“Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death<\/em>” (Proverbs 10:2).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis verse is not about the money but about the person accumulating the money. All the money that a wicked person stores up cannot save him in the long run; yet, that is often the motivation for doing evil. People are mistaken to think there is security in wealth. “Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away like an eagle toward heaven<\/em>” (Proverbs 23:5).<\/p>\nIn contrast, being righteous is by itself security. The reason is given in the next verse. “The LORD will not allow the righteous soul to famish, but He casts away the desire of the wicked<\/em>” (Proverbs 10:3). When we are on God’s side, we need nothing else. “So we may boldly say: “The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” <\/em>” (Hebrews 13:6).<\/p>\nThe idea of tainted money is that somehow evil clings to the physical money and is passed on to someone who was not involved in the evil. Such an idea is nonsense. “The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself<\/em>” (Ezekiel 18:20).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: Hi, I was reading one of your answers to the question Should I give up my job because I cheated some in college?\u00a0\u00a0about the tainted money thing. I just want to ask: what do you say to people when they use Proverbs 10:2 to support the idea that money can be tainted? Answer: “Treasures…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[258,777],"class_list":["post-40941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-money-management","tag-superstition"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31877,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-give-up-my-job-because-i-cheated-some-in-college\/","url_meta":{"origin":40941,"position":0},"title":"Should I give up my job because I cheated some in college?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I cheated some during college. I regret this wholeheartedly. I have my current job as a teacher now because of my degree, which I view as tainted from cheating. Should I give up the benefits that have come with the possession of my degree? Does simply holding my degree\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39457,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-multi-level-marketing-businesses-good-investments\/","url_meta":{"origin":40941,"position":1},"title":"Are multi-level marketing businesses good investments?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: First of all, I just want to say how I have really enjoyed reading some of the blog posts. My boyfriend is going through a tough decision, and I have a bad feeling about it, but I wanted to follow up with the Scripture to make sure that his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53984,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-the-church-ask-its-members-to-borrow-money-for-its-building-project\/","url_meta":{"origin":40941,"position":2},"title":"Should the church ask its members to borrow money for its building project?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Jeff, Is right to borrow money for the sake of contributing to building a worship hall for the church? We are encouraged by our minister, as individual brethren, to do so since it is an important project of the church. Answer: The Bible teaches that being in debt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25783,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/must-i-pay-my-friend-money-so-she-can-forgive-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":40941,"position":3},"title":"Must I pay my friend money so she can forgive me?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I want to enquire if it's right to pay money to a friend who claims I offended her. I didn't borrow anything from her, but she is demanding money so she can forgive me. Answer: \"There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, And there is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41146,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-poverty-a-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":40941,"position":4},"title":"Is poverty a sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is poverty? And is poverty a sin? Answer: Poverty is the state of being poor. Neither wealth nor poverty is a sin, though people in either state can be tempted to sin. \"Give me neither poverty nor riches - feed me with the food allotted to me; lest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28933,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-my-congregation-sinning-by-not-being-frugal\/","url_meta":{"origin":40941,"position":5},"title":"Is my congregation sinning by not being frugal?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have read the following writing by John Woolman, which touches my heart: I believe God has taught us frugality in Proverbs 21:17, and some other verses. However, from what I have observed, my congregation seems to be contrary to God's teaching on frugality: When we gather together to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}