Love of Money – Is Wealth a Sin?

  Posted on Sep 25, 2016  by Shera Payne  No comments

It’s Harvest Festival!!!

That time of year when we dutifully bring foodstuffs, flowers and other things to church to give to people in the area.

Harvest festival is a one-off. Many members of the church here also give regularly to Foodbank which is brilliant and undoubtedly our collective action has made significant differences to some peoples’ lives. People we have never met. People whose circumstances we will probably never experience.

This action is one of the things Jesus calls us to do.

But have a think- are there barriers which stop us doing this more? We don’t have to save up or sacrifice much to support Harvest Festival or Foodbank and I think a question I would like to ask- of myself as well as others is WHY don’t I do more?

WHY do people give proportionally less, the more they have?

This isn’t heading in any critical or judgemental direction but I am intrigued to explore how this relates to Paul’s assertion to Timothy that LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL

This letter to Timothy is written in a fairly forceful manner. Paul’s instructions are full of commands rather than simple advice- RUN from evil things, PURSUE righteousness and a godly life.

He tells Timothy to teach the rich in this world not to be proud and trust in their money. Paul is challenging this shy young man to step out of his comfort zone and do God’s work “obey this command without wavering” he says in verse 14.

This is surely a message to us to act likewise- when you see acts of ungodliness or injustice, don’t just sit there, do something!

But of course this is far easier said than done.

In this passage we are looking at the ungodly state of worshipping money.

Paul here provides a very practical view of a proper Christian attitude to wealth.

MONEY has it all- A false idol, something to covert, the subject of theft, something that people sometimes kill for. Just how many commandments can you break in pursuit of this stuff?

We’re talking here about the root of all evil being the LOVE of money rather than money itself. Money cannot be evil- no, money is inanimate. Evil is a human thing. It’s the attention which leads to obsession that is the evil bit.

And because we’re all caught up with money, we all have it and work hard for it, we feel a little uncomfortable about the whole thing. Surely if we are to agree that love of money is bad, how do we justify spending all our working lives trying to get more? How do we justify wanting more whether we need it or not?

We are rich. We have drinking water that won’t kill us, medical attention whenever we need it, choice of meals and enough to throw away afterwards and comfortable places to live. And much more.

All this we have by the grace of God. That includes our savings, earning power and money locked up in investments, houses, cars etc.

We have all this for the duration of our lives on earth. It is not ours for ever. Wealth is on loan from God until out time is up.

Paul says to remember that it is “God who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.” God is the giver. Many people forget that.

They believe that they are responsible for their own wealth; they earned it; they performed better than other people. But it is God who allows that wealth to come. God is the ultimate giver; and he gives, as this verse says, that we might enjoy riches.

We are all rich, materially

Is this right? Is this wrong?

Nothing in the bible says it is wrong to be wealthy. The Bible says that God makes some people wealthy so that they might enjoy it. HOW enjoy it is the crux

It is possible to be both good and rich if we become generous people, with our hope fixed on God, with the right perspective toward material things. CS Lewis was once asked how much you should give and he replied that you should work out how much you spend on comfort, holidays, luxuries and non-essentials and then give more than this.

To know that you have been used by God to make somebody else happy, comfortable, relieved of distress, freed from bondage, given the food and shelter they need should give a sense of joy, a sense of CONTENTMENT.

It is this CONTENTMENT which is the real wealth. It says in verse 6 “…true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth”

Interestingly this word GODLINESS derives from the Greek eusebia which means — godliness, balance, wholeness.

It is that wholeness that produces a contented heart.

This way of thinking doesn’t work if we see contentment as getting everything we want as soon as we want it and fighting against this is one of the greatest challenges we face

I recently came across this quote (sorry don’t know who it was)

One of the great problems of this age, with its crass materialism, its blatant hedonism, is that we are a rootless, restless people. We are always looking for some anaesthetic to deaden the pain of an empty life. We look with envy upon contented people.

We are bombarded ceaselessly with powerful appeals to buy this, send for that, borrow enough for the NOW, forget TOMORROW

We are encouraged to believe that the world it about US revolves around ME BECAUSE I AM WORTH IT

We needn’t heed the 24/7 universal propaganda to have more things.

WHY SPEND MONEY THAT OTHERS COULD USE IN ORDER TO BUY JUNK WE HAVE NO REAL NEED FOR?

As Christians that is not our prime objective

Consider carefully these words (verse 9):

But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction

In his letter to Timothy, Paul is telling us of a subtle danger- one which increases with the opportunities brought to us in our modern world.

TEMPTATION. There is no hunger like it. It is ever present- so much so it becomes natural, especially when we are constantly being told that we deserve this; we are this kind of people. It is amazing how easily we can convince ourselves that we, like everybody else, have a right to have these things. A right to these things!

That is temptation.

But that’s not all. Paul says that those who WANT to be rich are “trapped by many foolish and harmful desires” Notice where the emphasis is: It is on the DESIRE to be rich. It is the love of money, not money, that is the root of all evil. That is the most misquoted verse EVER

Remember, money is not ours for ever, but on loan from God until our time is up. Like with Job, it could be taken away at any time

Paul reminds us in this letter to Timothy verse 7 that you can’t take it with you. There are many references to this in the Bible- the man you builds bigger and bigger barns for his harvest then dies suddenly (Luke 12:21) Jesus says a man is a fool to store up earthly wealth and not have a rich relationship with God. Jesus also said: “You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matthew 6:24; see also Luke 16:9, 11, 13).

A former WW1 stretcher bearer Robert Service wrote a poem called the Munition Maker about someone getting very rich making and selling weapons. The chorus says “let every potentate be proud, there are no pockets in a shroud” You can’t take it with you.

NO POCKETS IN A SHROUD

You can’t take it with you

In the first half of this reading Paul lays it ion the line- the dangers of loving money, the temptation and what leads to it.

The second half (verse 11 onwards) are Paul’s instructions or ethical advice if you like.

For a moment think about the relationship people in Jesus’ time had with money. They lived in a world ruled by Romans. The majority of people just had enough to get by on or else probably starved. For the most part you could only acquire wealth by cooperating with or serving the Roman world. Thus those who had wealth were likely to be those who benefited from the oppression of the masses.

Early Christians were a kind of counter-culture, espousing ideals of simple living with God at the centre and encouraging ways of living which went against the normal Roman ways. Some would have found this way of living rather odd or even threatening

Look at how in Acts 4:32-37, believers shared their possessions amongst those in need. Now THAT was a very strange thing to do in those times, in that society. Remember too in Acts 5 how Ananias and Sapphira said that they had sold their possessions to give to the poor but had actually kept a chunk aside for themselves? Peter confronted Ananias and said “why have you let Satan fill your heart?”

Was Ananias being greedy?, did he have too much love for his wealth? Or was he just being dishonest- keeping up appearances while keeping a nest egg for a rainy day?

HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO OUR GIVING TODAY?

In those days, wealthy people were not scorned and some even provided for the early Christians, enabling them to devote all their time to God’s work rather than earning a living. Luke mentions the many women who accompanied Jesus and the disciples as “providing for them out of their resources” (Luke 8:3). Paul had a patroness called Phoebe who paid for his secretary and other support.

So I think we can safely say that early Christians were not dead set against wealth per se. No, what mattered was the attitude of the person owning it.

Being consumed by wealth can get in the way of putting your trust in God.

Talking of rich people, Paul says to Timothy (verses 17-18): “…teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is unreliable…….(18) they should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always ready to share with others.”

So, looking at what we face in trying to do the right thing, to be content to use our wealth for others, to not love wealth for its own sake,- not all barriers come from the world but we also have to consider challenges from within the church.

There is a view held by thousands (we’d like to think it’s American but it’s here too) that says if you become a Christian then God will reward you. Indeed if you are not A WEALTHY Christian then you might be considered to have something wrong with your faith

So, if you don’t drive an expensive car or have a big house in the right part of town you are obviously a weak-faithed individual, as God blesses Christians, and wealth is the sign of His blessing.

Essentially, what this is saying is that the whole point of following God is for personal gain.

Now, if we wholeheartedly refute this, (which I hope we all do!!) then we also must refute any notion of God requiring us to use our wealth solely for our own good.

NOW THAT’S AN UNCOMFORTABLE THOUGHT FOR SOME!!

It’s also worth reminding ourselves how damaging possessions and wealth can be to our relationships with others. People can be attracted by what you have rather than who you are; you become suspicious of friends’ motives.

“Hi I’m Bob. I’m own Sports Direct” will surround you with different people than “Hi I’m Bob and I sell trainers and footballs”

As soon as you define yourself by your material wealth you are allowing the power of the love of money possess you. You become afraid that you won’t be accepted. But you must always remember that regardless of your wealth or otherwise, God will always love you.

Hebrews 13:5 says:

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because God said “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you”

Prayer

We pray Lord that you would help us to loosen our grip on material things and tighten our grip on you. Help us to be good stewards of the things that you have given us and to spread your gifts fairly among others in need.

Save us from greed and feelings of self-importance and inspire us to act in the interests of others instead of ourselves at all times.

We pray this in Jesus’ name

Amen

Sermon: Andy Littlewood 25 September 2016