Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you…

1 PETER 1:3–4

The loss of a loved one is a particularly challenging time, as many of us will have experienced. There are emotions to process, arrangements to be made and, sometimes, a financial inheritance to manage.  

For many people, this is the largest sum of money they will ever receive at one time. How do we know what to do with it? And how should our faith shape this decision? 

In the first post, we spoke about rightly valuing money as a gift from God, to cultivate kingdom purposes, without being ruled by it.  

But now we learn a second lesson for how to wisely invest the money we’ve been left: manage money with eternity in mind. 

The subject of inheritance first appears in the Bible in the book of Numbers, where God outlines principles about inheritance for the people of Israel, ensuring coming generations would have enough to survive and continue as a people set apart for him (see, for example, Numbers 27). 

The priority for our closest community and the most vulnerable continues into the New Testament. Paul instructs in 1 Timothy 5:8, before going on to give instructions for caring for widows, that ‘anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.’ 

But there’s also a dramatic shift. Disciples of Jesus have a larger perspective within which to place practical investment, capturing the final purpose of all our wealth and the kind of profit we should value most. A spiritual inheritance ‘that can never perish, spoil or fade’ awaits us in heaven, of infinitely greater value than any earthly inheritance.  

Is our attitude to any inheritance we receive biblical? Do we really need the inheritance we are left? Could we put this money to work for the gospel in ways we might not have thought about yet, growing God’s church in the present in light of our eternal reality?  

As James 1:17 points out, all gifts are from the Lord. What will it look like for us to honour him with the gift of a financial inheritance? Perhaps investing in property as a gospel endeavour, renting it out at below-market value for those in need, or setting up a trust in your loved one’s name, giving the money away to support others. There are countless opportunities to use the money we’re left for the growth of God’s kingdom.

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Hannah Oliver
Hannah is the Marketing and Business Development Manager for Kingdom Bank, a Christian enterprise providing financial services for churches and Christians across the UK. 

How could you prioritise investing in God’s kingdom instead of building your own? Join the conversation below.

Kingdom Bank Limited is registered in England and Wales No. 4346834. Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Registered Office: Media House, Padge Road, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 2RS. Our Financial Services Register number is 400972.