Is Investing in Stocks Any Better Than Gambling?
00:00:00.000 | Well, we have a follow-up question to episode 1269. In that episode, we talked about fantasy
00:00:09.500 | sports gambling, specifically related to DraftKings and FanDuel, prompting this question
00:00:15.140 | from a listener named Preston. "Hello, Pastor John. I listened to your episode where you
00:00:19.340 | discussed your thoughts on sports gambling being sinful. You said the system itself was
00:00:23.840 | evil and made the case that $50 contributed to a well-invested stock fund could yield
00:00:29.380 | a $230,000 future value over many years, and this would be a wiser use of the $50. My question
00:00:37.360 | is that if you invest the $50 into a stock fund instead, aren't you somewhat subscribing
00:00:42.920 | to unknown risk in the same way that you are with educated, not random, sports gambling?"
00:00:50.180 | This creates the question of how do we as Christians determine what the appropriate
00:00:54.020 | level of risk is with investing our dollar? Secondly, how can we trust that the investment
00:00:59.520 | industry is not also a system of evil in the same way sports gambling is? How can we trust
00:01:04.760 | that our dollar returned from an investment has not been earned in a crooked or sinful
00:01:09.700 | fashion in the same way a dollar from the sports gambling institution would be?
00:01:14.300 | Pastor John, what would you say to Preston?
00:01:16.820 | Let's take Preston's two questions one at a time. First, he asks, "If you invest the
00:01:22.180 | $50 a week into a stock fund instead, aren't you somewhat subscribing to unknown risk in
00:01:30.540 | the same way that you are with an educated, not random, sports gambling?" Now, if Preston
00:01:37.060 | had asked if there is some risk involved in investing money in a stock market or security
00:01:45.740 | of some kind, I would have simply said yes. But notice what he actually asked. He asked,
00:01:53.060 | "If you invest $50 in a stock fund instead, are you somewhat subscribing to unknown risk
00:01:58.940 | in the same way that you are with an educated, not random, sports gambling?" And the answer
00:02:05.700 | to that is no, no. There is always risk no matter what you do with your money. You bury
00:02:13.740 | it and it'll rot maybe. You can hide it in the house and the house may burn down. You
00:02:18.060 | can put it in the bank, the banks may fail and the government that insures it may fail.
00:02:22.620 | Put it in stocks with differing philosophies of principle protection and they all may go
00:02:27.020 | bankrupt. So yes, there is no escaping risk when it comes to money in this world or for
00:02:34.540 | that matter doing anything in this world. But when we ask whether gambling is risking
00:02:41.820 | in the same way as investing, the answer is no for several reasons. Number one, because
00:02:48.700 | investing means letting another person use your money for enterprises that you believe
00:02:54.700 | contribute to the common good while gambling means supporting a system that is counterproductive
00:03:00.700 | to the common good and especially destructive for the poor. Number two, investing is not
00:03:07.380 | usually an all or nothing kind of risk. You may lose part of what you invest and pull
00:03:13.900 | out while gambling ordinarily is all is lost or something is gained. And three, investing
00:03:22.340 | lets you choose your degree of risk with greater clarity and probability than most gambling
00:03:28.700 | does. So there's at least three differences. But let me back up and say that when I was
00:03:36.740 | answering that question from which he was quoting about the sinful waste of $20 to $50
00:03:43.380 | a week on gambling with fantasy sports, my allusion to putting money away for 20 years
00:03:50.220 | and or 30 years and having $230,000 to buy a house with when you're 50, my allusion to
00:03:56.920 | that was simply to show that even the world thinks it's idiotic not to do that. My point
00:04:04.820 | was, and that's the best thing to do with your money. So let me make the real point
00:04:10.180 | about risk. While you might have to lose your life in the process, there is one kind of
00:04:18.540 | investing that is foolproof. Its dividends are absolutely certain and greater than any
00:04:25.260 | dividends in the universe. Here's the way Jesus put it. Do not lay up for yourselves
00:04:30.500 | treasures on earth. I don't care where, bank, dirt, mattress, stock market. Don't lay up
00:04:37.860 | for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and
00:04:43.540 | steal and stock markets go bearish. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where
00:04:50.940 | neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure
00:04:56.740 | is there where your heart be. Now how do you do that? That's foolproof investment. How
00:05:01.740 | do you do that? And here's the way Paul puts it in, or the way Jesus puts it in, I'll get
00:05:07.420 | to Paul in a minute, in Luke 12, 33. Sell your possessions and give to the needy and
00:05:15.020 | thus provide for yourselves money bags that do not grow old and treasure in the heavens
00:05:20.300 | that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. Sell your possessions
00:05:25.300 | and give. Be generous. Or here's the way Paul puts it now in 1 Timothy 6, 18. Tell the rich
00:05:32.660 | in this world not to set their hope on uncertain riches, but to do good and be rich in good
00:05:38.980 | works, to be generous, ready to share, and thus store up treasure for themselves as a
00:05:49.420 | good foundation for the future so that they can take hold of life, which is real life.
00:05:56.540 | So I would say that the main emphasis in the financial life of a Christian should not be
00:06:02.860 | on how to minimize risk and maximize gain in the stock market, but rather on how to
00:06:11.420 | maximize eternal gain by maximizing generosity for the sake of causes that glorify God and
00:06:20.620 | rescue sinners from suffering, especially eternal suffering. But Preston asks another
00:06:28.180 | question. How can we trust that the investment industry is not also a system of evil in the
00:06:34.660 | same way that sports gambling is? And as far as I know, you can't. You can't know that.
00:06:41.420 | But that's true of every dollar you spend in the marketplace. Any grocery store may
00:06:47.660 | be running a racket when you get your groceries. Any gas station you fill up at may be ripping
00:06:53.000 | off your customers with machines that are set false. Any clothing chain may exploit
00:06:59.660 | foreign workers where you get your shirt. Any company you invest in may support causes
00:07:04.460 | you deplore. I would say the rule is do the diligence you can before you invest and never
00:07:13.220 | invest in what you know is evil. But any thought that none of our spending and none of our
00:07:20.280 | investing will be misused by others is totally naive. But you're not responsible for all
00:07:28.620 | that somebody might do to misuse your money any more than a salt manufacturer is responsible
00:07:37.620 | for high blood pressure.
00:07:39.500 | Thank you, Pastor John. And thank you for the follow-up question, Preston, who was referring
00:07:44.700 | there to an episode we recorded in October, episode number 1269 titled, "Is it Sinful
00:07:51.300 | to Gamble on Fantasy Sports?" You can find that episode in our online home at DesiringGod.org/ask-pastor-john.
00:07:57.340 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and we will see you on Wednesday. Thanks for listening to
00:08:03.940 | the Ask Pastor John podcast with longtime author and pastor, John Piper. We'll see you
00:08:08.820 | then.
00:08:09.020 | [END]
00:08:12.020 | John Piper, Desiring God.org/ask-pastor-john.org