Ancient Greek jewelry, an indication of the personal wealth of a few.
These strong words suggest that Jesus was against wealth, but his sharp warnings are not in fact directed against riches in themselves. What he condemns is the wrong attitudes many people have toward acquiring wealth, and the wrong ways in which they use it. Longing for riches, not having them, chokes the spiritual life like weeds in a field of grain (Mt 13:22). The greedy desire to have more doomed the unforgiving servant (Mt 18:23–35). And the rich man’s selfishness, not his wealth, sealed his fate (Lk 16:19–26). Paul captures the main lesson in these parables exactly when he writes to Timothy, “For the love of money is the root of all evils” (1 Tm 6:10).
The greatest danger of all arises when riches gain the mastery in a person’s life. The whole Bible warns against this idolatrous attitude to material things (e.g., Dt. 8:17, 18; Lk 14:15–24). Satan tempted Jesus to put material wealth and power in God’s place (Mt 4:8, 9), and Jesus delivers the clearest warning against making money into a master (Mt 6:24). In this light Jesus instructs the rich young ruler to sell everything (Mk 10:17–22). Here was a wealthy man who had allowed his possessions to possess him. Jesus’ aim was to make him recognize his bondage so he could escape from his self-made prison. The fact that he turned away from Jesus demonstrates the powerful pull of riches.
These blunt warnings are the most striking aspect of Jesus’ teaching on wealth. But alongside his exposure of wrong attitudes he was careful to sketch in the outline of right attitudes. Those who recognize that they are God’s trustees (not owners) of their possessions, he taught, will find many valuable outlets for their riches in the Lord’s service (Lk 12:42–44). Instead of coming between him and them, their possessions (great or small) can be used as aids to worship (Lk 21:1–4; 25:50–53; Jn 12:1–7). Instead of making them tight-fisted, their riches will allow them to express neighbor-love in many practical ways (2 Cor 8:2). And instead of having their inward peace ruined by anxious greed, they will find the secret of serenity in an increasing sense of dependence on their heavenly Giver (Lk 12:29–31; 1 Tm 6:17).
According to the Bible, then, the morality of riches depends entirely on personal attitudes. And nowhere does this come out more powerfully than in the frequent comparisons Scripture draws between material and spiritual wealth. Those who make material riches their goal in life have wrong values. However wealthy they may appear, they are poverty-stricken in God’s sight (Mt 16:26; Rev 3:17). In his view, the truly rich are those whose main aim in life is to serve him as King (Mt 13:44–46). Their wealth lies in the currency of faith and good works (1 Tm 6:18; Jas 2:5)—a heavenly bank balance which no one can steal and nothing can erode. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt 6:19–21).
DAVID H. FIELD
Elwell, Walter A., and Barry J. Beitzel. Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible 1988 : 1859. Print.
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