1Tim 6:6 But
godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing
out of it. 8 But if we have food
and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 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. 10 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. 11 But you, man of God, flee from all
this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and
gentleness. 12 Fight the good
fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when
you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the sight of God, who gives life
to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate
made the good confession, I charge you 14
to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord
Jesus Christ, 15 which God will
bring about in his own time--God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings
and Lord of lords, 16 who alone
is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can
see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen. 17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be
arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put
their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich
in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm
foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is
truly life.
The old
saying goes that the only two constants in life are "death and
taxes." Certain passages of the Bible, however, call that limited list
into question. Perhaps on second thought, one might very well add to that
list... the ungodly pursuit and misuse of wealth. Granted, not everyone down
through history has had such an opportunity. In times past, and sadly in some
corners of the world still to this day people are born into a life of slavery
that precludes such pursuits. But for anyone who has a shred of
self-determinism, the ungodly pursuit of wealth is a valid temptation.
Consider
for instance, this passage from 1Timothy. We frequently view the first
generation church as being made of humble stock. A wandering rabbi and his band
of peasant followers comprised the group. Yet here we have this document,
written as far as anyone can tell by the Apostle Paul shortly before his
demise....a mere thirty some years after the crucifixion of Jesus, and it would
appear that not only do Jesus' words about the
love of money being the root of evil need repeating, but there are even
"rich" people within the movement itself (vs 18). That alone makes
this an interesting passage from a historical-cultural perspective.
This passage
boils down to an excellent counter-cultural corrective to a mindset that we see
often enough in our own day, but turns out was just as prevalent in
Paul/Timothy's day... that being, "get all you can, and can all you get." It's a passage
about ECONOMICS and FUTURE-RETIREMENT. How much more relevant can it get??
ECONOMICS: Beginning here, economics is all about
decision-making. Put a monkey in a room full of bananas and he can only grab 2
at a time... in spite of how many he's like to grab. We have to make these
sorts of decisions...every day. We only have so much time; we only have so many
resources. Turns out, Paul is saying this is true in the larger spiritual
perspective as well. We can pour all of our efforts into the pursuit of
wealth--and will, to some measure, have success. But the problem with that is
that in so doing, we'll have chosen the pursuit of wealth over things that
ultimately are more valuable (righteousness,
godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness, vs 11). Here the writer
is paraphrasing Jesus: you can't serve
both God and money (Luke 16:13). Why not? Well, because there's a moral
imperative against it... serving money would make it "a god" which
breaks the very first commandment. But there's also an existential reality that
says it simply won't work. If money is our god, there simply won't be time for
the true things of God; it simply won't work; you won't have time for God if
you're life is driven by money.
FUTURE-RETIREMENT--this
is a perspective that's obviously on the minds of a lot of people. Will I have
enough? That's the question we're all being encouraged to ask ourselves by
investment brokerages. In simple mathematical terms, the answer to this
question is all about how much TIME we're talking about. If you're going to
retire at 65 and only live one more year, that's an entirely different scenario
than if you retire at 65 and live another 30 years. But what if you're going to
live for ETERNITY? Then how much will you need? That's the point of vss 17-19.
We can hold tight to every nickel that comes our way in this life and perhaps
have enough to fill a 70yr... 80yr... or even 90yr span. But what about after
that? What about LONG after that? Again the author appears to be
echoing/paraphrasing Jesus about laying
up for ourselves treasure that does not corrupt (Matthew 6:20).
Whenever I
read passages like this in the Bible, I always think of Gollum from the Lord of
the Rings. Whenever his eyes were fixed on the ring... his precious... he was transfixed. He was in a daze; he was
under its spell; he served IT. This passage is a warning for Christians that
money is one of the few things that has that sort of power. When it is our
precious; when we are transfixed by it; when we are dazed by it, under its
spell and serving it, we are living very narrow, emaciated, petty, limited
lives. Our call is to have ONE and only ONE precious...
the Son of God who shed his blood on the cross that we might be liberated
from such bondage and live lives that are open, outward gazing,
others-embracing, God-pleasing, and eternally relevant.
Cheers,
TM
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