this have to do with money? Why is money an essential part of discipleship?

Money Follows the Heart

When we follow certain influencers, we all know one of their goals is to sell us a certain lifestyle and associated products. We spend money because we want to align ourselves with their lifestyle and signal to others (and ourselves) the sort of people we are (and wish to be). Our decision to follow certain people has financial implications.

I have a pretty similar approach to managing money as my dad. I didn’t choose this consciously, but his habits (helpful and unhelpful ones) have rubbed off on me without me realising it.

A lot of discipleship happens without us fully realising it’s happening. But when I became a Christian, I made a conscious decision to follow Jesus, to become His disciple and live my life in a way that He would.

The longer I follow Jesus, the more I realise that being His disciple should influence the way I view and use money, because the way I view and use money reflects who I am.

If money is a store of value, the things we spend money on are a declaration of what we value. We use money every day to interact with the world, to construct an identity, build relationships, and secure our future.

If you opened up my banking app and looked at my spending habits, you would get a good idea of who I am. If you showed me your banking app, what would I learn about you?

What would your spending habits reveal about who you follow?

Jesus Himself said it like this:

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21)

Where you spend money, that’s where you will find your heart, your values and priorities, the things you desire and have chosen.

This simple teaching of Jesus goes beyond what we are typically taught at church when it comes to money. We are taught to give generously – and this is good. Generosity is a value of Jesus. But this teaching goes further.

Jesus invites us to think about the portion of money that we do not give away, the bit we keep and use for ourselves – the part that reflects who we are.

Submitting Money to Jesus

The brilliance of this teaching is that it works two ways. As both a diagnosis and a treatment plan.

On one hand, the way we spend money reveals who we are. It shows the current state of our hearts – diagnosis.

On the other hand, Jesus is saying that the way we spend money shapes our hearts. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be. The more we spend on certain things, the more we will value them. This means we can choose to spend money differently, and over time, our hearts will change – treatment plan.

So how does following Jesus influence the way you view and use money?

The challenge for us is that Jesus never gave us a five-step financial plan. He lived and taught in a different time with a different financial system. But He did give us timeless wisdom.

Our responsibility as His disciples in twenty-first century Australia is to prayerfully submit the way we view and use money to Him. Because money is an essential part of discipleship.