handling your finances

⁷The rich rule over the poor. And the borrower is servant to the lender.

¹⁰For desire is the root of all evils. Some persons, hungering in this way, have strayed from the faith and have entangled themselves in many sorrows.

⁵Let your behavior be without avarice; be content with what you are offered. For he himself has said, “I will not abandon you, and I will not neglect you.”

²⁰There is desirable treasure, as well as oil, in the habitations of the just. And the imprudent man will waste it.

²⁴No one is able to serve two masters. For either he will have hatred for the one, and love the other, or he will persevere with the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

¹¹Substance obtained in haste will be diminished. But what is collected by hand, little by little, shall be multiplied.

⁶But I say this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And whoever sows with blessings shall also reap from blessings: ⁷each one giving, just as he has determined in his heart, neither out of sadness, nor out of obligation. For God loves a cheerful giver.

²³Be diligent to know the countenance of your cattle, and consider your own flocks, ²⁴for you will not always hold this power. But a crown shall be awarded from generation to generation.

⁹Honor the Lord with your substance, and give to him from the first of all your fruits, ¹⁰and then your storehouses will be filled with abundance, and your presses shall overflow with wine.

²⁸For who among you, wanting to build a tower, would not first sit down and determine the costs that are required, to see if he has the means to complete it?

¹⁹And may my God fulfill all your desires, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

¹⁰Where there are many riches, there will also be many to consume these things. And how does it benefit the one who possesses, except that he discerns the wealth with his own eyes?

¹⁰Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, and let there be food in my house. And test me about this, says the Lord, as to whether I will not open to you the floodgates of heaven, and pour out to you a blessing, all the way to abundance.

²⁸For who among you, wanting to build a tower, would not first sit down and determine the costs that are required, to see if he has the means to complete it? ²⁹Otherwise, after he will have laid the foundation and not been able to finish it, everyone who sees it may begin to mock him, ³⁰saying: ‘This man began to build what he was not able to finish.’

¹¹So then, if you have not been faithful with iniquitous mammon, who will trust you with what is true?

⁶Go to the ant, you lazy one, and consider her ways, and so learn wisdom. ⁷For though she has no ruler, nor instructor, nor leader, ⁸she provides meals for herself in the summer, and she gathers at the harvest what she may eat.

¹⁴For it is like a man setting out on a long journey, who called his servants and delivered to them his goods. ¹⁵And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, yet to another he gave one, to each according to his own ability. And promptly, he set out. ¹⁶Then he who had received five talents went out, and he made use of these, and he gained another five. ¹⁷And similarly, he who had received two gained another two. ¹⁸But he who had received one, going out, dug into the earth, and he hid the money of his lord. ¹⁹Yet truly, after a long time, the lord of those servants returned and he settled accounts with them.

⁸But if anyone has no concern for his own, and especially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith, and he is worse than an unbeliever.