There are some topics that are more interesting than others, some doctrines more personal than others. But nothing seems to get folks’ attention more quickly than money. We’re not going to discuss money itself in this month’s issue, but the general theme is “Rich Man/ Poor Man.”

A very wealthy man once told me that he had written a check to purchase his new, very expensive home. I looked him in the eye and told him, “Why, I have more money than you will ever have.” He looked at me like I was crazy. He should have, because I’ve never been wealthy by the world’s standards. In fact, I have been fairly impoverished most of my life, and it shows in my clothing, home, vehicle, and general appearance, I suppose. He did not know that I was referring to the treasures in heaven that have been laid up for me, where neither moth nor rust destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. He did not know at the time that he had been chosen by God for salvation, but he knows it now, having been illuminated some years ago, and the relative value of earthly riches versus heavenly treasure is abundantly clear to him.

In this issue of CC, we will address both earthly riches and heavenly treasures. We will explore a Biblical perspective on temporal wealth, and seek an understanding of how we arrive at amassing enough heavenly treasure to move our hearts from the realm of the temporal to the realm of eternity. Some Christians are confused about what real blessings are, thinking that blessing always involves temporal happiness or riches. We must grow until our treasure becomes heavenly treasure, and then we can enjoy eternal blessing on a temporal plane.

Two commands, one negative and the other positive. Do not lay up. Lay up. It is the last line of the above passage that reveals an uncomfortable truth. Those whose hearts are set on earthly goals and acquisitions are generally not wonderfully fruitful in a spiritual sense. Conversely, those whose lives are devoted to the acquisition of heavenly treasure tend to have little on earth. A home, family, and the essentials of life are all their hearts desire, for they seek a city whose Builder and Maker is God, and they are laying up for their “retirement.” Retirement, that is, from everything temporal. The problem is that every culture and civilization is made up of sinful people, and sinful people are selfish.

In the United States, the dollar rules. The race is on in almost every home to acquire more and newer and better. It is the gauge by which success is measured here. The nation’s health is determined by the stock market, the rate of inflation, and interest rates. On an individual level, the nicer the home, the more fashionable the clothes, the more expensive the automobile, the more successful a person is deemed to be, and the greater respect he garners. All this, without reference to any particular achievement. Those misfits who are driven to be artists, poets, writers, musicians—who engage in some dream world in which they earn little—these are compelled to live in poverty, though they may be brilliant in their artistry. They even have names for these folks: starving artist, or pauper poet; wannabes all. They are said to be “paying their dues.” Unfortunately, most are never able to join the “club” whose dues they pay all their lives. The elite few reap great rewards, but the percentage of those who achieve any real measure of financial reward is miniscule.

It is one thing to sacrifice temporal success for the sake of art. These people work out of sheer passion for art. They are driven, compelled to hone their artistic skills, and to produce great works. On a temporal level, they ought to be admired for the great sacrifices they make, and all the more so if the volume of their art is both large and well done. But in a society in which acquisition is the yardstick, they are held mostly in contempt.

Syria, under increasing weight of criticism and pressure from the world community, primarily from the West, has agreed to pull its troops out of Lebanon. The pullout is to be completed by the end of March, but that seems doubtful. In fact, there is some question whether Syria will remove all of its troops from all of Lebanon soil or only pull back to the Bekaa Valley. As of this writing (March 7), the only thing actually etched in stone so to speak is a pullback.

One thing is certain, the civilians in Lebanon want Syrian troops off their land altogether. There have been mass protests and demonstrations against both the Syrian occupation and the corrupt government in Lebanon that has acted as a puppet to Bashar Assad, Syria’s president. Emile Lahoud, Lebanon’s president, is collaborating in the withdrawal of Syrian forces with Assad. The two leaders have agreed to a staged withdrawal, moving the Syrian troops into the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border. Discussions are ongoing as to the size of the Syrian contingent that will remain in the valley for an as yet undetermined time, after which the withdrawal will be completed.

The younger generation of Lebanese want an end to the old regime of the Assad family and an infusion of new blood into the government. Indeed, this phenomenon is seen in several places in the Middle East. The Fatah Party of the Palestinian Authority is beset by demonstrations and protests as well, with many of the younger members of the national legislature resigning in protest against the continuing corruption of the old guard, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas. The veteran leaders are seen as merely a continuation of the mismanagement that has occurred since they returned with Yasser Arafat in 1994.

While the demonstrations in Lebanon have been largely peaceful, there is a large contingent of Lebanese who want the pro-Syrian regime to remain in power. Hezbollah is attempting to generate peaceful demonstrations in favor of both Bashar Assad of Syria and Emile Lamoud of Lebanon. Of course, it is in the interest of Hezbollah to see the status quo remain unchanged because Syria has long supported the terrorist activities of that group, both in Lebanon and Syria, as they carry out their evil intentions against Israel.

While there remains strong support for Assad among the Syrians, those people cannot help but see what is happening around them in the Middle East. Lebanon is crying out for a genuine democracy, Iraq is embracing the idea of government by the people, the Palestinians want a real voice in their government, and while it can hardly be said that democracy is sweeping the Middle East, it certainly seems to be making great inroads in the region. Much of the support for Assad probably springs from a hatred of everything American, and specifically of President Bush, whom the Syrians see as an interloper and opportunist. However, if the Palestinians engage in serious and successful peace negotiations with Israel and tensions settle between those two peoples, It cannot be long before Lebanon wants a piece of the peace pie with its assured prosperity.

While it is a dangerous thing, there is even a movement among the younger generation of Iranians toward an end of the dictatorial rule of the religious right. Young people the world over desire freedom, and they will continue to move toward it, even if only incrementally in very slow stages.

The world holds its collective breath as it watches the unfolding of the processes in every country in the Middle East. Seen as the key to the entire transformation of the Middle East is the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

We at Christian Chronicles have mixed emotions about the ongoing process. We do not want to see Israel surrender her God-given land to anyone. At the same time, we know that she will do so, so that our desires will undeniably be thwarted. While our hearts protest violently against this travesty, our minds recognize that what is happening will happen, and that the rapture of the Church cannot be far off. The world is standing at the brink of the ages, and has not a clue to the grave danger it faces, for the ratification of a treaty between Israel and her neighbors will be the onset of tribulation such as the world has never imagined. Thank God that we are among that generation that will escape that dark day through the rapture of the Church!

“But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God...as poor, yet making many rich”

As having nothing, yet possessing all things. Paul saw himself in a proper light. The whole world was his, but he did not desire it. His desire was to make many rich. He did not, like Imelda Marcos, stand on the balcony of a palace and throw buckets of coins to the poor. No, the Apostle Paul knew that the riches every man needs are those found between the covers of the Bible. His epistles have enriched countless millions down through the centuries, and all of that fruit abounds to his heavenly account. He had his priorities rightly placed.

If you would be fruitful, it will be with the Word of God, and not with reason that you will do so. Those who are steeped in the Word understand that they can do nothing of themselves, but that God is able to use them in mighty ways, and so they ask Him daily to do so. And if we ask anything according to His will, He will give us that which we request. Many Christians are never fruitful simply because they do not ask to be made fruitful. They say that they don’t have the skills to lead people to the Lord. Well, no one does. But the Holy Spirit is able to use even the weakest Christian. Those who neither believe that nor ask to be used are not very profitable as a rule. Pray, believing, and God will use you.

Anyone can be blessed, rich or poor. God is sovereign, and can determine even to bless the unsaved. The word “berakah” is translated “blessing” in the above quote. It means, by implication, to make liberally prosperous. But blessing has a connotation that really has little to do with financial prosperity. It carries the idea of contentment, happiness, security—of being settled in one’s heart. Those are the greatest blessings to which any man can aspire. Those fifteen words from Solomon are profound in their fullness. When one is blessed by the Lord, there is no sorrow. Rather, there is a contented understanding that God is still steady at the helm, and can be trusted to work every circumstance of a person’s life for that person’s good.

The devil can also “bless,” however, and it is never accompanied by more than a fleeting moment of what passes for happiness. The devil’s “blessings” generally involve some sort of temporal success—perhaps some sort of financial gain that one had to be devious in order to complete. Or perhaps a man or woman finds an illicit romance and is temporarily euphoric. Temporal pleasures do not last. Even those that continue throughout the course of a person’s life must end at the yawning grave. Most do not last nearly that long, but end prematurely, and always with sorrow.

This is not to say that every rich person has arrived at his wealthy estate by the blessings of the devil. The blessing of the Lord makes one rich. The difference is the way it ends, whether in contentment or sorrow. Even in the “blessing” of the devil, while there may be an outward sense of euphoria, there is at the pit of the stomach that web of fear that tugs at the corners of all false happiness; that certainty in the most suppressed recesses of the mind that ill-gotten gains will bring trouble eventually. Even in the heights of temporal ecstasy, there is the concurrent sorrow that it must end unhappily at some point. Euphoria turns to desperation and urgency as the end draws near.

The sorrows of the rich are rooted and grounded in the very temporal nature of their riches. At some point in time, they must leave it all behind, and then what will their lives have been about? But the blessings of the Lord are found in the knowledge of that eternal weight of glory that is found in the riches of His grace. And that is what life should be about.

However, many of the richest people in the world are numbered among the poorest, and many of the poorest are named among the most wealthy. A wealthy man who has not the Spirit of the living God has nothing. All that he possesses will depart from him in the day of his death, and then he will be poor indeed, separated from God for all eternity, despairing and tortured. Many of the poor, on the other hand, have such great treasure in heaven that they do not notice their temporal poverty, seeing it as a minor inconvenience, a light affliction. He who is wealthy seeks always to extend his holdings. He who has no holdings is free to serve his God.

There is a very real sense in which the poor ought to have a genuine compassion for the rich, knowing that many of them already have all the reward they will ever receive. While one ought not speak in generalities, it can be fairly said that there is more faith in the homes of the poor than in the mansions of the very rich. It is often the very poor whose faith is so strong that it becomes the envy of the very rich. Who is rich? Everyone can be, either temporally or eternally. Or both.

Now as Christians we have good news to share with those who are less fortunate. The ministry of the evangelist is to suffer impoverishment on earth if necessary that others might enjoy the riches of God in Christ Jesus: “…as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things” (2 Cor 6:10).

God sought for a man, but found not one who was not an oppressor of the poor. One might expect an unsaved person to have little compassion for the poor, yet many unsaved have great empathy for the plight of the impoverished. But the love of God should compel every Christian to such solicitude for the poor as to preclude any form of prejudice or oppression. Moreover, the fear of the Lord ought to drive every Christian to some sort of pro-active service to the poor. After all, if the Jews, who had not an indwelling Holy Spirit, were driven from the land that God promised would be theirs for an everlasting possession, and were held in captivity for seventy years on account of their oppression of the poor, how much more responsible must He hold us, who have the Holy Spirit and the very love of God dwelling in us? But many Christians have with their penury so quenched the Spirit that they have only contempt for the poor and homeless, a revulsion toward them that is based upon the stench of the streets and the filth of the world. Compassion and empathy are replaced with bitterness and disgust.

The problem with riches is their allure. It is not money that is the root of all kinds of evil, but it is the love of money. The rich man above loved his riches more than he loved following Christ. We tend to think of repentance in terms only of sin, but it involves much more than our behavior. Oh, yes! Christian, repentance involves turning one’s heart away from everything temporal and toward everything eternal. Repentance is about changing priorities altogether from the material to the immaterial. We remain in the world, but we are no longer of the world, and our priorities must become heavenly, godly. We must attend to our temporal responsibilities, but we are to realize that we do not own the things that we possess. All that we have is from God, and we ought to live in such a way as to make that salient fact real in our lives. We must be good stewards of that with which we have been trusted, but we should manage our temporal assets from an eternal perspective.

It was this which the rich man was unable to do. Had he any idea how liberating it would be to relieve himself of all that temporal responsibility, he might gladly have done so. But the allure of riches is great, and our hearts deceive us. He could not quite see himself as separate from what he possessed, and so he went away sorrowfully. But God does not require that we sell everything and give the proceeds to the poor. What He said to the rich man was, “If you want to be perfect…” As stated above, we are in this world, and it takes money to function. We are ambassadors from heaven to earth, and must function in the societies to which we have been sent. We are where we are, and our station in life is determined by God, and not by ourselves, but we must be responsible to keep our priorities straight. And the love of God must be seen in us. We are to be lights in the midst of a crooked and a perverse generation, and that includes a godly attitude toward the poor.

We are not called upon to divest ourselves of that which God has entrusted to us, but neither are we called upon to hoard His resources selfishly. Rich Christians are not rich so that they can lavish every luxury upon themselves and show great disdain for the poor and impoverished. All the resources that we have are for the furtherance of the kingdom of God, and we are supposed to keep that straight in our minds. But the more that a man has, the more attention he must pay to the great diversity of his assets, and the less time he has to spend on spiritual pursuits. In a sense, a very real sense, riches are not a blessing but a curse. Viewed from a position of sanctification, riches become the cross that the rich Christian is called upon to bear. This, because riches divert us from our primary service to God by their demands upon our time and attention. When we repent, there is a change in both heart and mind in which our desire is to serve God and not self.

It is incumbent upon Christians to love the poor, and especially those who are of the faith. These are they who will be blessed when Christ comes into His kingdom. These are they who will rule. These are the ones who will receive out of the abundance of God’s treasure the multitude of things they lacked in their mortality. It is often the poorest who are the richest in faith. They cannot trust in their riches to preserve them, but stand ever at the brink of catastrophe. Indeed, many stand at the brink with their toes hanging over the edge. These trust God because they have no one else in whom they can trust. Ah, but these are those who shall be filled. If you would join these precious souls for whom Christ died in the glorious abundance of the kingdom, then be merciful and you shall obtain mercy. Let the light of God’s amazing grace shine in your countenance and be fruitful in your service to Him.

This article is written in generalities, and that is always wrong. There are many wealthy Christians who serve God with their lives and with their resources. Without them, local churches and missions could not survive. These will be as blessed as the poor in that Day. But speaking generally, the world of the rich is a cut-throat world. It is cold, calculating and dangerous. Many the sharks that swim in those seas, and sharp the teeth that make prey of the weak. Friendliness is on their faces, but in their hearts, all they ask is an advantage; just an opening into which they may toss their net and retrieve the other’s riches. In those circles is a desperation that the poor do not know. They are desperate to keep that which they possess, knowing that many others seek to deprive them of all they have. There is a desperation that germinates in the certainty of death, and the desperation grows more sinister with each passing year. There is a desperation in the knowledge that the riches which they strove so hard to acquire might be wasted upon generations of fools.

Again, speaking generally, those who have less share more. There is a brotherhood of the poor that the rich cannot know. There is a richness of faith that is readily evident among the very poor that is but rarely seen in the society of the very wealthy. Why, because the poor have nothing with which they can make pretenses. Their callused hands are more often seen folded in prayer than fanning great stacks of currency. Their lives are the essence of simplicity. “Where is the next meal coming from?” “How will I pay the utilities?” They do not ask what color the new party frock should be, or whether they should buy this high definition television or that gold bracelet. They do not travel to and fro, but break their backs at hard labor for mean wages. And they go to church and they sing and praise God with sincerity, blessed and content.

A poor person might have grounds to maintain a measure of dignity, but he has little of which to be proud. Thus are the poor humble. Ah, but they are often owners of vast wealth of which the world knows nothing. A person who is responsible to steward great sums of earthly treasure wisely might do well to sit down with the poor man and learn lessons of faith that he might not learn elsewhere. Sometimes riches are a curse, and sometimes deep poverty is a blessing. Let us not become confused about this, but let us maintain a clear perspective, an eternal perspective, judging by faith and not by sight.

The unsaved will cry, “Well, it didn’t work, did it? I’m still poor, aren’t I?” They do not understand the nature of true riches. We who are saved are already blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Those blessings are not a future hope, but a present possession. All our labors for God will be rewarded with an abundance of gold, silver and precious stones in that Day, but today contentment and blessing are ours, if we will avail ourselves of them. The Christian rejoices in His labors, knowing and realizing in his own life the great love that prompted our Lord to become poor and to suffer on our behalf.

Rich? Oh, to be sure! In Christ are found all the riches of His grace. We who deserve hell have been given heaven. We who had no hope now have the absolute assurance of eternal bliss, both now and later. What temporal riches can compare with a heart that rejoices? No earthly riches can bring contentment or happiness, but the love of God brings peace and assurance through His grace, and the certainty of eternal riches in mansions made by His loving hand. We are the very rich among mankind, though many Christians do not yet appreciate the extent of their holdings.