24 Bible Verses About Wealth and Riches

You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

Deuteronomy 8:17-18

Moses speaks to Israel on the edge of the promised land, before the houses and herds have come. He knows a full barn tempts us to forget, so he calls them to remember that even the strength to earn is a gift.

Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.

1 Chronicles 29:11-12

David prays this over the gifts his people brought for the temple, given freely and with joy. Before he says a word about wealth, he names who owns everything, and every honest thought about money starts there.

Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 5:19

The Teacher has just watched people toil for riches they cannot keep. Here he names the other side, that wealth received with thanks, and the joy to go with it, is God's gift.

The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it.

Proverbs 10:22

Solomon sets the Lord's blessing beside the grinding work of chasing money on our own. This is no promise that faith guarantees a fortune, only that what God gives lacks the anxious weight of wealth we grasp for.

Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.

Genesis 13:2

Abram was a man of faith and of great wealth, and Scripture records both without apology. What set him apart was never his gold but his trust in God with everything he had.

Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings.

1 Kings 3:13

Young Solomon asked God for a discerning heart to lead his people, not for riches (1 Kings 3:9). God gave him the wisdom and then wealth and honor besides, riches that came to a heart that had first asked for something better.

As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus.

Matthew 27:57

Joseph of Arimathea stands with Job and Lydia, the dealer in purple cloth, as people of means who belonged to God (Job 1:3, Acts 16:14). When the cross had scattered almost everyone else, Joseph gave the body of Jesus his own new tomb, and his wealth became an act of love.

Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

Proverbs 23:4-5

Anyone who has watched savings melt away knows this picture of riches sprouting wings. The sayings of the wise are not against honest work, but they warn against wearing yourself out for something that cannot stay.

Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.

Ecclesiastes 5:10

The Teacher had amassed silver and gold and the treasure of kings (Ecclesiastes 2:8), and he still found that loving money only makes the hunger grow. If you ever reached the number you thought was enough and felt the line move, this verse knows you.

Do not trust in extortion or put vain hope in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

Psalm 62:10

David wrote this psalm while others plotted his fall, and he found his rest in God alone. Riches may increase, he says, but the heart must not be set on them.

Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.

Proverbs 30:8-9

Agur prays a humble prayer, asking for neither poverty nor riches, only daily bread. He knows his own heart well enough to fear both, the pride that forgets God and the desperation that dishonors him.

This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 9:23-24

Through Jeremiah, the Lord takes away every ground for boasting, including a full bank account. The one thing worth boasting about is knowing him, the God who delights in kindness, justice and righteousness.

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Matthew 6:24

Jesus says this in the Sermon on the Mount, and notice the word cannot. Money makes a demanding master, and a heart divided between it and God will end up belonging to one of them.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Matthew 19:23-24

Jesus spoke these words just after a rich young man walked away sad because he had great wealth (Matthew 19:16-22). When the disciples were astonished, Jesus told them that with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:25-26).

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

1 Timothy 6:10

Paul writes to Timothy, his son in the faith, and he names the love of money, not money itself. That love has pulled people away from the faith and left them pierced with griefs they never saw coming.

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.

James 5:1-3

James speaks here to rich people who hoarded wealth and, a verse later, failed to pay their workers (James 5:4). It is a hard word on purpose, because wealth piled up while others go without will one day testify against us.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

1 Timothy 6:17-19

Paul does not tell the rich to be ashamed of what they have. He tells them to hope in God and be rich in good deeds. John Wesley preached the same spirit in his 1760 sermon The Use of Money, with its rules to gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

Luke 19:8

Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and a wealthy man until Jesus came to his house (Luke 19:2). No one ordered him to give, but when grace reached him, half of what he owned went to the poor.

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

Acts 20:35

Paul says goodbye to the elders from Ephesus with words of Jesus the Gospels do not record (Acts 20:17). Giving is the more blessed place to stand, and it is open to rich and poor alike.

So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?

Luke 16:11

Jesus closes the parable of the shrewd manager with this question (Luke 16:1-9). Worldly wealth is a small thing held for a short time, and how we handle it shows whether we can be trusted with true riches.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:19-21

Jesus wants your treasure kept safe, in the one place where moths and thieves can never reach it. Send it on ahead, and your heart will follow it there.

Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?

James 2:5

James reminds the church that God has chosen people the world calls poor to be rich in faith. If money is tight and you feel unseen, God has not looked past you, and your inheritance in his kingdom is secure.

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19

Paul writes this to a church that had sent him aid more than once when he was in need (Philippians 4:16). God promises to meet every need from the riches of his glory in Christ, a deeper supply than any account on earth.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

2 Corinthians 8:9

Here it all comes home, to the Lord who owned everything and laid it down for us. Whatever you have or lack tonight, this is the wealth no one can take, the riches of grace that came to us through his poverty.