The majority of practicing Christians believe that tithing 10% of their income is the biblical standard for living out financial faithfulness — but according to Christian finance expert and Ramsey Solutions personality George Kamel, true financial faithfulness requires a lot more than that.
On this episode of “Relatable,” Kamel tells Allie Beth Stuckey what it really means to honor God with our finances.
Financial faithfulness, says Kamel, starts with changing our mindset about money as a whole.
“I think people underestimate the freedom that exists when you go, ‘You know what? I'm a steward of this money. It's not mine. I'm managing it for someone else,”' he says, “and when you do that, you look at money through a whole different lens because now it's not all about me and my selfishness and what could I do with this? It frees me to go, ‘OK, it's God's money.”’
This mentality shift, Kamel suggests, creates “three buckets” our money can go into: enjoyment, saving/investing, and giving.
But all of the buckets must be poured into “wisely,” he emphasizes.
“How do we enjoy [money] wisely? Well, obviously, we don't want to, you know, use it on debauchery, but you can use it to go on vacation. You can use it to upgrade the car. You can use it to have a nice house. That's OK. Those things aren't evil in and of themselves,” he tells Allie.
As for investing, Kamel points to the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 to argue that smart investing is biblical.
“Who got all the accolades? The guy who actually planted it and grew the money versus the guy who planted it and nothing came of it and it was just wasted,” he says, “and so you want to make sure that you're stewarding this well, that it's growing so that you can give an inheritance to your children's children as Proverbs says.”
But in the Bible, money is most often discussed in the context of giving charitably.
“With the 2,300 scriptures about wealth and possessions, I think the authors of the Bible knew that we would struggle with the treasures on earth part more than the treasures in heaven part,” says Kamel, urging people to give their money for kingdom purposes.
Allie then wonders if it’s possible to be “too frugal.”
It all comes down to one’s motive, says Kamel.
“Why am I being frugal? To create margin to have kingdom impact? Great! That's a healthy motive," he says, “but if it's just to save because I'm miserly and I have a scarcity mindset, there is no biblical scripture to back that up.”
To hear more, watch the episode above.
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