On Wealth and Giving

WEALTH

Hardly anyone wants to be poor; most people would like to be rich. Wealth brings power, standing in the community, increased leisure and freedom from worry-so it is thought.

Not surprisingly, in the richest part of the world many Christians are preaching a “prosperity gospel”-that faithfulness to Jesus will lead to personal wealth.

Tragically, this distorted message is now taking root in some of the poorest countries of the world. Is wealth a sign of God’s blessing? Is money the main measure of wealth? Why does money “talk”? Does the Bible endorse wealth, promote it or exclude it? How are we to respond in spirit and action? Our souls hang on our answers to these questions.

Wealth as Power
Principalities and powers form an invisible background to our life in this world. One of those powers is money. Mammon, as it is sometimes called, comes from an Aramaic word, amen, which means firmness or stability. It is not surprising that a common English phrase is “the almighty dollar.”

As an alternative god, mammon inspires devotion, induces guilt, claims to give us security and seems omnipresent-a godlike thing (Foster, p. 28). It is invested with spiritual power that can enslave us, replacing single-minded love for God and neighbor with buying-selling relationships in which even the soul can be bought (Rev. 18:11-13). So money, wicked “mammon” (Luke 16:9 KJV), is a form or appearance of another power (Ephes. 1:21; Ellul, pp. 76-77, 81, 93). “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7). Joseph, the righteous and Jesus are sold (Amos 2:6).

Money is not the only form of wealth, and not the first one named in Scripture. In ancient societies of Old Testament times, real wealth was associated with land. Even today in many Third World countries, land is the only permanent possession. Crops, cattle and houses could be destroyed by calamity, but the land will remain. So will the family.

In God’s threefold promise to the descendants of Abraham (presence of God, peoplehood and a place to belong), the land figures prominently. Poised on the edge of Canaan, Israel was promised a good land to gain wealth. “Remember the Lord your God . . . gives you the ability to produce wealth” (Deut. 8:18).

Land belonged to God but was trusted to families.When the land had been mortgaged or sold to pay debts, the Jubilee year (Leviticus 25) was the instrument of returning land to the original families.

How this applies to Christians today is a sensitive question. The meaning of “in the land” to Israel has now been encompassed by the phrase “in Christ” through which both Jews and Gentiles become joint heirs (Ephes. 3:6). This includes economic sharing and justice but does not literally mean a common piece of geography (see Stewardship). So we are already seeing that Scripture appears to be ambiguous on this subject.

There are two voices of Scripture: one blessing the rich, the other cursing; one declaring that wealth is a sign of God’s redemptive love to make us flourish on earth, the other declaring that wicked mammon (Luke 16:9), usually gained at the expense of the poor, is an alternative god (see Money). We need to look at each of these in turn.

Wealth as Blessing
The idea that wealth is a sign of God’s blessing(Deut. 30:9; Proverbs 22:4) is illustrated by the lives of Abraham, Job and Solomon.

In contrast to those who praised the Lord because they were rich (Zech. 11:5) but were soon to be judged, it is noteworthy that each of these exemplars depended on God rather than their wealth (Genesis 13:8-18; Job 1:21).

The wise person in Proverbs is essentially a better-off person with servants-equivalent to our modern household machines;-- neither fabulously wealthy nor living in grinding poverty.Some wealth is a good thing; too much or too little would be alienating from God (Proverbs 30:9).

So the wise person prays, “Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread” (Proverbs 30:8).The prosperity gospel now being preached worldwide is not satisfied with a comfortable existence or merely praying for our daily bread.

We can critique it on at least three grounds. First, it encourages perverted motives: focusing on profitability. Second, it misinterprets God’s deepest concerns for us: material well-being rather than total well-being. Third, it misinterprets God’s promises to Israel as immediately applicable to Christians without being fulfilled and transfigured in Christ (compare 1 Tim. 6:3-10).

Nevertheless, the Old Testament clearly presents wealth as a means of God’s grace.

Wealth as Sacrament
The Old Testament affirms that God is the true owner, proprietor and giver of wealth (1 Samuel 2:7-8; Proverbs 3:16; Eccles. 5:19; Hosea 2:8). We are merely stewards (Proverbs 3:9). But the fact that God gives wealth, indiscriminately it seems, produces what Jacques Ellul calls “the scandal of wealth.” God sometimes gives wealth to the wicked (Job 21:7-21; Psalm 73:12-13).

Why would God do this if wealth were a sign of being blessed?

Contrary to the common argument that wealth is the result of “our hard-earned labor” or “our faithfulness,” the Old Testament takes a more sacramental view.

Wealth is a free gift of God, a sign of God’s grace given generously and without merit.

Further, wealth points to the final consummation when our wealth will be taken into the Holy City (Isaiah 60:3; Rev. 21:24-26; see Ellul, p. 66).

It is a gross and dangerous oversimplification to say the Old Testament endorses wealth as the blessing of God and the New Testament proclaims it is a curse.

Wealth as Temptation
Even the Old Testament warns that the pursuit of wealth for its own sake is vain and harmful, leading to self-destructive autonomy (Psalm 49:6-7; Proverbs 23:4-5; Proverbs 28:20; Proverbs 30:8-9; Hosea 12:8).

Proverbs 10:15, for example, “The wealth of the rich is their fortified city,” is illuminated by Proverbs 18:11, “They imagine it an unscalable wall.” Wealth is an illusionary security. Wealth will not satisfy (Psalm 49:6-7; Eccles. 5:10).

Several points need to be made here.

First, no one is made right with God (justified) by the fair acquisition of wealth (Proverbs 13:11) or by dispersing it on behalf of the poor. In the absence of a “principle” or “doctrine” about money, we are called to find our justification not in our use of money but in our relationship to God. We are accepted by faith through grace.

Second, instead of becoming stewards of wealth for the benefit of the poor (Proverbs 31:5, 8-9), we are tempted to use what wealth we have to dominate others (Amos 2:6)-a subject taken up by John Chrysostom in his sermons on Luke 16. Just as the brothers of Joseph enjoyed their fine meal and did not “grieve over the ruin of Joseph” (Amos 6:6; Genesis 37:25), very few wealthy people have been able to resist becoming desensitized to the poor.

Third, especially reprehensible is yielding to the temptation to enlist God’s Word to serve our lust for wealth (2 Kings 5:20-27; Micah 3:11), to “baptize” greed, a matter symbolized in the commercialized temple which Jesus cleansed.

When we turn to the New Testament we discover that “Jesus Christ strips wealth of the sacramental character that we have recognized in the Old Testament” (Matthew 6:24; Luke 6:30; Luke 12:33; Ellul, p. 70).

The rich fool trusts in his barns and investments and is not ready to meet God, nor is known by God. The rich already have their comfort (Luke 6:24); they have nothing to look forward to.The rich young man must give everything away and follow Jesus. True wealth is not the accumulation of houses, farms, jewels and money but something more.

Though these passages seem to argue for an antiwealth New Testament ethic, it is not that simple. Jesus affirmed the extravagant and wasteful display of love when the woman poured perfume on him head: “She has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mark 14:1-11). And Jesus himself accepted the generous financial support of women with means (Luke 8:3). How are we to resolve this tension?

Heavenly Wealth
Unquestionably many of Jesus’ negative statements about the rich and the wealthy are addressed to the spiritual malady fed by material abundance.

“Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15; compare James 5:1-6).

As an alternative god wealth must be repudiated, if necessary by giving it all away (compare Luke 16:13).Ultimate security and blessing cannot be found in the accumulation of things (compare Matthew 6:19).

At this point Scripture gives us a harmonious, though disturbing, single message. Possessions are solely and simply a matter of stewardship, not ownership, and this life’s assets are to be used with a heavenly orientation.

What are these heavenly treasures, and how do they relate to everyday wealth, or the lack of it?

We gain an important paradigmatic perspective on this question from the Old Testament.

There the inheritance received by Israel through the promise was a threefold blessing:a. the presence of God (“I will be with you”),b. the people (“you will be my people; I will be your God”) andc. a place to belong (“the land will be yours”).

As noted above, what we are given “in Christ” more than fulfills the promises made to Abraham and his descendants.God is with us in an empowering way through the Spirit. What greater treasure can there be than to belong to God and be known by him?

In Christ we experience peoplehood, a new family with hundreds of brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, children and lands (Matthew 19:29; Mark 10:29-30; see Church-Family).

The promise of a place is fulfilled doubly: first in true fellowship here on earth through a full sharing of life with other believers, and second in the place which Christ has prepared for us (John 14:2) in the new heaven and new earth, the city of God (Hebrews 11:13-16).Presence, peoplehood and a place-these are true wealth for the Christian.Money in the bank, ownership certificates of bonds and title deeds to properties are only an optional extra to this wealth.

But what are we to do with the temporal wealth God has entrusted to us?

Stewards of Wealth
Stewardship is much more than giving money to the church or to charities.

It is caring for God’s creation, managing God’s household, bringing God’s justice.

Old Testament social legislation pointed to the coming (and present) kingdom of God with principles that were economically gracious: the provision for the gleaning of the poor by not harvesting everything one could (Ruth); the provision of the sabbath for the land and for indebted people; the cancellation of debts with Israelites and resident aliens in the seventh year-thus stressing neighbor love (Deut. 15:1-6); the command to lend without interest to one’s neighbor (Deut. 15:7-11); the release of Israelite slaves on the seventh year (Deut. 15:12-18); the provision of Jubilee, by which the hopelessly indebted could start again (Leviticus 25); the command that kings and leaders must not enrich themselves by that leadership but should live simply as brother-leaders (Deut. 17:16-20).

While these commands are not to be slavishly followed under the circumstances of the new covenant, they reflect a minimum standard for economic life for people “in Christ.”

Christian stewardship cares for the earth, releases debts, empowers the poor, brings dignity to the marginalized and equalizes opportunity. But there is also direct giving.

Probably no other single factor indicates our true spirituality more than what we do with the wealth we have and in what spirit we share it.

Christian giving is marked by hilarity (Luke 6:38; 2 Cor. 9:7) that takes us beyond a calculated tithe and reflects the generosity of God.

The Lord might well ask in this area as in others, “What more do you do than the pagans who know not God? And why?”

First, we are to invest primarily in people, especially the poor. The only treasure we can take from this life to the next is the relationships we have made through Jesus (Luke 16:9). The treasures in heaven are relationships that have been formed through the gracious use of money, the investment of the things of this life in a world without end, often in the context of everyday work.

Second, we are to give wisely and carefully. It was John Wesley who advised: “Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can.”But the giving must take us beyond merely relieving the symptoms of people’s distress through giving alms.

Almsgiving may be a perversion of giving, because, as Ellul (p. 112) shows, it binds the recipient in an obligatory relationship, demands gratitude and does not usually address the reasons behind the person’s poverty.

So individuals and churches should invest in people and causes grappling with the systemic powers that hold people in bondage to a cycle of poverty.

There may be no greater area of discernment needed for the Christian in everyday life than to decide when, where and how to give money away.

Third, some form of voluntary impoverishment is required of all followers of Jesus.It is not sufficient to say, as many do, “The rich young ruler was a special case” (see Matthew 19:16-30).

We are all in need of profaning the false god of Mammon and relativizing wealth in this life as something less than full treasure in heaven.There are several dimensions of voluntary impoverishment.We start by relinquishing ownership to God.We practice continuous thanksgiving, which is the only way to become content whatever our circumstances (Phil. 4:12-13).

We should pay our taxes with a generous heart, knowing that some of this is being used to provide services and care for the poor and disadvantaged.We should give directly to the poor with no strings attached as personally as possible (Luke 16:9; Stevens, pp. 159-65).

We should give to God’s global work (2 Cor. 8-9).

Finally we should be ready, if so commanded by Christ, to sell all. Christian people do not have a monopoly on giving, any more than they have a monopoly on gifts of teaching and administration or showing mercy. What makes giving a spiritual ministry, as Paul notes in Romans 12:7-8, is an extra anointing that God gives to people who are harmonizing themselves with God’s Spirit.

Then those who show mercy do it “cheerfully,” and those contributing to the needs of others “generously.” Throughout the New Testament it is the interiority of the matter that is emphasized: freedom from manipulation and covetousness, motivated by true love for God and neighbor. As Jacques Ellul notes, “Ultimately, we follow what we have loved most intensely either into eternity or into death” (Matthew 6:21; Ellul, p. 83).

Article By R Paul Stevens
Originally published in The Complete Book of Everyday Christianity by Robert Banks and R. Paul Stevens.
©1997 by Robert Banks and R. Paul Stevens.
Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515, USA.
www.ivpress.com

References and Resources
1. J. M. Bassler, Asking for Money in the New Testament (Nashville: Abingdon, 1991);
2. J. Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty, trans. C. P. Roth (Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1984);
3. J. Ellul, Money and Power, trans. L. Neff (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1984);
4. R. Foster, Money, Sex and Power (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985);
5. D. J. Hall, Stewardship of Life in the Kingdom of Death (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988);
6. J. C. Haughey, The Holy Use of Money: Personal Finances in the Light of the Christian Faith (New York: Doubleday, 1986);
7. L. T. Johnson, Sharing Possessions: Mandate and Symbol of Faith (London: SCM Press, 1981);
8. R. J. Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (Dallas: Word, 1990);
9. R. P. Stevens, Disciplines of the Hungry Heart (Wheaton, Ill: Harold Shaw, 1993);
10. C. J. H. Wright, God’s People in God’s Land: Family, Land and Property in the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990).