Dear Chuck,
My son is 26, single, and a professional engineer making a great salary, but he spends it all! I sent him your cures for money sicknesses to review. He was very honest that he has three of the six: pride, greed, and idolatry. How do I help him now?

Worried Dad

Dear Worried Dad,

As the father of four sons, I can relate to your concerns. The Bible says in 3 John 1:4 (ESV): “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

I sometimes humorously added to that verse when talking to my boys: “I also have no greater freedom than to see my children paying their own way in life.” The situation your son is in is both good and bad news — good that he is working and earning a good income, but bad that he has not learned to properly manage it. It is also very good that he admits to having these three sicknesses.

What are money sicknesses?

Let's begin with a review of the six money sicknesses, and then we'll talk about the cures and how you can help your son. Below is a graph of the six money sicknesses.

These are the issues of our heart that are described in the Bible. In fact, these are more emphasized than any other topic related to money. It has been popularized that getting out of debt is the number one issue for Christians when it relates to personal finance. The reality is that the number one issue is the condition of our hearts.

God cares deeply about our motives and where we place our dependencies. His Word makes it very clear that money is a competitor for lordship of our lives and that we could be deceived very easily by money.

Financial pride

According to Scripture, wealth can be very dangerous to the condition of our hearts. The three issues that your son has identified are very common in today's culture. Pride is based on a comparison of ourselves to others, with a desire to have a little bit more than those we're comparing ourselves with. Typically, if we're running around with people who make a modest income and we have a little bit more, we tend to begin to think of ourselves as possibly smarter or superior to them. Pride is confidence inappropriately placed in our own abilities. It is a blessing that your son has recognized this in himself!

Greed is not good

Greed is wanting more of what we already have. You stated that your son makes a great income, which is fantastic. However, the Bible says we should be grateful for what we have and live with contentment. You see, from my own experience, I realized that greed destroys contentment and causes us to live on a treadmill of seeking more, more, more. Solomon said that those who love money never have enough (Ecclesiastes 5:10). It's a very true statement to this day!

Learning to be content with what you have enables you to achieve your financial goals because you do not spend everything, but with pride and greed at the very core, you are taken captive to the behaviors that fulfill the desires of your flesh. This is exactly what Satan would like to do — get us pursuing temporal riches, taking our eyes off eternal riches.

Idolatry of money

The admission of idolatry is so rare in today’s culture. In fact, it is often celebrated!

Idolatry is recognizing that you have a god that is worshipped and served instead of the true God who came to redeem us from our sin. We are all being controlled by something we actually love. The easiest way to identify it is to ask yourself, “What do I fear losing the most?” Whatever you fear losing the most is likely what you love the most. If it is money, then it has become your master.

Overcoming money sicknesses


The chart above lists not only the most common money sicknesses but also the Scriptures that reference how to overcome them. Observe them, and you will see that the Bible gives the cure or solution to these sicknesses of our hearts.

Pride to humility

The first is to move from pride to humility. Humility means taking our eyes off ourselves and sincerely focusing on the needs of others above our own. That is expressed in 1 Peter 5:5–6 (ESV): “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.”

Share with your son that humility is God's way of protecting us from humiliation. If we remain prideful, we set ourselves up for a great fall. Your advice can protect him from this mistake.

Treasures on earth to treasures in Heaven

Your son also identified a struggle with greed, which is wanting more of what you already have. Greed is driven by a focus on having treasures on earth. The solution is placing treasures in Heaven. Luke 12:33–34 (ESV): “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Clearly, treasures on earth can captivate our hearts and cause us to be unfulfilled. Help your son recognize that this is not our true home. We have better and lasting treasures to come.

From love of money to love of God

Quite remarkably, he identified idolatry as an issue. This is placing our identity, security, and purpose in money and possessions instead of Christ. The idolatry of money is the sin that captured my heart. The only solution is to develop a love for God, where we place our identity, security, and purpose in the living God and obey His Word.

Repentance

In my case, cures from these sicknesses required repentance — a true changing of my mind and beliefs, a turning from what was a lie to what is good and true. I suggest that you counsel your son to join a Crown Bible Study, then send him this article and tell him you'd like to talk with him about it. He is stuck in a vicious cycle. Proverbs 21:20 in the Living Bible says, “The foolish man spends whatever he gets.”

I would recommend that you begin meeting with him regularly to help him escape the trap he is in. I hope this article will be a big help to you and your family.

Crown has many biblically based, practical, and empowering courses and studies that can help your son find freedom in his finances. He can learn how to be a grateful financial steward of the resources God provides.

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