What is financial holiness? The word holiness is very prevalent in scripture. It’s the idea of being spiritually whole and of unimpaired innocence and virtue. It means to be free from sinful affections, pure in heart, Godly, irreproachable, guiltless and acceptable to God.
That may seem like a tall order, yet it can also serve as a useful definition. Alex Cook, founder of Wealth With Purpose, recently joined us on 20Twenty to explain how he thinks we can explore these attributes of God by applying them in a financial context.
We’ve Become Tolerant of Sin
‘I think our society and even churches to some degree,’ says Alex, ‘have become very tolerant of sin. We’ve lost this concept of holiness and how important it is for a believer to walk holy. And of course we need God’s help to do so. But when it comes to our finances, it’s particularly important.’
We all interact with money every day of our lives, and Alex believes we need to be holy with the way we handle it. That could be anything from our day to day transactions, to making sure we’re being honest and trustworthy. But what about the way we invest our money? Are we being holy in the way we go about that?
‘Obviously a big area of this holiness is around business dealings,’ says Alex. ‘Do we honour the agreements that we enter into? Do we pay our staff fairly and on time? Do we not overcharge our customers? These are all areas that I would say fall under this idea of being financially holy. So it’s a very important area for us to explore as believers. Holiness is a quality of God himself.’
We Were Chosen By God
We were saved so that we would be holy. In Ephesians, it says God chose us before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. And then Peter says to be holy in all you do. So when it comes to money, it’s absolutely critical that we’re holy in the way that we interact with it.
‘It’s so important that we take the view that God is concerned with the way we handle ourselves,’ says Alex. ‘He’s concerned with our character. And of course, He’s calling us into this life of holiness. It’s a really important thing for us to make sure we are being holy in the way we handle what God has put into our hands.’
Alex says it’s important that our actions line up with Scripture. We need to be obedient to the Word of God. One of the big challenges for Christians today is the way we invest our money. Are we being intentional about sowing the resources that God gives us into good soil? Or are we investing in things that harm others?
Becoming More Christ Like
‘The way we handle ourselves in business environments is critical,’ says Alex, ‘because we’re representatives of God in the marketplace. We need to make sure that we are honouring Him and bringing glory to Him. As Christians, we should be the ones leading by example. I look forward to the day when society and governments turn to Christians as the ones they can rely on and trust.’
‘It’s not about being perfect,’ he says. ‘But we need to strive as believers towards this lifelong journey of becoming more Christ like.’
Listen to Alex’s full interview on 20Twenty below, or for more resources visit our Vision Store.
