Connecting giving and treasure

Jesus unmistakably connects giving with providing treasure...

“Sell your possessions (show compassion) and give [donations] to the poor. Provide money belts for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing and inexhaustible treasure in the heavens, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. - Luke 12:33

 Hence, eternal rewards are not only rewards we will receive in eternity, but rewards that are themselves eternal, imperishable, inexhaustible.

Moses prayed the oldest psalm -

And let the [gracious] favor of the Lord our God be on us;Confirm for us the work of our hands—Yes, confirm the work of our hands. - Psalm 90:17

The literal translation is "make permanent the work of our hands."

Why do you believe the word 'treasure' in Matthew 6 refers specifically to money and possessions?

Prosperity: Why?

In the context of financial giving --

And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.         2 Corinthians 9:8

For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. - 2 Corinthians 9:10

Why?

We don't have to wonder --

Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. - 2 Corinthians 9:11

Of course, I don’t mean your giving should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves. I only mean that there should be some equality. Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it. In this way, things will be equal. - 2 Corinthians 8:13-14 

God wants us to be the conduit through which He meets the needs of others for whom He cared enough to die.

“God is not glorified when we keep for ourselves (no matter how thankfully) what we ought to be using to alleviate the misery of unevangelized, uneducated, unmedicated, and unfed millions. The evidence that many professing Christians have been deceived by this doctrine is how little they give and how much they own. God has prospered them. And by an almost irresistible law of consumer culture (baptized by a doctrine of health, wealth, and prosperity) they have bought bigger (and more) houses, newer (and more) cars, fancier (and more) clothes, better (and more) meat, and all manner of trinkets and gadgets and containers and devices and equipment to make life more fun. They will object: Does not the Old Testament promise that God will prosper his people? Indeed! God increases our yield, so that by giving we can prove our yield is not our god. God does not prosper a man's business so that he can move from a Ford to a Cadillac. God prospers a business so that 17,000 unreached people can be reached with the gospel. He prospers the business so that 12 percent of the world's population can move a step back from the precipice of starvation.” ― John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist

 It constitutes a lost opportunity to give to what could count for eternity.  Remember this verse --

“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets. - Matthew 7:12

If you and your children were hungry, what would you want prosperous Christians to do for you?

How different John Wesley sounded than today's prosperity preachers --

“Do you not know that God entrusted you with that money (all above what buys necessities for your families) to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to help the stranger, the widow, the fatherless; and, indeed, as far as it will go, to relieve the wants of all mankind? How can you, how dare you, defraud the Lord, by applying it to any other purpose?”

Materialism: Faith killer

Why have faith in God when you have faith in yourself? The very expression 'financial independence' may be blasphemy.

That is God's way always. Up to the very edge we are driven before His hand is put out to help us. Such is the law, not only because the next moment is always necessarily dark nor because God will deal with us in any arbitrary fashion and play with our fears, but because it is best for us that we should be forced to desperation and out of desperation should "pluck the flower, safety." It is best for us that we should be brought to say, "My foot slippeth!" and then, just as our toes are sliding upon the glacier, the help comes and "Thy mercy held me up." "The Lord is our helper, and that right early." When He delays, it is not to trifle with us but to do us good by the sense of need as well as by the experience of deliverance. At the last moment, never before it, never until we have found out how much we need it, and never too late, comes the Helper.     Alexander Maclaren

Wealth insulates us from discerning the true depth of our need.




Tie Me to the Mast by Julian Archer from FAITH vs FINANCE

The Catholic Thinker is called to openly oppose Materialistic Culture

Every person has a price

"I spoke just now of the struggle for success. What is success? Is it money? Some of you have all the money you need to provide for your wants. Who is the poorest man in the world? I tell you, the poorest man I know of is the man who has nothing but money, nothing else in the world upon which to devote his ambition and thought. That is the sort of man I consider to be the poorest in the world. Money is good if you know how to use it. - John D. Rockefeller

Satan works under the assumption that every person has a price.  Many are willing to surrender themselves and their principles to whatever god will bring them the greatest short-term profit.

Israel is portrayed in the OT as abandoning her rightful husband, God, and sells herself to the highest bidder. The prophets develop this metaphor to embarrassing extents.  The nauseating descriptions of Israel's waywardness exemplify God's hurt and horror at the spiritual adultery of His people as they chase after other gods.

 The NT tells us that --

"... a greedy person is an idolater, worshipping the things of this world." Colossians 3:5

Idolatry is worshipping and serving anything other than the one true God.

The idolatrous nature of materialism: The common expression that describes such a value system as “the pursuit of the almighty dollar” is soundly based in the recognition that the exaltation of possessions to the level of ultimacy is the end of a religious quest, one that seeks and ascribes ultimate meaning. Like all idolatries, it finds ultimate meaning in an aspect of the creation rather than in the Creator. And like all idolatries it finds outlet in destructive pathologies that wreck human lives. - Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction

 Scripture speaks of these destructive pathologies --

"But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows." - 1 Timothy 6:9-10

 Jesus said the  rich are at a spiritual disadvantage.  The problem, of course, is not that God doesn't love the rich.Who needs God, we think, when we've got everything?  This is why Jesus said --

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money". - Matthew 6:24

 Why? For the same reason a man cannot have two wives.

Materialism consists of the two things God hates most - idolatry and adultery.  A voice from heaven pleads with God's people - a voice that we would do well to heed today --

“Come away from her, my people.
Do not take part in her sins,
or you will be punished with her.
For her sins are piled as high as heaven,
and God remembers her evil deeds.
Do to her as she has done to others.
Double her penalty for all her evil deeds.
She brewed a cup of terror for others,
so brew twice as much for her.
She glorified herself and lived in luxury,
so match it now with torment and sorrow.
She boasted in her heart,
‘I am queen on my throne.
I am no helpless widow,
and I have no reason to mourn.’ - Revelation 18:4-7

 One day, God will bring down all centres of human achievement and prosperity that do not humble themselves before Him.  When financial Babylon comes down, the merchants who gained their wealth from this corrupt materialistic philosophy will say --

“How terrible, how terrible for that great city!
She was clothed in finest purple and scarlet linens,
decked out with gold and precious stones and pearls!
In a single moment
all the wealth of the city is gone!” - Revelation 18:16-17

Why is prayer important when the gospel is being shared?  Because there is a battle over ownership and lordship of our lives that's just as intense as the battle for salvation.  The grace that has freed us from bondage to sin is desperately needed to free us from our bondage to materialism.

Is materialism simply wrong?

Jesus once asked His profit-conscious audience --

What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? - Matthew 16:26

The parable of the rich fool portrays a man who thought of himself as a successful businessman.  The essence of foolishness is that we either don't recognise the truth or we choose to ignore it.

He acted irrationally, as if he could escape death or delay it indefinitely.  He neglected to number his days and therefore failed to gain a heart of wisdom.

Scripture describes our lives like this --

... people are like the grass.
Their beauty fades as quickly
as the flowers in a field. - Isaiah 40:6

But their fame will not last. They will die, just like animals. - Psalm 49:12

We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.
We heap up wealth,
not knowing who will spend it. - Psalm 39:6

 “All men think all men are mortal but themselves,” wrote the seventeenth-century English poet Edward Young.

Why was the rich fool a fool?

“Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.” Luke 12:21

That is, he did not handle money in a God-centred way.

The rich fool was too busy being successful to care  about this piece of advice --

We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty-handed as on the day we were born. We can’t take our riches with us. - Ecclesiastes 5:15

Man is born with his hands clenched; he dies with his hands wide open. Entering life he desires to grasp everything; leaving the world, all that he possessed has slipped away.  Talmud

After John D. Rockefeller died his accountant was asked "how much did he leave behind?" The accountant replied "all of it."

"You never see a U-Haul behind a hearse, Ryder.
The Egyptians tried it. It doesn't work.
You can't take the money with you."

We worship materialism at our peril

C.S. Lewis and Materialism

Critiques of Materialism

Money for the betterment of people

If this was a morally neutral world, we would expect money to be used in a morally neutral way.  But the world is not neutral - it is sinful and under a curse.  This is the problem with money.

Although there's nothing inherently wrong with money, there's something desperately wrong with devotion to money --

But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. - 1 Timothy 6:9-10

 Since money can be used for either good or evil, if those using it are more evil than good it will most often be used for evil.  The problem is human sinfulness - and so it will be until Christ returns and we live on the new earth, where there will be no more curse and no more evil.






Why do people work?