Money Solves Physical Problems
It Cannot Solve Spiritual Problems
Collective wisdom, I suppose, can have some utility, but be very careful about getting your wisdom from the masses. God, through Scripture, has a way of setting the matter straight.
Today’s article deals with one of those matters. Money can solve physical problems. It cannot solve spiritual problems. I hope that whatever situation you are in, you are learning contentment before God.
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Money Solves Physical Problems
It Cannot Solve Spiritual Problems
A man said online, “Money will not fix all your problems.” Another man answered, “No offense, but money would solve literally every single one of my problems, like all of them. I don’t have a single problem that money wouldn’t immediately solve.”
Money can solve problems that come from a lack of basic needs, the provision of things needful for daily life. A man who cannot eat, sleep under a roof, get medicine, keep transportation, or hold his household together has real problems that money can answer.
The lie sits in the word “all.” Money can solve physical problems. It cannot solve spiritual problems. It can put bread on the table, but it cannot make a man thankful. It can pay for shelter, but it cannot give a man peace with God.
When Basic Needs Are Not Met
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs gives us a simple way to say what every honest man already knows. A starving man thinks first about food. A man sleeping in the rain thinks first about shelter. A man with a broken leg thinks first about help. His soul still matters, but his body is demanding immediate attention.
If two men are walking beside a ditch and they see a man at the bottom with his leg bent in a direction God never intended it to bend, the first duty is clear. They get him out of the ditch. They call for help. They answer the physical crisis in front of them.
The same truth applies to daily life. A man without the ability to provide for his basic needs is pushed into survival mode. He starts making decisions from hunger, fear, pain, and exhaustion.
The Bible does not treat basic provision as a shallow concern. Agur prayed for the kind of provision that keeps a man from being crushed by poverty or corrupted by fullness.
Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. (Proverbs 30:8-9)
That prayer is balanced because God knows man. Poverty can bring a man low. Riches can make a man forget God. The man who has nothing may be driven by desperation, and the man who has abundance may begin to speak as though he needs no Lord.
When The Question Moves Inward
Researchers found that daily emotional happiness rises sharply as a man moves from severe lack toward basic provision. A man making $5,000 a year may not know where his next meal is coming from or whether he will have a dry place to sleep. As income rises from $5,000 toward $50,000, the outward conditions of his life change in ways he can feel every day. But from roughly $50,000 to $500,000 a year, the same kind of measurable increase in daily emotional happiness does not appear. At that level, the question has moved inward. A man with money enough to live in the world can still be discontent, guilty, proud, lustful, envious, faithless, and dissatisfied inside.
That distinction matters. From severe lack to basic provision, a man’s outward condition weighs heavily on his daily happiness. When a man has food, shelter, safety, and the ordinary things required for life, more money cannot keep reaching deeper into him and repairing what is wrong there.
Elvis had everything that a worldly man could ever dream of. The world did not leave him outside the gate while other men enjoyed the life money could buy. Yet he still spoke of lacking satisfaction inside. No amount of money could give him the contentment that belongs to a man who is right with God and settled under His rule.
That is the modern illustration, but Scripture gives the stronger case. A man can have enough money to answer the problems created by lack and still remain empty before God. He can live in comfort and remain without contentment.
When Solomon Ran The Experiment
Solomon had enough wealth to test the world’s promises without restraint. He did not have to wonder what pleasure, possessions, building projects, entertainment, women, and greatness would give him.
I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees: I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me: I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. (Ecclesiastes 2:4-8)
Solomon built, planted, gathered, bought, collected, and surrounded himself with pleasure. He had what men imagine would finally make life whole. He withheld nothing from his eyes.
And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11)
Solomon’s money gave him access. It did not give him rest. He reached the end of the experiment and found vanity staring back at him.
This is why the social media answer fails at “all.” Solomon had the kind of money that could remove every ordinary obstacle. He still had to face the condition of his soul. Wealth can fund appetite, but it cannot govern appetite. It can widen opportunity, but it cannot create faithfulness.
Conclusion
Paul gives the Christian answer without pretending money is meaningless and without allowing money to become god.
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. (1 Timothy 6:6-8)
A Christian may ask God for basic provision without shame. A man in the ditch needs help out of the ditch. A hungry man needs food. A household under real lack needs provision.
No man should ask money to do the work of God. Money can help a man live in this world. It cannot make him ready to leave it.