The Rich & the Kingdom of God – Part I

“The Methodists grow more and more self-indulgent because they grow rich. Although many of them are deplorably poor, yet many others in the space of twenty, thirty, or forty years are twenty, thirty, yea, a hundred times richer than they were when they first entered the Society. And it is an observation which admits of few exceptions, that nine in ten of these decreased in grace, in the same proportion as they increased in wealth.”  John Wesley (one of the great revivalists during the First Great Awakening)

My objective in this article is not to demean the rich. The Bible says in Proverbs 10:22, “It is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich, And He adds no sorrow to it.” God has made rich every rich man who has ever lived. God is not intimidated by rich people. God’s kingdom purposes will not be hindered by rich people.  The ability to acquire wealth comes from Him per Deuteronomy 8:18. Jesus felt a love in His heart for the rich young ruler according to one of the gospel accounts. I am rich compared to many of the people on this planet. My objective is not to demean or dishonor the rich.  It is my objective to warn each of you and myself of the great dangers that lurk therein.

The rich who pride themselves in their riches and in their accomplishments are much to be pitied. This is the overall lesson of Psalm 49 and many other passages in the Bible.

But I want to focus most of my thoughts on this topic from the gospel of Luke, for Luke seems to tackle this subject more than the others – definitely more than Mark and John. I recently read through this gospel once again and was intrigued by the frequent occurrences of this important topic. Luke includes some material re: wealth and riches not included in the other gospels and he writes his gospel specifically to a wealthy person, “….most excellent Theophilus.” (1:3) - - A wealthy person who probably was a disciple of Jesus based on vs. 4, where Luke speaks to why he wrote these things to him,  “so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.”

Luke himself probably for a time experienced some level of wealth because he was a practicing physician until he began to travel full time with the apostle Paul. And maybe humanly speaking one of the primary reasons he chose to write about these things was he himself saw the kingdom opportunities wealth gave him and others and also the snares that seem to hover around wealthy people.

Mary the mother of Jesus, while enjoying Spirit filled fellowship with her cousin Elizabeth began to worship the Lord, wherein she said of the rich, "HE HAS FILLED THE HUNGRY WITH GOOD THINGS; And sent away the rich empty-handed.” Luke 1:53  Not all the rich, but those who allowed their material riches to hide them from their spiritual bankruptcy.

Luke in his account of the Beatitudes has this to say in the first six verses, “….Blessed are you who are (lit. “the”) poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” vs. 20  In general the poor are far more in touch with their spiritual need than the rich are and in general they don’t place their identity and value in their wealth like the rich do.

"But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.” Luke 6:24  Rich people who put their hope and trust and identity in their riches get what money can buy from man and nothing from God.

“Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry….” Luke 6:25  There is nothing wrong with eating well. But the rich often tend to be gluttonous and try to fill the void in their souls with fine foods and drink, and when that is the case, there will come a time when they are hungry for life and meaning and it will be illusive to them.

These warnings should be soberly heeded by all of us. But Jesus never avoided rich people. Rather he often engaged them and one of the first examples is His choosing to heal the slave, (who was sick and near death), of the Roman Centurion as recorded in Luke 7:1-10. In fact Jesus highly commended the Centurion’s faith as greater than anyone’s in Israel (vs. 9).

Very important to note that when Jesus told John’s disciples to go report to him these words and these realities, “And He answered and said to them, "Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: [the] BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT, [the] lame walk, [the] lepers are cleansed, and [the] deaf hear, [the] dead are raised up, [the] POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM.” Luke 7:22 – Jesus did not solely preach just to the poor. Rather He never avoided the poor nor was partial to the rich like the Pharisees were on both counts.

It is possible Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, had a degree of wealth and she was one of the ladies who followed Jesus around and contributed to His and the disciples support (8:3).

Important to note that one of the stated reasons some soils/hearts do not produce good fruit from the seeds sown is because “….as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.” Luke 8:14 It is a fact that the more one owns the more one has to manage that which he owns. Now he can by the power of the Holy Spirit manage it well and it not be a snare. But that is the only way this snare can be avoided.

Luke 12:13-21 is another warning about the grave danger of greed starting with Jesus’s refusal to get involved in a family inheritance squabble (vs. 13-15), and then His warning via a parable about hoarding aimed at rich people (vs. 16-21). The danger in both is losing sight of our soul’s great need in the pursuit of financial and material riches (see vs. 19). Ultimately Jesus’s message in all these passages is: If you want to be rich, first be “…rich towards God” (see vs. 21). Only when that is your practice will you be able to handle material riches and have the joy of seeing your riches contribute to the advance of the kingdom.

I’m going to stop here and start working on part II Lord willing as there is much more in Luke to discuss. May you be increasingly rich towards God and may He then bless you abundantly for both your own needs and of those He leads you to bless. May He give you great wisdom to manage and steward well all that He has entrusted to you for His glory and His kingdom's sake. May He enable you by His Spirit to heed well the many warnings re: wealth. May you overcome every temptation therein.