“The Curse of Passive Income: A Prophetic Call to Rethink Wealth

 Introduction: The Gospel of Greed being preached today.

In today’s world, passive income is preached like gospel. Social media influencers, financial gurus, and even most pulpits proclaim it as the pinnacle of wisdom a genius of a sort — “make money while you sleep,” they say. But beneath this seductive promise lies a darker truth: passive income often means someone else is working while you profit. A child in Africa is being enslaved a child in south America lives in a sad Favela filled with violence  addiction, and crime while parent are exploited in the factories of the rich.

 Biblical Wisdom vs. Market Idolatry

The Bible never glorifies wealth detached from labor. In fact, it warns against both excess and lack, calling us to a middle path of dignity and dependence on God.

Proverbs 30:8–9 (KJV)

“Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.”

This is the middle-class blessing — the sacred space of “enough.” Not the desperation of poverty, nor the arrogance of excess. Passive income, when idolized, violates this balance. It tempts us to disconnect from the dignity of work, and worse, to profit from systems that exploit our neighbors. The far away exploitation of corporate America has tentacles all over the world creating poverty and misery for many added to the local exploiters.

 What Is Passive Income, Really?

• Rental income from overpriced housing? Your neighbor pays while you sleep.

• Stock dividends from companies that underpay workers? You profit while others struggle and are enslaved and underpaid.

• Royalties and digital monetization? Often built on platforms that harvest attention and data.

Passive income is rarely passive in impact. It’s active in oppression, even if invisible to the one receiving the check.

 A Prophetic Reframe: Hate What Harms

“Learn to hate passive income,” I tell my people. Not because money is evil — but because the love of money without mercy is a curse. Because profit without proximity breeds injustice. Because wealth without work is not biblical — it’s Babylonian.

 Ecclesiastes 5:10 — A King’s Warning

“He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.” (KJV)

This piercing truth was written by King Solomon, one of the wealthiest rulers in history. He had palaces, vineyards, harems, servants, and gold — yet God revealed to him that the love of wealth is a bottomless pit of hunger,the lust of the flesh for sex is deceit that creates solitude and spiritual loneliness  destroying the sacred vow of loyalty and love in relationships,  these are  spiritual sickness that never satisfy..

 1 Timothy 6:6–10 — Paul’s Pastoral Wisdom

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare… For the love of money is the root of all evil…” (KJV)

Paul echoes Solomon’s wisdom: spiritual peace and contentment are the true wealth, and the pursuit of riches leads to ruin. Passive income, when pursued as a lifestyle or idol, is a snare — not a blessing.

Jesus said I came that you may have peace and have it abuntently. The true gift of God is spiritual peace.

 The Blessing of Employee-Owned Businesses

Instead of passive profit, Christ and I preach shared ownership — where workers are not just laborers, but co-owners of the fruit they produce. The tomato that they grow the washing machine they manufacture.

• Employee-owned cooperatives restore dignity and agency.

• They distribute profit based on contribution, not capital.

• They build community wealth, not individual empires.

This is the biblical model of stewardship — where the vineyard is tended by those who eat its fruit, and the harvest is shared among those who labor. It’s not communism is Christianism.

 Closing Prayer

“Lord, deliver us from the lust for effortless gain and the lust of vanity in the flesh.. Restore the dignity of labor. Teach us to bless our neighbor, not burden him. Teach us to treasurer our intimate relationship and not lust for the unknown or try to hoard either one of these. And may our hands, not just our holdings, be the measure of our wealth.” May our words and love for all be the measure of our christianity.