Money Lessons From The Book Of Proverbs - Chapter 11: Financial bondage

The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower is servant to the lender. -Proverbs 22:7 NKJV

Poverty and indebtedness robs a person of true freedom. You can be free legislatively, you can even be free spiritually, but if you are poor and in debt your freedom is not complete. You will still be subject to your creditor; you will still be servant or slave to the lender. Even though slavery has long been abolished, if you are in debt you are still in bondage.

Financial freedom

Therefore, you have to undertake a journey towards freedom, financial freedom. You have to break the bondage that poverty brings upon you. Financial freedom is achievable when you “owe no man nothing”. That is where it starts. It is achieved by having more than enough resources, to an extent that work becomes a pleasure not a necessity. The goal is to redeem your time, and do that as soon as possible.

Money Lessons From the Book Of Proverbs - Chapter 14: Purpose of money

Money is a tool to be used, not a god to be served
“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” -Luke 16:13 NKJV

Greek word for ‘serve’ is douleuo which means to obey and submit to. It is impossible, for a servant to serve, obey and submit to two masters. You cannot give allegiance to two Masters. It is important to note that money is recognized as a master that can be obeyed. And indeed it is a powerful force, where people who disregard God have bowed to money as a master.

A man who has subjected himself to money, making it his master, thus loving it to an extent that he will kill to acquire it will suffer greatly as the Scripture warns. The Scripture says a person under the mastery of money will stray from the faith, and will pierce himself with many sorrows (I Tim 6 v 10). If sorrows and straying are the results when money is your master, then money is a bad master.