Generosity in a cost of living crisis & high property prices
For those in the Christian tradition, generosity is a key part of their identity and purpose.
So, when cost of living increases how are Christians meant to navigate this?
The pressure is really starting to show with around a quarter of mortgage holders being at risk of mortgage stress. For renters it’s even worse news! With more than half of lower-income renting households being in rental stress, spending over 30% of their gross income just to stay housed.
So, I think the question is a fair one. If you’re 20 to 40 and trying to put a roof over your head, financial strain is close to inevitable. How are you meant to be generous when you don’t feel like you have enough yourself?
The Christian worldview holds an answer:
The bible answers with a view that flips how society tells us to act. It tells us to focus on community, be generous with all you have not just money, that we manage God’s money and we should focus on serving others.
Compare this to the message we get told by society, to look after yourself first and then whatever’s left over you may use it for others.
The bible shows us how to flip this this view:
Philipians 2:3-4 – “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
We’re also called to serve one another in love “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” – Galatians 5:13
We are to seek the good of others over ourselves (1 Corinthians 10:24). And in Matthew 25:40 Jesus makes it very clear that “whatever you did for the hungry, the stranger, the sick, “you did for me””.
So what does this practically look like when there isn’t much money to spare?
Most generosity isn’t money
Imagine your community, it could be your church, your street, a group of families.
Imagine that community built up and thinking of ways to care and give to each other:
- The knock on the door with a shared meal
- The lift to the shops
- The cup of flour, the litre of milk
- The kids minded for an afternoon
- The spare room offered when someone has nowhere to go
- The introduction that leads to a job
- The meal train when someone’s hurting
- The help for a new mum, or a marriage under strain
- And yes, the cash, when times are hardest
A community like that? That is abundance. Hardly any of that involves large sums of money to be given.
This way of living doesn’t only help the person you’re serving. A community like that lifts the very pressure that’s crushing us! It means no one is carrying everything alone. As Christians we are called to build up the community around us.
So think deeply about how you can build up your community and how you can practice a Kingdom generosity with all that you do have.
What you do with little reveals something big
Mark 12:42-44 – “But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything all she had to live on.”
Generosity in the Kingdom of God is not an amount issue. The role of generosity serves to reveal where we put our trust and in what we value. Christians navigating generosity in times of financial struggle is no easy thing, I don’t ignore that. But if Christ praises the actions of this widow, then there is something here we should meditate on in our own lives. The call to be generous with out money doesn’t stop when our net worth drops to a certain amount.
So what does this look like when buying a home then?
If you are buying a home, consider these questions as well:
- What do you want your generosity to look like even when you get a mortgage?
- How could your home serve others? a spare room, an open table, a base for hospitality?
- Does where you want to buy keep you in a community, or does it isolate you?
- Am I stewarding God’s money well, or just accumulating for myself?
If this resonates with you
If you’re a person of faith weighing up a home purchase, and want someone with shared values being in your corner then send me a message, no pressure, no pitch, just a chat about how to balance home buying with wise stewardship.
Ben, Broker at Kingdom Mortgage Broking
0405 616 909
info@kingdommortgagebroking.com.au
https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/10298-mortgage-stress-increases-august-2026
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/housing-affordability