But godliness
with contentment
is great gain.
For we brought nothing
into the world,
and we can take nothing
out of it.
But if we have food and clothing,
we will be content with that.
Those who want to get rich
fall into temptation
and a trap
and into many foolish and harmful desires
that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Some people,
eager for money,
have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves
with many griefs.
Wow. So poignant.
I take very seriously the passage above, as well as those in James, that warn not only the rich, but also the others who are tempted to favor the rich. Yet, I have to honestly ask myself, "What would I become if a fortune were to suddenly drop into my own lap?" The statement in Proverbs that one of the things the world cannot bear is a "pauper who becomes a king", easily translates into the obtaining of riches.
I am a Christian, a Democrat and a lover of the arts. Yet, the Christians who see capitalism as inherently good, the Democrats who go after big business money in order to "beat the Republicans at their own game", and the artists who constantly castigate capitalism, yet set up their centers in money areas, show me just how alluring and deceptive riches can be.
That the right of capitalism reaches only as far as its desire to help those who cannot help themselves is firmly rooted in my bed of convictions. But, as mentioned above, the question of my own wisdom and compassion with money must be rooted beside it, so much so that the two create a hybrid thought.
Powerful text , Gods speech act ! I was brought up by and still am trade unionist (metal worker) and a social democrat/democratic socialist . The "father" of the social gospel Walter Raushenbush and the European religious socialists(Blumhardt,Ragaz ,Kutter,Barth,Brunner,Tillich) had an immense effect on my faith. I thought wealth was supposed to be to build solidarity and community ...that's not what is going on today !
My temptation is to think of this passage as speaking to those who are rich (which I can define as anyone who has more than I do, no matter how much I actually have) but it speaks to all of us who 'want to get rich' and are 'eager for money'. I must always keep checking myself and my wants vs needs, my eagerness for a pay increase, justifying, rationalizing to be as sure as I can be, that I'm not deceiving myself concerning money. Not, how much is enough, but how eager am I for more and would I do to get it?
I would also say, capitalism and socialism, Republican and Democrat, conservative and liberal each have their issues, none is completely the correct system and we need them to counter balance the other and to get us to think and weigh.
John, you make a great point, "What would I become if a fortune were to suddenly drop into my own lap?"
I think about that quite a bit, how would I handle it, what choices would I make? How much do I want that? How eager am I for it to happen? Powerball anyone?
I don't love money--I tend to have a series of one-night stands with it, and I never call it in the morning. On the other hand, it's not the money I care about, it's all the cool stuff that it buys! Finally: could Professor Beck please mail me that roll of bills pictured with the article? I sure would like to have that much money to not love.
Verse 18 in the same chapter states that the rich should be "ready to SHARE." In Eph. 4:28, it is stated that we work in order "to SHARE with him who has need." Quite interesting that the current brand of religious fundamentalism promotes the political idea that the concept of "sharing one's wealth" is anathema. Not surprising they want a new translation that reinforces conservative political values because the text is way too liberal.
Loving money leads to destruction. The evils sustained by it produce all kinds of harm.