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Money, Hypocrisy & God: A Balance In Modern Times

by Rev. Dr. R. B. Silverson  
10/12/2014 / Christian Living

Simple Question, Difficult Answer

How much is too much money? Until we craft a sound and final answer to this terse question, we shall continue to worry, wince, and wrangle endlessly about money and its place in a believer's life. Having considered the debate on both sides, it is essential to wade into the subject matter in a cautious yet forthright manner.

In a previous article, I noted that many people have a problem with Christians and ministers in particular having wealth. It has become a staple for interminable debates. Interestingly enough, there are also those who argue for and against a labourer being duly rewarded for his or her services. Of intriguing effect and puzzling appeal is that both sidesentrenched in their stancesroot their argument and fortify their resolve with the backing of Scripture. Unsurprisingly, today, there are so-called ministries or "discernment ministries" that have sprang up on the internet like mushrooms spring up on a misty morning. These are evidently mordacious in their criticisms of those they believe are in error. If the objective is sound, on occasion, the approach lacks grace and charity making them effluvial and obnoxious in their passionate presentments.

It is right to shine the torch on the subject of money as this topic continues to divide us more than unite us; and as such, it deserves keen attention and earnest consideration. This piece does well to highlight our hypocrisy towards money, and consequently carves out an applicable framework which facilitates a quest for right balance in times like these. An avid watchman may duly concur that a major threat to Christendom in times like this is imbalance. It is the one vicious enemy that continues to dilute our influence in this workaday world.

An Unworthy Master

Why does money generate so much controversy in our culture? Perhaps a succinct answer has to be because money rules the world. Ultimately, we know that God is in charge, although Satan also is "the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4). The life-blood of society unfortunately is money. We cannot act hypocritically and pretend that money is not what it is in our time. It makes the world spin faster than it spins on its own axis.

Without turning this into an economics lecture, we are aware that money achieves the following functions: medium of exchange; measure of value; standard of deferred payment; and store of value among others.

Money in itself is never a bad thing. I maintain an expressible certainty about this position, because if that was not the case, then God would have never accepted the money that the people brought to Him. Let's remember that the people did not only bring produce or livestock; money was very much accepted in the Old Testament (Exodus 36:5; 2 Kings 12:4). Even when the request stipulated produce or livestock; money was accepted in lieu if distance constraints prevailed: "And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which the Lord thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee: Then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose" (Deuteronomy 14:24-25, emphasis added). In the New Testament, the apostles equally received the money that was brought to them: "[H]aving land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet" (Acts 4:37).

The centrality of thought remains that money is a tool; it is a servant meant to serve a unique purpose. Unfortunately, money has been exalted to a status of a tyrannical master and we being its helpless servants. Thus, we appear to travel pell-mell in our post-haste quest to attend to its dictates and directives.

For many, money has become a sort of cryptopine or chloroform that has deadened their senses to elevated thoughts of purity and decency; and they will scale unimaginable heights to hoard as much as they can. Unsurprisingly, like the drug that it has become, the more they get, the more they want. They are visibly afflicted with an intense and incessant circular desire with no defined points of pertinent cessation. If truth be told, the average person wants a bit more money. Did I really say a bit? Forget the outward pietistical professions of certain people; some of these avowed proponents have more money than you can imagine, and yet they flagrantly and nonchalantly preach poverty to the masses. They should give us a break!

But when we reflect in a spirit of calm justice and with judicious eyes and clear reasoning, away from a seething maelstrom of existential concerns, we discern a clamant issue: that it is within this desire for more money where a noxious and nauseating problem dwells. And Scripture offers hortatory value, saying: "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have" (Hebrews 13:5 NIV). Moreover, 1 Timothy 6:9-10 chimes in with an alarming prediction, "But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

Hypocrisy Rules Hearts

Our hypocrisy chiefly stems from the notion that we do not have balance. The one says that money is all good, and the other, that money is all bad; and while the former will die for money, the later has some of it and seeks more. Now if money was all that bad, then why keep any? Or perhaps such have a figurative amount they are hoping not to exceed? Or, the lesser the better?

For some who criticise others for having too much, a possible question we may ask is: How much would they rather those people had? Tens or hundreds? How much is right and how much is wrong? Can they actually answer this inscrutable question? If society can ever pose a sensible and workable answer to this riddle of a question, then the debate will cease. But rather unfortunately, we are not in a position to answer such a sphinx-like question.

What I find so hypocritical is that there are some who would rather have more money than others, however, they criticise those who have more than they do. Or perhaps they believe we all ought to have the same amount. But is that possible, feasible or tenable?

As a church, we cannot denounce money and still expect the members to bring money on Sunday. Yet the complexity and perplexity facing us spring from how we approach and further broach the subject, in our vital search for a stable and sensible balance between the practical oscillations of genuine blessings and pure unmitigated greedand at times, we fail woefully like benighted souls in our handling of this elusive subject.

But our hypocrisy won't go away; it is a human thing! In our fallen state, our pretence of having a certain virtuous character particularly with regard to wealth will remain just that: because we do not really possess this attribute. Even the most sanctimonious souls have a suspicion of hypocrisy lurking in their members. At best, our speech and our outward actions will be what we deign to feign; notwithstanding, inwardly we know that money is something we really want more of. Yes, we do! When did the rich ever get tired of wanting more money, considering its outward correlation to the power they have? And show me a church that does not accept offerings. Jeremiah 17:9 casts the net wide and perhaps we will all be caught in that net: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"

A Watching Eye

I sometimes wonder where God is in all this. Surely, He must be watching with undeniable interest. Perhaps we should pause and ask a few questions:

1. Is God a hypocrite like we are?
2. Does He covet our so-called palatial mansions when He can afford to pave heaven's streets with pure gold (Revelation 21:21); the gold that people will kill to have?
3. Does He feel a bit envious about our expensive gates or magnificent portals, when He can afford to use pearls for heaven's gates (Revelation 21:21)?
4. Is God concerned about us wearing designer clothing? Now what exactly is designer attire? Is it not just a status symbol, or it provides better protection from the elements?
5. Is God concerned by our ownership of cars or jets etc? Or, we human beings are rather concerned about those who have what we wish to have but do not currently have?

When I hear people spewing out livid vituperations against the wealthy like a volcano spews out molten lava, I pause to think whether God has a set number we are not supposed to exceed. Can someone tell me what that number is? Does God want us to have a certain number of everything or some things? I sometimes wonder!

These valid questions and the reasoning behind them form a vital gambit to the truth that thingswhether we possess them or otherwisecannot be the best test of God's stamp of approval; lest the mafia and the drug lords should be God's cherished emissaries as they boast a cornucopia of such. Now, you may be quick to query that the means is the issue. Granted that, but what shines through after a period of intricate ratiocination and sustained introspection is the argument that there must be something more, indeed, something over and above having things. And there is! In reality our society is laden with people who have a whole lot of "things" and yet remain some of the most miserable people; and the evidence is writ large! Consequently, in characteristic fashion and with categorical forthrightness and evident fervidity, Jesus asseverated, "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth" (Luke 12:15).

Seeking Balance, Finding Contentment

Scriptures exist that are in favour of people getting more things or fewer things. Perhaps we can refresh our memory with some few. The classic texts cited include Luke 18:18-25 and Proverbs 23:4-5 for fewer; and Matthew 7:7-11 and Proverbs 21:20 for those who argue otherwise.

Nevertheless, our search for and achievement of balance will set us free from such wanton debates and fruitless arguments about whether or not God wants us to have more money. Before the Fall, we find that God had provided more than adequately for Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. What becomes clear is that God did not want them to lack. And indeed, Psalm 34:9-10 notes: "O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing."

A transformed heart walks in the paths of balance. In fact, there is a salutary disposition to things that can only come from hearts that have been changed. If our hearts are not changed, we will chase more and more money, and others who do not have as much will continue to envy those who have. And we can expect preachers to keep attacking one another; and members will keep complaining about the wealth of those who have it, and be frustrated by their own lack of it. In fact, the cycle will continue indefinitely.

But hearts that have been truly transformed will live in contentment whether there is much or there is little. Like Paul declared, "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need" (Philippians 4:11-12). And for our changed focus from striving for things for the sake of things, we can live in contentment, for "godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Timothy 6:6).

Whether we have much money or not, has to be secondary as we continue to live the way God will have us live, using the resources He places at our disposal to achieve the plans that He has for us. There is a sound suggestion in 1 Timothy 6:17-19: "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life."

With such a clear focus, we may own things and yet those things will never own us; we may control things but those things will never control us; we may be masters and not servants of money. In effect, we will be good stewards of what God chooses to bless us with: "Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful" (1 Corinthians 4:2). In effect, we will be desirous of the Giver and not the gifts; His values and not His valuables; His affection and not His assets.

As we conclude, it is right for us to reflect on Luke 16:10-11: "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?" And with this pellucid reminder in place, we all fall under a huge burden to be faithful with whatever we haveirrespective of whether we think it is little or much.

In all, our fervent prayer and abiding hope should be to live lives that please God with whatever God commits to our care. In a sense, that is why God has created us: "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." (Revelations 4:11).

NB:
All Scriptures are from King James Version (KJV) unless otherwise stated.

Rev. Dr. R. B. Silverson is president of RBSM (www.rbsmin.com); a ministry Informing, Motivating, and Transforming lives for God's glory. He is the author of The 4 Most Important Prayers Guaranteed To Change You (Spirit & Word Press) available in October 2014. His second book, Tasty Dust is due to be released by the end of the year. You can write to him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @DrRBSilverson.

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