Is it okay to be wealthy? What about having much more than what is needed to take care of your family? Is it wrong to drive hard bargains and seek money? What does it mean that it’s not possible to serve God and Mammon? Is it really going to be difficult for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom than it will be for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle? Can someone really be rich and lose his soul? Can someone who truly believes in Jesus and turns the cheek when slapped really be rich? Is it okay to just be okay?
The average Christian is conflicted on the topic of money. If you ask people what they think casually they will tell you that it’s ok to be rich and be a child of God at the same time, but when you probe deeper, you find that there is a conflict. Many people are comfortable with the idea of having enough to take care of their families, but to really have over and abundant, is really another ball game.
There are two big pulls on either side of the debate our wealth. One is our conservative SU/Deeper life slant that taught us growing up that this world was not our own, we are only passengers and cannot afford to get entangled. I mean, you can take the whole world, just give me Jesus. The other point of view came in the 90s as a new gospel crept upon society at large tagged the Prosperity gospel. To a community long starved the pleasures of fantasizing about becoming rich and entertaining the whims of their ambitions and desires, that message came as cold water to a seriously thirsty soul. Ironically, those who taught us the beauty of giving all, holding on to nothing and valuing Jesus above riches were not poverty stricken, far from it, they were wealthy. Those who taught in subtle ways that Jesus was a guarantee for riches backed it up by racking up inspirational toys and lifestyles. These two schools of thought have left many believers conflicted.
If people must participate in all that God has in stock for them and flee from everything that has the capacity to destroy them, they must have clarity about God’s Kingdom and His principles. This is not about claiming superior knowledge to those before us, no, we could not see further without standing on their shoulders. We cannot because of our reverence for the maker of Nokia 3210, not shift to iPhone 12 today. In the same way, we cannot allow our reverence for those who taught truth before now insist we must defer to perspectives that have been discovered not to have all the answers. The Siemens SL45 was a sleek phone 19 years ago, not now. The forerunners in technology to compete gave us access to the best of technology and kept on outdoing each other. It’s so easy for us to embrace new technology, we must embrace new insights with equal ease. We must move ahead of what was handed over to us and see clearer as the Day dawns.
If you are conflicted about wealth, it means you are double minded and unable to receive from God. If you are in the hot pursuit of wealth, you may have found yourself an idol, as you can’t serve God and money. You can’t run a new application on an old operating system. New wine is only sustained by new wineskins. All these conflicts are going to be elegantly unpacked in the series – Kingdom Principles for Financial Increase.