The Thing About Wealth

My good friend Chris wrote a blog the other day called The Things About Consumerism. It teetered on the brink of validating it but refrained from actually plunging over and endorsing it. In the process, he brought up a couple of really good points and you should probably head over there and read through it before beginning mine. It's OK. I'll give you a couple minutes right now. I'll be here when you get back.

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There are a bunch of Christians who have misread and misquoted a few passages of scripture, building the rich people are evil theology that seems to permeate a lot of people's hearts. They begin by leaving out the words "The Love of" from their reading of 1 Timothy 6:10 (For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, in their eagerness to get rich, have wandered away from the faith and caused themselves a lot of pain). Then they pair this misquoted passage with Jesus' parable of the rich young ruler, especially the ending when Jesus tells us that it's easier for a camel to walk through the head of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of heaven- obviously indicating to those who subscribe to the former that it's nearly impossible for rich people to be saved. There's also James and a few other writers who warn the rich that they should be generous, OR ELSE. And then there are other parables where Jesus apparently tells the masses that the the rich are terrible people who will burn in Hell for all eternity (Luke 16).

Let's begin with the first problem. Whenever one takes passages from any text and mangle it up, disregarding the entire sentence (or paragraph, or chapter, etc.) it's going to be troublesome for the reader. In the particular case of 1 Timothy 6:10, it's troublesome because the reader, leaving out a few key words forgets that it's the love of money that is a root (not THE root, but A root) of all evil rather than money itself. It's a fine distinction, but one that needs to be agreed upon before moving ahead. Money should be used, not loved. It's a tool that we can use to attain things, give things, and receive things. It's not something that anyone should love in and of itself.

And with this in mind, I'd actually add to Chris' argument that the thing about consumerism is that it can actually break us of our love for money. Without being reckless and running ourselves into enormous amounts of debt, using money (rather than hording it) is a really good thing. When I buy things with my money, whether they be goods or services, I usually do so by diminishing my supply of money. Instead of gathering wealth- I'm giving it away. I'm forced to release my money to the hands of someone else.

If I'm unable to do so, if I'm a misery like Scrooge, there is a real problem for my mind cannot be set on amassing wealth and on Christ simultaneously. I must give my love to one avenue of security or the other.

After all, that's what the love of wealth and money is about, isn't it?

If I love money more than anything, it's because I'm putting my hope in money to keep me safe from economic downturn, medical bills, homelessness, debt, and even death. Money is a savior that many people- whether rich or poor, turn to for salvation because they think that it will solve their problems.

Now, it's true that sometimes those who have a lot of wealth have a harder time letting go than others. I can't imagine that someone with a house that's paid in full, filled with a lot of really nice stuff would be quite as willing to part with almost everything they own, move across the country, and live with their in-laws (as I just did this past month). Someone with property and ownership and investments would have done their best to hold up in Seattle for a while. They wouldn't have been able to move so freely.

And that's the thing about wealth. When we have it or when we put our faith in it rather than in Christ and in relationships and in truth- it holds us down. It keeps us where we are, unable to move and react with whatever comes next.

I've met a few really wealthy people in my lifetime. Some of them have been incredibly generous with their resources and their lives. They've been able to let go of whatever they feel called to let go of and in doing so, they've lived out the words of Jesus more completely than some of my other friends who are poor beyond measure.

No man can serve two masters. We have to choose whether to be enslaved to cash or enslaved to Christ. See, it's not about wealth. It's about what you do with it.