Is It Wrong For A Christian To Be Rich?
I highly recommend money because it is a commodity that is pretty difficult to live without! And contrary to what many Christians believe, money is definitely not the root of all evil.
First Timothy 6:10 says:
"For the
LOVE of money is a root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have been led astray, and have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves through with many acute [mental] pangs" (Parallel Bible, KJV/Amplified Bible Commentary, emphasis mine).
You see, money is a necessary part of a Christian life and is certainly not intrinsically bad or good. It’s one of the many "things" in the life of a Christian that the Lord actually owns, but allows us to use as His stewards. When we properly utilize the "things" that He places at our disposal, and maintain the proper attitude toward them, He very often multiplies them. It is when we adopt the wrong attitude toward "things" that we get in trouble. If we allow ourselves to develop a love an inordinate desire for these "things", it (the love the inordinate desire) becomes sinful. Again, money and other material things are not sinful in and of themselves. Actually, they are quite nice and if we behave ourselves and practice good stewardship God just might see fit to allow us to use some of His! But let me hasten to say that there are no guarantees. The "prosperity gospel" that some have been preaching is as phony and bogus as a three dollar bill. It is a fact that God promised the Old Testament Jew financial and spiritual prosperity, but both were predicated upon their obedience to Him. Nowhere will you find anything resembling this promised to Christians this side of heaven. As a matter of fact, we are plainly told that our walk with Christ will be hard and the closer we try to walk with Him, the rougher it will get. Christianity is absolutely unique among the religions of the world in this respect.
Eternity is forever (!) and it would be foolish beyond our ability to express it to sacrifice any of the treasures of heaven for the pitiful "things" of this earth. But this is precisely what many Christians routinely do when they allow themselves to be enamored with material things. I am convinced that our sovereign God assigns each of us to our relative station in life our financial and material status, along with the correlated abilities (or lack of abilities) pertinent to that position. Let’s face it not all of us have the intellect or the ability to amass wealth and handle it properly. Some do and praise God for their being able to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Other brethren do the best they can, but spend their entire lives struggling to feed and clothe themselves. True happiness and spiritual contentment are experienced when we realize what our respective niche in life is and then just do the best that we can as long as we can! Where we get into trouble is when we are not satisfied with God’s provision and covet more than He knows is best for us. Ambition and the desire for advancement are only natural and not wrong as long as we do not force the issue. If God wants us to advance in our jobs and make more money, He will see to it that these things happen.
As He opens the "doors" we will be able to walk through them. Unfortunately, many Christians do not understand this and have bloody noses from trying to walk through closed doors! This is underscored by the words of Christ in Luke 12:15: "And He said to them, Guard yourselves and keep free from all covetousness the immoderate desire for wealth, the greedy longing to have more; for a man’s life does not consist and is not derived from possessing overflowing abundance, or that which is over and above his needs" (Parallel Bible, KJV/Amplified Bible Commentary).
The underlying spiritual danger associated with money and possessions is that they may easily become idols in our lives. I trust you realize that an idol does not have to be some sort of figure made of wood or stone sitting in a temple, surrounded by worshippers. No, an idol is
anything that we allow to come between our God and us! He demands our total allegiance, just as a husband and wife demand it of each other. When our love and attention is drawn to anything or anyone other than God, He is offended and we should understand why.
The apostle Paul had quite a bit to say about money and material things, and in his first letter to Timothy he cautions Christians and particularly preachers against the misuse of them. In 1 Timothy 6 we start our reading in the middle of verse 5 and continue through verse 9, then to verse 17:
" men who are corrupted in mind and bereft of the truth, who imagine that godliness or righteousness is a source of profit a money-making business, a means of livelihood. From such withdraw. [And it is, indeed, a source of immense profit, for] godliness, accompanied with contentment that contentment which is a sense of inward sufficiency is great and abundant gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and obviously we cannot take anything out of the world; But if we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content (satisfied). But those who crave to be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish (useless, godless) and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction and miserable perishing."
To be Continued...................
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