I’ve seen a problem. Maybe you have to? Anyone watching five minutes of personal development YouTube will quickly discover most popular channels don’t broadcast an explicit biblical worldview. That can be an issue. Especially if you’re a Christian who is interested in bettering your life. You want to improve your financial situation, you want better work, and you see some positive aspects in the personal development space — but you don’t want to lose your soul in the learning process. I feel your pain.

The aim of this video is to lay out a framework for financial success that is supported by Scripture. That way, as you’re learning personal development in the financial arena you can be assured you’re learning in a way that’s supported by your faith — and not working against it. 

Earl Nightingale’s Definition for Success

Before we delve into what a biblical framework for financial success is, it’s first important to identify what success is. Earl Nightingale, a pioneer in American personal development, once gave a succinct definition for success. Nightingale wrote, “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.”

Now Nightingale was teaching a different generation when he wrote that definition. It may help if I update it just a bit. “Progressive” suggests continuous improvement. It’s not static and it’s not complete. “Realization” is creating something planned. “Worthy ideal” is an open concept, but it could be described as something worth pursuing. So to put Nightingale’s phrase in a more familiar jargon, “success is continuous improvement and creating something planned and worth pursuing.” So if Nightingale’s definition for success feels a bit arcane, just use my updated version: Success is “continuous improvement and creating something planned and worth pursuing”.

Notice one thing about this definition for success: it does not mention monetary gains. Nightingale was concerned about financial returns, but it was not his sole consideration. Instead, this definition is broad enough to capture multiple goals and generally acceptable in the personal development space. Once again, “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” That’s where we’re trying to go. Simple enough. 

Now let’s move onto the next areas where we might get a little more queasy: what are the worthy ideals in the financial realm. It’s important you understand this three-part framework – a framework that can be backed by ample Scripture. Those worthy financial ideals relate to temporal, generational, and eternal areas. The Bible supports all three of these ideals, but you may need a little help with some of the details. So let’s dig in. 

Temporal Financial Success

The first area of financial success the Bible mentions relates to temporal success. These are the earthly, transient, fleeting, and this-life success. By the way, this is the success most personal development programs focus on. Possessions, achievement, and yes, even money, would fall into the category of temporal success. Though I do not believe the Bible focuses on these temporal successes as an end in themselves, it does acknowledge earthly achievements can be worthy achievements. And it’s really not hard to find the proof texts. Check out these verses. 

Proverbs 21:5 states, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” In this verse, Solomon points out that diligence has a benefit: abundance. He also points out that hastiness has a downside, poverty. The verse cannot mean to its original hearers eternal abundance or else poverty wouldn’t be mentioned. No, Solomon is clear — when you’re diligent, you get more than you need. When you’re too fast, you get poor.    

And here’s another similar verse in Proverbs 10:4: “A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.” This is a similar verse with different phrasing. Bottom line, if you’re a slacker you’ll grow poorer. If you work hard, you’ll grow richer. Wealth, I think, is a relative term here. It’s not telling us you’ll become Elon Musk. But it’s also not telling us you’ll become a street beggar. Mind you, these are truisms that are not true 100% all of the time. But wealth tends to follow diligence, and an empty wallet tends to follow laziness.

Here’s one more verse that you may have never considered regarding aiming for temporal success. Ephesians 4:28 says, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” Now I want you to see something hidden that Paul assumes in this verse. He tells us “honest work with” (our) “own hands” tends to give us more supplies than we need. In fact, it’s enough that we can “share with anyone in need.” Did you see that? Right there, in the pages of your Bible we see the Scripturally-endorsed recipe for financial success: Work hard with your hands and you will get more than you need – enough to share.   

It bears mentioning that temporal gains aren’t limited to monetary rewards. What about all those things we aim for in just a regular Christian life: answered prayers, good marriages, good relationships with each other, friends and families being converted and changing the trajectory of their lives. All of these things are areas of temporal success. They are things we look forward to seeing fulfilled in this life. Financial success is just another aspect of temporal success we can aim for in a biblical framework. 

Generational Financial Success

The second type of financial success the Bible commends is generational success. This success, if achieved, extends beyond our own lives. We can live on the earth beyond our mortal lives, in a way, through generational financial achievements. We may not be living, but our legacy lives on. You can see this in a few different places in Scripture. Here are two passages.  

Ecclesiastes 5:13-14 says, “I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners, or wealth lost through some misfortune, so that when they have children there is nothing left for them to inherit.” To Solomon, it’s bad when parents lose all their childrens’ inheritance. The Preacher calls it a “grievous evil”. The implication behind this concept is that parents should have enough left over at the end of their lives to leave something behind for their children. We’re not given an amount. That’s left up to our imagination. But it’s substantial enough for the author to mention it.

Or what about Proverbs 13:22? “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.” Not only is this “good man” leaving an inheritance to his family, he’s bequeathing treasure to his grandchildren. This is a generational transfer of wealth that won’t be enjoyed by the dead man, but his legacy will be remembered two generations after he passes – and possibly longer.

Eternal Financial Success

Finally, and perhaps the most interesting of financial successes relates to the hereafter. Eternal financial success is the success that keeps all the others in check. This is also the area I think is misunderstood in the popular imagination. Let’s dig into one of these verses related to eternity and finances.  

Jesus said (Matthew 6:19-24), “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Alright, let’s try to understand this passage. Taken at face value, Jesus is telling us to not save a bunch of money because of thievery and rot. Instead, he tells us to make our deposits in heaven. Because it’s safe there. And it’s also a good way to transfer our affections from this life to the next one. True enough. I’ve got no argument with Jesus.

The question, I think, is was Jesus talking about a complete cessation of storing earthly treasure? I don’t think so. Keep in mind, in the chapter before Jesus said “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” (Matthew 5:29). Did Jesus want a bunch of one-eyed disciples? No. It was a figure of speech. An overstatement for effect. And we still quote him to this day, but not because we think he was being literal. He was emphasizing the importance of purity relative to our physical health. And in the “treasures on earth” passage he’s emphasizing the importance of heavenly treasure over earthly treasure. That’s his point.

Here’s why I say that. Jesus is not negating anything written before he arrived on the scene. True, there was some fulfillment in what he did. In Matthew 5:17 Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” So the previous Scriptures still stand — even the ones discussing temporal and generational success we just mentioned. 

Another reason, I don’t think Jesus was being categorical in the “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures” verse is the early disciples did not understand him in that way. The Apostle Paul, who wrote half the New Testament actually addressed “rich” people — a category of people that wouldn’t be in the church if people took Jesus’ words hyper-literally. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:17, “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.” Why was Paul addressing those who were “rich in this present age”? Because there were some rich people in Timothy’s congregation. That’s why. So the New Testament certainly allows for some in the church to be wealthy relative to others. And they are not necessarily disobeying Christ’s commands about storing wealth in Matthew 5.  

Once again, what did Jesus actually mean in that above passage? Jesus is highlighting the importance of heavenly wealth compared to earthly wealth. If you’re all about storing up material wealth with no concern for heavenly wealth, that’s not the way. Or as Jesus says in another passage. “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:20-21). Jesus is not condemning whole-cloth temporal success. But he is condemning financial success that does not integrate eternity into the framework.

So our eternal financial success should entail what Jesus talked about in that original passage: “but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” We should be making regular deposits in heaven so to speak. In that way, we will ensure our hearts are not so tied to things on this earth. Because we should all know, we cannot ultimately serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24).  

Takeaway: Total Personal Finance Through a Biblical Lens 

The takeaway on this video is simple: I want you to think about your financial life through a biblical lens. Personally, it’s taken a while to understand this perspective on financial success in the Bible. But it’s there. All three areas (temporal, generational, eternal) are legitimate and supported by non-abrogated passages in our Bibles. If you don’t believe me, go look them up yourselves. And weight them out — especially against other passages that you think says something differently.

And going forward as a student of personal development, keep this framework in mind. You need all three areas to have a robust and biblical perspective on financial success. It’s not just about heaven with no thought of earth. And it’s certainly not about this-world financial success to the exclusion of eternity. We should keep all the verses in mind as we’re building a biblical framework for financial success.

What do you think? Do you want to grow financially, but feel like your faith is holding you back? Leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. I aim to respond to all your comments, plus it helps other people find this video as we think through these issues together.