Christian Books on Money and Giving: 13 Classics on Stewardship
The best short Christian book on money is Andrew Murray's Money. It has four chapters and takes about an hour. Murray starts where Jesus did, watching people put money into the temple treasury, and asks the question Christ asks: not how much you give, but how much you keep, and why. Then read John Wesley's sermon The Use of Money, the source of his famous rule: gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can.
The old writers were not shy about money. They saw it as one of the plainest tests of a heart. Everything we have belongs to God, and we hold it as stewards who will give an account. Giving is a grace, not a tax, and it is measured by love and sacrifice, not by the size of the gift. The love of money is idolatry, and it creeps into ordinary trade and spending without our noticing. And God can be trusted to supply what His work needs. Some of these writers proved that by living for decades without a salary.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
Matthew 6:19-20
Here are thirteen of the best books on money and giving in TheWay Library, from short and practical to long and searching.
Start here
1. Money, by Andrew Murray
Four short chapters: Christ's estimate of money, the Holy Spirit and money, the grace of God and money, and the poverty of Christ. The first is on the widow's two mites. The second argues that when the Spirit took charge of the first Christians, their money came under His control too. The third takes Paul's teaching on the Corinthian collection, where giving flowed out of joy in deep poverty.
How different our standard and Christ's. We ask how much a man gives. Christ asks, how much he keeps.
Money, Christ's Estimate of Money
All the world's judgments of the value of gifts are reversed in heaven; the love that gives liberally according to what it hath is met by the Father's love from above.
Money, The Grace of God and Money
See more in Andrew Murray's books. Read Money.
2. The Use of Money and The Good Steward, by John Wesley
Both sermons are in volume 4 of Wesley's Works, with others on self-denial and evil-speaking. The Use of Money gives his three rules and is still the plainest teaching on the subject. Gain honestly, without harming your body, soul or neighbor. Save by cutting out waste. Then give. The Good Steward shows that life, body, goods and talents are all held in trust from God.
Having first gained all you can, and secondly saved all you can, then give all you can.
The Works of John Wesley, Vol. 4, The Use of Money
See John Wesley's books. Read Wesley's Works, Vol. 4.
3. Separation and Service, by J. Hudson Taylor
A short Bible study on Numbers 6 and 7. The last part, "Princely Service," reads the princes' offerings of wagons and oxen for the tabernacle as a call to give for Christ's work. Taylor ran a mission that never asked anyone for money, so he writes with some authority.
Our true self-denial, self-emptying, and giving for Christ's cause practically show our real estimate of the value of the Cross of Christ, our real love for the Christ who was crucified for us.
Separation and Service, Princely Service
For Taylor's own practice, read Hudson Taylor on faith and money. Read Separation and Service.
4. Quiet Talks on Service, by S. D. Gordon
Read the chapter called "Money: The Golden Channel of Service." Gordon says giving is one of the few ways your influence can reach right around the world, as far as prayer reaches. The rest of the book, on the secret, open and active life of a servant of Christ, is worth reading too.
What we give away freely for Jesus' sake, for men's sake, we will find by and by we have kept, for we have sent it ahead in a changed form.
Quiet Talks on Service, Money: The Golden Channel of Service
See S. D. Gordon's books. Read Quiet Talks on Service.
5. The Young Convert's Problems and Their Solution, by A. C. Dixon
A small book for new Christians with a plain chapter on money. Dixon teaches the tithe as the minimum and freewill offerings beyond it, set aside every week, and reminds readers that Jesus still watches how we give.
Money is one of our best friends and worst enemies. The love of it is the root of all evil; the use of it the root of all good.
The Young Convert's Problems, Money
Read The Young Convert's Problems.
Trusting God to provide
6. A Narrative of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller, Parts 1 and 3
Müller's own account, in his journal. Part 1 tells how a young minister with about five pounds to his name gave up a stated salary and pew-rents and began to trust God for daily bread. Part 3 records the hard years of 1841 and 1842, when the orphan work was often down to its last penny, with every small gift noted.
All we have to do is, to draw upon our partner, the living God.
A Narrative of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller, Part 3
His shorter books are in our prayer guide. See also George Müller's orphanage.
7. Ten Years of My Life in the Service of the Book Fund, by Susannah Spurgeon
When Susannah Spurgeon read the proofs of her husband's Lectures to My Students, she wished every poor minister could have a copy. He asked how much she would give, and she found her saved coins in a drawer. This is the story of the fund that followed, mostly her diary of gifts received and parcels sent to struggling pastors. A quiet, moving book about giving what you have.
I wish I could place it in the hands of every minister in England.
Ten Years of My Life in the Service of the Book Fund, How the Fund Became a Fact
8. Borden of Yale '09, by Mrs. Howard Taylor
William Borden was heir to a great fortune. He gave himself to Christ as a teenager, founded a rescue mission for down-and-out men while at Yale, set out to reach Muslims in China, and died in Egypt at twenty-five. The chapter on stewardship shows how carefully he handled his money and how much he left to missions. The scan has some stray errors.
We did what we could and are trusting God for the rest.
Borden of Yale '09, chapter VII
More lives like his are in the best missionary biographies. Read Borden of Yale.
Money at work and in business
9. The Application of Christianity to the Commercial and Ordinary Affairs of Life, by Thomas Chalmers
Sermons preached to Glasgow merchants. Chalmers grants that honesty in trade can exist without Christ, then shows how the gospel raises it, how much "honesty" is only self-interest, and how the guilt of a dishonest deal is not measured by the money it gains. The last discourse is on the love of money.
If his heart be set upon covetousness, it is set upon an object of idolatry.
The Application of Christianity to the Commercial and Ordinary Affairs of Life, On the Love of Money
See Thomas Chalmers' books. Read Chalmers on Christianity and commerce.
10. A Christian Directory, Part 4, by Richard Baxter
The Puritan handbook of cases of conscience. This part takes up buying and selling, lending, bargaining, debt, oppressing tenants, waste and lawsuits, one question at a time. Long, so use it as a reference when you face a real case. See Richard Baxter's books. Read A Christian Directory, Part 4.
Giving to God's work
11. Wherein?, by G. Campbell Morgan
Addresses on Malachi, where the people answer every rebuke with "Wherein?" Morgan works through God's seven complaints, including robbing God in tithes and offerings, and shows that the real problem is a heart grown cold.
God looks for the giving at His altar of a gift that costs something.
Wherein?, The Complaints of Jehovah
12. Quiet Talks with World Winners, by S. D. Gordon
Gordon on world missions. The chapter on money treats giving as a way of preaching Jesus where you cannot go yourself.
It is always man's failure to do his simple part faithfully that causes God's plan to fail.
Quiet Talks with World Winners, The Past Failure
Read Quiet Talks with World Winners.
More to explore
Spurgeon's John Ploughman's Talk has a sharp chapter on the misery of debt, in country proverbs; the scan keeps some page numbers, but it reads well. William Arnot's Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, on Proverbs, has chapters like "Filthy Lucre" and "Making a Fortune"; it is in our guide to Christian books on marriage and family. James Stalker's chapter on avarice in The Seven Deadly Sins is covered in Christian books on sin and temptation. And Frances Ridley Havergal's Kept for the Master's Use has a chapter on "our silver and gold" kept for Jesus.
Where to start
- One evening: Murray's Money.
- Practical rules: Wesley's The Use of Money.
- New Christian: Dixon's chapter on money.
- In business: Chalmers.
- Wondering whether God provides: Müller's Narrative, Part 1.
More books are on the money and giving topic page.