The financial services industry touts the importance of saving for retirement. The message often used is that retirement is the time in life when one can do one’s will according to one’s ways. The root of this thinking is a humanistic worldview—a view of reality that claims each person has the right to assume the role of god in his or her life.

While Scripture commends the wisdom of saving resources,ⁱ the purpose of resources is not to do man’s will according to man’s ways but to do God’s will according to God’s ways. This distinction can be difficult to make; the motive of a person can be veiled. Professing Christians sometimes hide their motives with sayings such as: “I want to be rich to support kingdom causes.” This statement and other equivalent statements appear to be benevolent ways of rationalizing the desire for temporal wealth (e.g., money) by those who believe that temporal wealth is unholy. Not every professing Christian, however, agrees that temporal wealth and holiness are mutually exclusive. Some believe that Christians are entitled to temporal wealth.

To gain a biblical perspective on the relationship between temporal wealth and holiness, consider the above text. Jesus said that a person cannot serve two masters because the service to one master excludes the service to the other. This is a form of monogamy relative to serving masters. The Greek word in this text that is translated cannot is δuναμαι. The English word cannot can refer to either permission or power to do something. However, the Greek word suggests the idea of power. This nuance intimates that humans do not have the power or ability to serve God and temporal wealth. Therefore, anyone desiring temporal wealth for the alleged purpose of serving God is deceived.

To live well in God’s universe, we must follow his principles, after all, as Creator, he alone has the purview to define the rules of his universe. It is therefore incumbent on his creatures to function congruent with his defined reality.

Since Christ told us that it is impossible to worship God and temporal wealth, we must choose. And the only right choice is to worship God. This means that temporal wealth cannot be an object of worship but is simply a tool to be used by mankind to facilitate the will of God.

Here is your business tip. Organizational leaders must guard against the temptation to seek to worship God and money, which is impossible. The primary goal of organizations should not be financial profit but alignment with the will and ways of God. Profit is a by-product of alignment with God. And given the intentional strategic nature of God, the profit that God grants an organization is what is needed for the organization to fulfill God’s purpose. Organizational success is therefore measured by the degree of obedience to the will and ways of God. Financial considerations are secondary to the primary objective of alignment with God. This makes organizational leadership and financial stewardship spiritual activities.

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ⁱ Proverbs 20:20.