How We Make Money Matters with Robin John | FaithFi
November 11, 2026
How We Make Money Matters with Robin John
Faith & Finance with Rob West
Faithful stewardship begins long before we decide how much to give. It starts with how we earn, save, invest, and use the resources God has entrusted to us.
Nearly 300 years ago, theologian John Wesley preached a sermon titled The Use of Money, offering Christians a framework for managing their finances: Make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.
At first glance, those three principles might seem like separate financial goals. But Wesley intended something far more comprehensive. He believed that every aspect of our financial lives should reflect our love for God and neighbor.
Robin John, co-founder and CEO of Eventide Investments and author of The Good Investor: How Your Work Can Confront Injustice, Love Your Neighbor, and Bring Healing to the World, believes Wesley's teaching remains just as relevant today.
His message challenges us to consider a question that goes beyond how much money we give away: Does the way we make and manage money honor the God who owns it all?
Faithful stewardship begins long before we decide how much to give. It starts with how we earn, save, invest, and use the resources God has entrusted to us.
Nearly 300 years ago, theologian John Wesley preached a sermon titled The Use of Money, offering Christians a framework for managing their finances: Make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.
At first glance, those three principles might seem like separate financial goals. But Wesley intended something far more comprehensive. He believed that every aspect of our financial lives should reflect our love for God and neighbor.
Robin John, co-founder and CEO of Eventide Investments and author of , believes Wesley's teaching remains just as relevant today.
The Good Investor: How Your Work Can Confront Injustice, Love Your Neighbor, and Bring Healing to the World
His message challenges us to consider a question that goes beyond how much money we give away: Does the way we make and manage money honor the God who owns it all?
Make All You Can: Wealth Creation With Integrity
Wesley's first principle, "Make all you can," affirms the value of productive work, business, and wealth creation. But it doesn't suggest that Christians should pursue profit at any cost.
Wesley taught that we should earn as much as we can without harming ourselves or our neighbors, whether physically or spiritually.
That distinction matters. At the heart of Wesley's teaching was a fundamental biblical truth: God owns everything. Whatever wealth we possess has been entrusted to us as stewards, not given to us as absolute owners.
This means the question isn't simply whether we can make money from a particular business, investment, or opportunity. We must also consider whether the way we earn that money honors God and serves others.
Wesley was particularly concerned about industries that profited from exploitation and addiction. He challenged Christians who accumulated wealth through harmful practices, asking them to consider what kind of inheritance they were leaving behind.
After all, what good is a financial legacy if it comes at the expense of a spiritual one?
That same question applies to modern investing. Many investors understandably focus on financial returns, but we don't always consider what our invested dollars are supporting.
Our investments aren't disconnected from the world around us. They represent ownership in companies whose products, services, and business practices affect people's lives.
Faithful stewardship invites us to consider not only whether an investment is financially productive, but also how that company contributes to or detracts from human flourishing.
A Family Legacy That Valued Faithfulness Over Profit
For Robin John, this conviction is more than a philosophical principle. It's rooted in his family's history.
Robin spent the first eight years of his life in India, living with his grandparents before moving to the United States. Although his family wasn't impoverished during his childhood, he grew up hearing stories of the significant hardships they had experienced before he was born.
His grandfather was a pastor and church planter who raised eight children. There were times when he struggled to provide enough food for his family, often going to bed in tears because of their circumstances.
Eventually, Robin's oldest uncle found employment and began sending money home to help support the family. But one day, he wrote his father a troubling letter. His employer was requiring him to submit false expense reports to receive money dishonestly from the government. His grandfather's response was immediate:
"We cannot receive dishonest gain. Please come back home."
Even in poverty and hunger, Robin's grandfather refused to accept money gained through dishonesty. His conviction reflected the wisdom of Proverbs 16:8:
"Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice."
To the world, such a decision might seem financially irrational. But for Robin's grandfather, faithfulness to God was worth more than financial security.
That example profoundly shaped Robin's understanding of wealth and investing. His grandfather left behind something far more enduring than financial assets: a legacy of integrity, generosity, and trust in God.
Investing as an Expression of Love for Neighbor
When Robin and his fellow founders established Eventide Investments in 2008, they began wrestling with many of the same questions his grandfather had faced decades earlier.
How should Christians profit? Are all sources of financial gain equally acceptable? And how can investing become an expression of love for our neighbors?
They looked to Scripture for guidance, including Proverbs 1:19, which warns:
"Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors."
Rather than evaluating companies solely by their potential financial returns, Eventide sought to consider the moral implications of their business practices.
This meant avoiding investments in industries they believed profited from harmful activities, including pornography, tobacco, gambling, and abortion. But their approach wasn't limited to avoiding harm. They also wanted to invest in businesses whose products and practices contribute positively to the world, while encouraging those companies to improve.
That reflects an important dimension of biblical stewardship: We aren't merely called to avoid doing harm. We're called to actively pursue what is good.
Genesis 1:26 describes humanity as created in God's image and entrusted with dominion over His creation. Our work, creativity, and productivity are opportunities to cultivate what God has made for the benefit of others. Ephesians 2:10 reminds us:
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
That calling extends to our daily work, business decisions, and investment practices. Jesus reinforces this perspective in Matthew 5:16:
"In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."
Whether we're running a business, investing for retirement, or working to provide for our families, our financial activities can become opportunities to reflect God's goodness to the world.
Save All You Can: Resisting Waste and Excess
Wesley's second principle, "Save all you can," is sometimes misunderstood as an encouragement to accumulate as much wealth as possible. But Wesley wasn't advocating for hoarding money or building financial security as an end in itself.
He was challenging Christians to stop wasting the resources entrusted to them.
Saving wisely is an important part of stewardship. It allows us to prepare for future needs, provide for our families, and remain available to meet the needs of others. But saving becomes distorted when accumulation itself becomes our ultimate goal.
Wesley's three principles were intended to work together. We earn money in ways that honor God, avoid wasting those resources on unnecessary excess, and remain ready to use what we have for the good of others.
The purpose of saving isn't simply to have more. It's to manage God's provision wisely so that we can use it faithfully.
Give All You Can: Generosity Begins With How We Earn
Wesley's final principle, "Give all you can," brings the entire framework together. But there's a crucial connection between the first and third principles that Christians can easily overlook.
The way we make money should tell the same story as the way we give it away.
Wesley understood that a generous gift doesn't justify dishonest or harmful business practices. We cannot excuse wrongdoing simply because we intend to use some of the proceeds for charitable purposes. The Apostle Paul makes this connection clear in Ephesians 4:28:
"Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need."
Notice the progression. Paul calls believers to turn away from dishonest gain, work honestly and productively, and use the results to bless others.
In other words, generosity isn't disconnected from how wealth is created. The two belong together. For Robin, that conviction also shaped how Eventide approached generosity.
When the company was founded, its operating agreement committed to directing 65% of its profits to charity or donor-advised funds. Rather than waiting until the company became successful to make decisions about generosity, its founders established that commitment from the beginning.
Robin explains that this approach helps address a challenge many people experience: As wealth increases, it can become increasingly difficult to let go of it. Making intentional decisions about generosity before wealth accumulates can help us maintain a healthy perspective on ownership.
It's a practical acknowledgment that everything ultimately belongs to God.
Of course, faithful generosity will look different in different circumstances. The goal isn't to impose a particular percentage on every Christian, but to cultivate a heart that recognizes God's ownership and seeks to use His resources for His purposes.
Stewardship Is About More Than What We Give Away
John Wesley's framework offers a compelling vision for Christian stewardship because it refuses to separate our financial decisions from our spiritual lives.
Making, saving, and giving aren't isolated activities. They're interconnected expressions of how we understand God's ownership and our responsibility to love our neighbors.
We honor God when we earn money through honest work that serves others. We honor Him when we save wisely rather than wastefully consuming everything we receive. And we honor Him when we give generously, recognizing that the resources in our hands were never ultimately ours to begin with.
Robin John's grandfather demonstrated that faithfulness may sometimes require us to turn away from financial opportunities that compromise our convictions. His example reminds us that the greatest inheritance we can leave behind isn't necessarily measured in dollars, but in a life lived with integrity before God.
Perhaps the most important question we can ask isn't simply, "How much should I give?"
It's "How can every dollar God has entrusted to me accomplish good for His glory and the benefit of others?"
That's the heart of faithful stewardship: not merely managing money well, but managing God's money God's way.
On Today’s Program, Rob Answers Listener Questions:
My home is worth about $220,000 to $230,000, and I owe roughly $160,000. If I pay down $40,000 to $50,000, could that give me enough equity to qualify for a reverse mortgage?
I’m considering investing in BWXT. What should I know before buying the stock?
After a 30-year marriage, could I qualify for benefits based on my ex-spouse’s record? And if we jointly own our home but he wants to sell, could I keep it by refinancing into my name?
Remember, you can call in to ask your questions every weekday at (800) 525-7000. Faith & Finance is also available on Moody Radio Network and American Family Radio. You can also visit FaithFi.com to connect with our online community and partner with us as we help more people live as faithful stewards of God’s resources.
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