Is Insurance Biblical?

The mathematical chassis upon which insurance is built is commended by Scripture: utilizing numeric strength to meet the needs of some through the strength of others and thus level out some bumps along life’s path.

• Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. …. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. Eccl 4:9ff
• For this is not for the ease of others and for your affliction, but by way of equality- at this present time your abundance being a supply for their need, so that their abundance also may become a supply for your need, that there may be equality; II Cor. 8:13ff
• And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. … And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. Acts 2:44ff

The goal is to meet needs through sharing, but it’s on a volunteer basis motivated by trust, obedience, and generosity, rather on a contractual basis motivated by fear and greed. It’s sort of like the difference in a wedding covenant “for better or worse” versus a prenuptial contract.

However the motivation by which insurance is frequently promoted (encouraging worry and worse-case-scenario thinking) and bought (fear and forgetting God) is not Biblical. What pleases God and testifies to the world is when this is done on a voluntary basis in faith.

Let me add an important word here about our emotions, for although fear can lead us astray, God created emotions and realizes that we are emotional creatures (“but dust” Ps. 103:14). He gives babies mothers to hold them close, he wept with Mary and Martha at the death of Lazarus despite knowing He was about raise him to life. He also gives us some very practical advice that will make us feel secure and it is primarily about debt: have none, have some reserves. Also, tithe and test Me in the process. Learn how I will meet your needs.

This is a very important distinction. The subprime mortgage crisis was not caused by too little insurance but by too much debt. Too little insurance will not be the downfall of America (in fact shrinking it would help); debt is much more likely to be our downfall. A debt-free person is stronger than a well-insured one.

God doesn’t just throw us out unclothed into a harsh emotional winter and say, buck up. He gives us very practical priorities which will strengthen us for real life contingencies that insurance never will: bringing your wife home to care for kids, losing a job, underemployment, a decline in real estate values, emergency outlays, helping a friend; as well as an “early” death, disability, or casualty loss (commonly insured events).

My beef with insurance is that it’s often a distraction from what strengthens us most, when on average it shrinks every dollar. God wants us to be secure, not merely feel secure and insurance is often more illusory than real.

One purpose of IIA is to help you avoid some of the unbiblical ways it’s promoted and bought which lead to excess. It’s easier for us to do this since we are not compensated based on how much you buy.