“But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.”
Luke 6:21 (NIV)
Will we receive what the Lord has to say about our affluence relative to our faith?
Yesterday we read Proverbs 10 and I wonder does this verse contradict Proverbs 10:22?
Our position should always be that Scripture never contradicts, rather the lack of our understanding and the reality of tension in Scripture truth is the issue.
If we take Proverbs 10:22 as far as we can, we will become believers in the false prosperity gospel. If we take the position that Christians must remain poor, we will fall into the error of asceticism. But if we hold that wealth is one of the ways God blesses us and at the same time hold that wealth has the ability to bring destruction in our lives - well then we have the line of truth held in tension between those two truths. The question is whether or not we are able to keep our trust in God and our righteousness in how we handle the riches He brings us. Our Lord told the disciples that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God, and that warning all by itself explains the decline in Christian faith in Canada in the last 60 years.
To pretend that we are not rich is disingenuous – for though it is true usually that there are people who are richer than us, Canadians are still in a general sense by any normal measure living in the lap of luxury compared to the vast majority of the people present to hear our Lord speak, and also compared to the vast majority of people in the world today.
Far better for us to heed this warning - to read verses 20 thru 26 as 2 ways to live, or as a checklist to guard our soul. May we not allow the temporary things of this world to replace the need we have in our soul for our Lord. May we always be concerned about our soul when our bank account goes up, and our belly grows, and our laughter fills our homes, and especially when everyone says only wonderful things about us.
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