WARNING: This post is about MONEY and the Church (Ohhhhh Nooooo!)
"What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions."-James 4:1-3
The
third way the Family is DIVERSE that we are going to focus on is that it is
DIVERSE Economically. We can see this today in the make-up of even this local
church, but it was blatantly obvious in the early church. The church had
slaves, free-men, politicians, merchants, soldiers, even people from the house
of Caesar. From the very rich to the very poor. Going back to Genesis 17
looking at verse 23 you have Abraham, who was incredibly wealthy, and men
bought with money from a foreigner, aka slaves. There is Economic DIVERSITY in
the Church. But this can be a harder thing to accept than many realize.
There
is another common struggle that many people have and which is how much money
other people have, and how they use it. These are certainly generalizations,
but in Scripture we find that those who are poor, or poorer than those around
them, can struggle with jealousy and envy against those who are wealthier than
them (James 4:1-3), not being content with what they have (Philippians 4:12), and then the rich can struggle
with greed and hoarding (James 5:3), or even being proud about how much wealth they have (1 Timothy 6:17) and looking down on those who don’t have as much as they do (James 2:1-4 implication). I will also say, that in the Church I have observed this also going the other way, where people who don't have as much look down on the way that wealthier brothers and sisters spend their money (Have you ever thought: "The money spent on that car could build a school in Africa," or something like that?). These are real
temptations that can cause division as much as race and culture issues.
The
biblical understanding of wealth helps us with this issue, mainly that God is
the one who distributes it, and He does so according to His own purposes. When
it comes to the Family and wealth, we are told to 1) rejoice with those who
rejoice, not being jealous over their blessing, 2) mourn with those who mourn,
not overlooking the pain that someone else is in, for instance at the loss of a
job, and 3) that there would not be any need among the brothers. In Acts 11, when
those who were living in Antioch heard of a great famine, they chose that each
person would give according to their ability, to send relief to those who were
in Jerusalem. Another way to think about it would be that those who were living
in Brighton (where I live) heard about the need for food for those brothers and sisters living
in Detroit, so each according to their ability gave food so that they would not
go hungry.
Recognizing that wealth is all from God, in abundance or want, and
that it is a tool to be used for ministry and caring for others, and then
practicing generosity; these are great tools to fight off both greed and
jealousy in our hearts, refusing to allow wealth to divide the church. It is
the Lord’s money, and we will each give an account before God for how we used
what He gave us on earth to do His work.
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."-Matthew 6:19-21
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