We’ve got a great question to answer today about investing in the stock market. Some Christians are very concerned about this for a couple of reasons, and actually for a couple of very good reasons.
When Christians Should Not Invest in the Stock Market
One of them would be investing in a company or a business that is doing something or producing a good or a service that’s not so good. Particularly something that would be offensive to God. I think it goes without saying that the Lord would not want any Christians investing in and therefore profiting by a company that, for example, produces pornography, right? Right.
If they’re harming people by the “service” that they’re providing and people are paying for, or harming people by “goods” that they’re manufacturing, then Christians don’t want to be in partnership with that and profiting by that.
I personally would never want to invest, for example, in a cigarette company. I mean, honestly, what is there good to say about the whole cigarette industry? It causes people to get lung caner and to die prematurely. So you don’t want to be invested in some cigarette manufacturing company, all right?
Isn’t Investing in the Stock Market Storing Up Treasures on Earth?
Another reason that Christians are concerned about this—and rightfully so—is because Jesus talked about not laying up your treasures on earth, but laying them up in heaven. Because where your treasures are, there is your heart also (see Matthew 6:19-21).
But I don’t think that Jesus meant by that that we shouldn’t own anything on this earth, right? We have to have a place to sleep, we have to have a place to live, we have to have clothes to wear. And so obviously we have to decide what we actually need and what we really don’t need.
And all the things that we really don’t need, it would be best to take the money that we would use to buy those things and lay the treasure up in heaven. Because it’s yours forever then. That’s the best investment, right?
Anything that you invest on this earth, anything that you accumulate on this earth, one day you will not be the owner of it. But if you invest in heavenly treasures, as Jesus said, you never lose them. So that’s the best investment. Everybody has to draw the line and wrestle with what should be laid up in heaven and what should be kept on this earth.
When Investing in the Stock Market is Wise
So why would anyone want to invest in the stock market in the first place? Well, simply because it’s a potential means of saving. And better than that, it’s a potential means of investing so that the value of what you invest eventually goes up. So in the end you have more than what you started with.
Now let’s consider a couple of facets of that. One thing is of course, why would you want to save up? What would be valid reasons for saving up?
Well, one is to prepare for things in the future that you might otherwise not be prepared for. Things happen. Calamities happen. It’s just wise to be prepared. One thing that’s going to happen to all of us is that we’re going to get older. In fact, right now you’re getting older, and if you notice, I’m getting older too. One day we eventually die.
Investing in the Stock Market to Prepare for Old Age
We’d all like to think that Jesus is going to return before we die and so therefore we’re not going to go through old age, but I notice that most people in human history have gone through old age and its accompanying challenges.
I just wheeled my own 86-year-old father out of my house where he lives, in his wheelchair, out to the car, so he could go to his regular therapy session to help him once again be able to walk (which he hasn’t been able to do since he had a stroke some months ago).
So it’s a good thing my dad was somewhat prepared for this time in his life financially or else he would have been forced to have been a burden on somebody else. So saving for old age can be an act of love and an act of love toward the very ones that you love the most, your own family members. Because they’re the ones who are naturally going to assume responsibility for you in your latter years. Okay?
The Stock Market Is Not a Good Short-Term Investment
Now the stock market specifically is not a good short-term investment. Because it goes up and down. And stocks of individual companies, their value goes up and down all based on the fear and the greed of all the rest of the stockholders.
So if you’re going to get into the stock market, you’ve got to think in terms of a length of time that makes sense, where you have a reasonable chance of not losing your money. The stock market goes through bull and bear phases where sometimes it’s generally going up and sometimes it’s generally going down. You don’t want to get on that at the wrong time, because then yours goes down and it would have been better that you had never invested.
So that’s why a lot of people use the stock market to invest for retirement. Because if you start early, in your 20s or 30s, then in the end, the chances are it’s going to be worth more than what you put in it.
Why I Avoid Investing in Mutual Funds
I have more to say on this in our next Little Lesson. But something that I think that I’ve felt I needed to avoid in my savings plan for my elderly years is investing in mutual funds.
It’s very wise to spread your investments if you’re investing in the stock market over a wide range of stocks, because then if some go down others will probably go up. And you have a better chance of not losing your money and actually making some money.
But the trouble with mutual funds is, someone else is in control of which companies they invest in. And you might, inadvertently, through a mutual fund be investing in some companies that are doing things that God hates, okay? The products they manufacture are not good, the services that they provide are not good.
Those companies I think are a minority, but people are sinful and they buy sinful products and sinful services. And we don’t want to be a part of that profiting over that. Okay, more to say on our next little lesson. Thank you so much for joining me. God bless you.
