Your Temporal Business

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 8
I beg you earnestly, dear brother, to be diligent about your temporal business. You know well that I am very far from wishing to see you leave your work, but remember, what our hand finds to do we are to do it with our might (Eccl. 9:1010Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. (Ecclesiastes 9:10)).
Limit your expenses at once, if they exceed your income, and arrange your business as a good steward of the Lord. Disorder in one’s business is dishonoring to the gospel. Also, being careful to increase our wealth like the world dries up the soul. It is the root of every sort of evil (1 Tim. 6:1010For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (1 Timothy 6:10)).
The principles are simple—live simply in order to be able to give of what one has. Be faithful in one’s own things, making use of them as having been entrusted to us to have in order to use them according to the Lord. Proverbs teaches us clearly in detail about these things.
J. N. Darby (from a letter; 1850)