A Theology of Investing with Tim Macready

Investing isn’t just about returns—it’s about reflecting what we truly value.

Our faith is meant to guide every area of life, including how we invest. When our hearts are set on God, our investing reflects His priorities—caring for creation, serving our neighbor, and letting what we treasure shape how we steward His resources. Tim Macready joins us today to talk about a “theology of investing.”

Tim Macready is Head of Global Advisory at BrightLight, a division of EverSource Wealth Advisors. 

A Theology of Investing: Bringing Faith to Financial Decisions

Most people view investing as a financial act—an attempt to grow wealth, manage risk, or secure a comfortable future. Yet Scripture invites us to see investing as something much deeper: a spiritual act rooted in stewardship, love, and worship.

A theology of investing reimagines financial activity not as separate from faith but as an expression of it. It calls believers to bring their heart, head, and hands together, transforming investing from a pursuit of profit into a practice of discipleship.

Theology simply means the study of God and how what we learn about Him shapes the way we live. Applied to investing, it means aligning financial decisions with biblical truths about creation, stewardship, and love for neighbor.

Faith is not only a matter of belief—it’s a matter of lived action. When we view investing through this lens, we begin to see it as part of our calling to manage God’s resources wisely and to use them in ways that bring about human flourishing and reflect His goodness.

The Creation Mandate and the Purpose of Investing

The story begins in Genesis 1–2. Out of His divine goodness, God creates a world filled with potential and beauty, then entrusts humanity with the task of cultivating and developing what He made.

Investing participates in that same creation mandate. It takes the resources God has provided and reallocates them so that they become productive—fueling innovation, creating jobs, and contributing to the flourishing of communities. Financial returns become a byproduct of faithful stewardship rather than the sole objective.

Through investing, believers join God in bringing order, beauty, and abundance to His creation.

Some assume investing is little more than glorified gambling, but the two could not be more different. Gambling is speculation—a zero-sum pursuit driven by chance. Investing, on the other hand, is a form of stewardship. It seeks to grow what God has entrusted by putting resources to work productively in the service of others.

Faithful investing recognizes that capital is not an end in itself but a tool for participating in God’s creative and redemptive work in the world.

Loving God and Neighbor Through Investment

When Jesus summarized the law, He tied together two inseparable commands: love God and love your neighbor (Matthew 22:37–39). Investing offers a tangible way to live out both.

By directing capital toward enterprises that meet real needs, create employment, and improve lives, investors can participate in the biblical call to love their neighbor. Investing becomes a form of generosity—an intentional choice to place capital at risk so that others may benefit and communities may thrive.

When guided by love, investing ceases to be a self-focused pursuit and becomes a practice of service and shared flourishing.

In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” That truth reveals not only that our spending reflects what we love, but also that our hearts are shaped by where we invest.

Our financial choices form us. Every investment helps build something—industries, technologies, and cultures. Those choices shape what we value and the kind of world we participate in creating.

If the heart is anchored in Christ, investing becomes a means to align one's desires with discipleship, ensuring that financial growth serves God’s purposes and the good of others.

In modern markets, investing often feels impersonal. Index funds and digital platforms can make financial activity seem detached from real lives. Yet every investment still represents a relationship—people on both sides working, creating, and depending on one another.

Recovering this relational awareness reminds believers that investing is not merely an economic transaction. It’s a moral and spiritual act that affects individuals and communities made in God’s image.

From Portfolio to Worship

Scripture consistently warns of wealth’s dangers—not because money itself is evil, but because it so easily tempts us to trust it instead of God. As C.S. Lewis observed, the comforts wealth provides can dull our sense of dependence on the Lord.

Greed, the Bible says, is a fo