Dear Reader,
Whenever someone wants to score points against wealthy people using Christianity, they almost always pull out the same line:
“It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
(Matthew 19:24)
And if it’s not that, it’s the story of Jesus driving the moneylenders out of the temple.
Both are wielded like cudgels against anyone who’s successful.
But both are misunderstood.
You see, Jesus wasn’t condemning wealth. He was condemning idolatry in the first case, and corruption in a sacred space in the second.
Wealth, profit, productivity – these aren’t sins.
Just the opposite. In fact, they are the original commission given to mankind.
The Bible literally mandates us to create wealth
From the very beginning, God gave humanity a clear command:
“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion…” (Genesis 1:28)
Adam was placed in the garden “to work it and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15)
This was a mandate to transform chaos into order.
A pile of rocks scattered on the ground is chaos. Shape them into bricks, stack them into walls, and you’ve created a house – order.
Wilderness is chaos. Clear the land, plant crops, and harvest food, and you’ve created a farm – order.
And that’s the essence of wealth.
In economic terms, wealth is useful order – the arrangement of raw resources into forms that serve human needs.
An apple orchard creates wealth because it turns sunlight, soil, and water into food.
A factory creates wealth because it organizes labor, machines, and materials into finished goods.
Even knowledge creates wealth, because it orders experience into principles that can be reused and multiplied.
As Adam Smith noted in the Wealth of Nations, wealth consists of the goods and services that people value.
By this definition, profit is simply proof that you’ve succeeded in creating useful order…
That you’ve taken what was chaotic and made it valuable enough that others are willing to exchange their own resources for it.
That’s what profit really represents.
In the vast majority of cases, it’s not exploitation – it’s stewardship.
It’s proof that you’ve organized resources in a way that benefits others, while still caring for what you’ve been entrusted with.
This is the same lesson Jesus taught in the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25).
The servants who multiplied what they were given were praised as faithful stewards. The one who buried his share and produced nothing was condemned.
The foundation upon which everything else rests
And it’s not just a nice idea or a cultural preference.
Scripture makes provision the baseline duty of every believer.
Paul writes in 1 Timothy 5:8: “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
Notice what Paul doesn’t say.
He doesn’t say the man who fails to pray enough is worse than an unbeliever. Or the man who doesn’t read Scripture. Or even the man who neglects worship.
The one singled out is the man who refuses to provide.
In other words, if you’re relying on others to carry you when you could be productive, you’ve missed the most basic commission God gave mankind.
Think of Joseph in Egypt. By storing grain in the years of plenty, he provided for nations in the years of famine.
Productivity – wealth creation – is what enabled provision.
It’s the foundation on which everything else rests.
Before philosophy, before philanthropy, before lofty pursuits – you must first learn to be useful. To create something of value to exchange with others.
Once that base is secure, then you can build higher: study philosophy, explore the arts, focus on charity, and grow deeper in faith.
But without productivity – without wealth – those higher pursuits are resting on shaky ground.
It’s like trying to build the roof before laying the foundation.
What does the Bible actually condemn?
The Bible never condemns wealth creation.
It condemns the idolatry of wealth, and the corruption of your values in the pursuit of it.
From Genesis to Paul’s letters, the mandate is the same: be fruitful, subdue, provide.
Create enough to care for your family, contribute to your community, and have something left to give away.
Wealth isn’t greed. Wealth is proof you’ve been a faithful steward.
“I believe the power to make money is a gift from God… to be developed and used to the best of our ability for the good of mankind.”
~John D. Rockefeller
In some ways, maybe it was also an act of mercy when man was cursed to make his bread by the sweat of his brow.
Because it means the work itself has lessons to teach us.
Until next time,
-Joe Brown
Heresy Financial
Letters From a Heretic
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I really enjoyed this course. Joe has a special skill at teaching. He is very concise which I appreciated. The only thing I was an experienced investor at was real estate so I am a complete newbie to all the other assets he touches on in this course. I feel much more confident now about investing in the stock market, his explanation of options and hedging was really insightful as well.
I loved this course. It was knowledgable and gave me a new perspective on capital management. The portfolio you put together made so much sense to me, and it's kind of surprising that it's not more widespread. I really liked how you broke down mainstream portfolios and explained the pros and cons of each. It helped me get a better sense of the investment landscape and made me feel more confident
