A Wet Blanket on Blanket Advice

Why Dominion: Wealth Strategists exists in the first place.

“Never lease a car.”

“Cash value insurance is trash.”

“Pay off your mortgage before you do anything else.”

“Tithe 10%, and God will bless the rest.”

"Just buy Bitcoin."

"Just buy gold."

"Pay off your debts by targeting the smallest balances."

These statements have become something like financial proverbs in modern Christian circles. Repeated often and loudly enough, they begin to sound like doctrine—self-evident truths handed down from Sinai, rather than soundbites from a real estate investor turned radio show host.

The problem is that these are not creeds. They are personal preferences dressed up as universal wisdom. In some situations, these rules may prove helpful. In others, they can be not only unhelpful, but actively harmful. What begins as practical advice can quickly harden into unexamined tradition. Worse, when these financial mantras are adopted uncritically by churches and Christian leaders, they often become a functional form of legalism—one that distorts faithful stewardship and constrains wise decision-making.

One-size-fits-all financial advice tends to substitute nuance with certainty, and wisdom with formulas. The result is households that feel confused, restricted, or even guilty for failing to live up to someone else’s economic model. The Church should do better.

Wisdom Does Not Work Like a Spreadsheet

Scripture does not treat life as a formula. It does not assume every situation fits a predictable pattern. Proverbs 26:4–5 illustrates this beautifully. The two verses offer apparently opposing advice: “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.” Both instructions are true. Neither cancels the other. The difference lies in the context. Wisdom discerns when to apply one and when to apply the other.

A similar pattern appears in Paul’s pastoral counsel. In 1 Thessalonians 5:14, he writes, “Admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.” There is no single response to every situation. Instead, Paul tailors his instruction to fit the condition of each person. The idle do not need encouragement like the fainthearted. The fainthearted do not need admonishment like the idle. Each situation requires a distinct form of care.

Financial counsel, if it is to be biblical, must function the same way. The covenantal household is not a faceless spreadsheet. It is a complex and providentially situated institution, with unique challenges, goals, and responsibilities. A wise approach considers the season, calling, and capacity of the household—not simply a series of inflexible blanket rules.

How Blanket Advice Harms Real People

Oversimplified financial advice often causes measurable harm. Well-meaning believers can find themselves stuck in inefficient or even damaging financial positions because they followed a rule without examining whether it actually applied to their unique situation.

Take, for example, the familiar recommendation to pay off a mortgage as quickly as possible. Let's take a family with a $300,000 mortgage at a fixed 3.5% interest rate. They commit an extra $1,500 each month toward the principal to eliminate the loan a decade early. Over the life of the loan, they save around $70,000 in interest.

Now consider an alternative. That same $1,500 could have been invested each month into a conservative investment account averaging 7% annual returns. After 20 years, their investment account would hold more than $780,000. By choosing the lower-interest debt payoff over long-term investment, the household forfeits over $700,000 in potential growth, and that is if they only netted 7%. Imagine what they could have if they made 10-15%. This is not merely a personal financial decision. It becomes a missed opportunity to build wealth that could bless children, grandchildren, the local church, and the broader Christian community.

Another example involves the common belief that all debt is inherently sinful. Some Christian business owners refuse to use credit cards out of conviction, assuming that any interaction with debt is ungodly. While prudence is wise, this approach can create financial inefficiencies. Consider a business that spends $5,000 per month on operations. By using a debit card instead of a rewards-based credit card with 2% cash back, the owner forfeits roughly $1,200 per year. Over a decade, that adds up to $12,000—money that could have funded hospitality, missions, or business expansion. The issue here is not moral compromise, it is poor stewardship caused by category errors.

These examples are not rare edge cases. They are the natural outcome of applying abstract rules to real-world situations without sufficient discernment. The result is financial stagnation, missed opportunities, and misplaced guilt.

Misapplied Principles and Misunderstood Texts

Much of the confusion in Christian financial thinking comes from applying biblical warnings as if they were universal prohibitions. Debt is a frequent example. Proverbs 22:7 warns that “the borrower is servant to the lender.” This is a caution, not a command.

Scripture does not ban borrowing. In Deuteronomy 15, the Mosaic law establishes ethical lending practices, including interest restrictions and debt forgiveness cycles. These principles do not abolish borrowing; they regulate it.

Jesus Himself refers positively to interest-bearing loans in the parable of the talents. The master says to the servant, “You ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest” (Matthew 25:27). The lesson presumes the legitimacy of interest within a moral economic system.

Another area of confusion is the tithe. Many churches teach 10% giving as a strict, binding requirement. While the tithe played a significant role under the old covenant, New Testament giving is defined more by intentionality and freedom than fixed percentages. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion.” The giving is to be cheerful, proportionate, and voluntary. To demand a universal tithe from every household, regardless of circumstance, distorts the spirit of Christian generosity.

What begins as sincere teaching can easily drift into moralism when it loses its biblical nuance. Faithful financial guidance must hold together principle and prudence, not elevate one at the expense of the other.

Covenantal Stewardship: A Better Framework

The solution is not to reject all advice. Instead, Christians should adopt a more robust, covenantal framework for financial decision-making—one that draws from the full counsel of Scripture and respects the providential differences between households.

The household in Scripture is more than a private residence. It is a God-ordained jurisdiction with a mission, a structure, and long-term responsibilities. It is where dominion is exercised, where wealth is built and preserved, and where future generations are formed.

Proverbs 13:22 says, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.” This is not an optional upgrade for particularly wealthy Christians. It is a biblical goal for all Christians as we are called to think generationally.

Faithful stewardship in this light does not look the same for everyone. A young family with a modest income will make different choices than a retired couple managing a lifetime of built assets. One household may need to prioritize debt reduction. Another may wisely use leverage to build a business or buy productive real estate. Some may give more now; others may store up for strategic giving later. None of these paths are inherently better. What matters is that they are pursued with wisdom, with the future in view, and in obedience to one’s specific calling.

This is the kind of stewardship that builds households capable of blessing their churches, their communities, and their descendants. It requires more than general blanket advice. It requires a personalized plan.

A plan that we would be happy to help you build.