Do we have the right to money?

“Can a man be poor if he is free from want, if he does not covet the belongings of others, if he is rich in the possession of God? Rather, he is poor who possesses much but still craves for more.” — Tertullian

In the passage where the New Testament says that every one must work, it gives as a reason ‘in order that he may have something to give to those in need’. Charity—giving to the poor—is an essential part of Christian morality: in the frightening parable of the sheep and the goats it seems to be the point on which everything turns. Some people nowadays say that charity ought to be unnecessary and that instead of giving to the poor we ought to be producing a society in which there were no poor to give to. They may be quite right in saying that we ought to produce this kind of society. But if anyone thinks that, as a consequence, you can stop giving in the meantime, then he has parted company with all Christian morality. I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charities expenditure excludes them. I am speaking now of charities’ in the common way. Particular cases of distress among your own relatives, friends, neighbours or employees, which God, as it were, forces upon your notice, may demand much more: even to the crippling and endangering of your own position. For many of us the great obstacle to charity lies not in our luxurious living or desire for more money, but in our fear—fear of insecurity. This must often be recognised as a temptation. Sometimes our pride also hinders our charity; we are tempted to spend more than we ought on the showy forms of generosity (tipping, hospitality) and less than we ought on those who really need our help. C.S. Lewis

How different our standard is from Christ's. We ask how much a man gives. Christ asks how much he keeps. - Andrew Murray

We have to earn it, inherit it, win it or steal it.  Work is the means for contributing to society, finding fulfilment, and meeting material needs so we can provide for our families.  

Hard working farmers have more
    than enough food;
    daydreamers are nothing more
    than stupid fools. - Proverbs 12:11 

 No matter how much you want,
    laziness won’t help a bit,
    but hard work will reward you
    with more than enough. - Proverbs 13:4

  Hard work is worthwhile, but empty talk    will make you poor. - Proverbs 14:23

Try your best to live quietly, to mind your own business, and to work hard, just as we taught you to do.  Then you will be respected by people who are not followers of the Lord, and you won’t have to depend on anyone. - 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

We also gave you the rule that if you don’t work, you don’t eat.- 2 Thessalonians 3:10

Our people should learn to spend their time doing something useful and worthwhile. - Titus 3:14

We have skills we should develop in order to do our work well. As followers of Christ, we see our employer as God.

Do your work willingly, as though you were serving the Lord himself, and not just your earthly master.  In fact, the Lord Christ is the one you are really serving, and you know that he will reward you.- Colossians 3:23-24

Employees are to work hard and well, realising that even if their employer doesn't reward them, God will.  Employers are to pay decent wages. Christian businesses should set fair prices and use honest scales. As followers of Christ we tell the truth - the whole truth - when we sell a car, house, product or service.  We know that God is watching and will hold us accountable for how we conduct our business.

Coming to grips with the needs of the poor and the lost

Naked did you not drop from the womb? Shall you not return again naked to the earth? Where have the things you now possess come from? If you say they just spontaneously appeared, then you are an atheist, not acknowledging the Creator, nor showing any gratitude towards the one who gave them. But if you say that they are from God, declare to us the reason why you received them. Is God unjust, who divided to us the things of this life unequally? Why are you wealthy while that other man is poor? Is it, perhaps, in order that you may receive wages for kindheartedness and faithful stewardship, and in order that he may be honored with great prizes for his endurance? But, as for you, when you hoard all these things in the insatiable bosom of greed, do you suppose you do no wrong in cheating so many people? Who is a man of greed? Someone who does not rest content with what is sufficient. Who is a cheater? Someone who takes away what belongs to others. And are you not a man of greed? are you not a cheater? taking those things which you received for the sake of stewardship, and making them your very own? Now, someone who takes a man who is clothed and renders him naked would be termed a robber; but when someone fails to clothe the naked, while he is able to do this, is such a man deserving of any other appellation? The bread which you hold back belongs to the hungry; the coat, which you guard in your locked storage-chests, belongs to the naked; the footwear mouldering in your closet belongs to those without shoes. The silver that you keep hidden in a safe place belongs to the one in need. Thus, however many are those whom you could have provided for, so many are those whom you wrong. - St. Basil the Great, Sermon to the Rich

 But obedience to the Great Commission has more consistently been poisoned by affluence than by anything else. The antidote for affluence is reconsecration. Consecration is by definition the "setting apart of things for holy use." Affluence did not keep Bordon of Yale from giving his life in Egypt. Affluence didn't stop Francis of Assisi from moving against the tide of his time.- Ralph Winter, Money and Mission

 Wealth is not limited - it can be produced and enlarged.

 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. - Deuteronomy 8:18

Wealth is being produced every day as a result of ingenuity and hard work.

If we have indeed exploited the poor then we need to face up to it.  We should adopt the posture of Zacchaeus who determined to pay back fourfold those whom he had cheated.

We are to feel responsible to compassionately and wisely use our abundance to help the less fortunate.  Every person is our neighbour, and we are to show mercy and care for each in their need.

There is a letter from Roman emperor Julian to Arsacius, the High-priest of Galatia when he was on his way to Antioch.  He makes some interesting comments, but this one compliment was an interesting sentence --

"For it is disgraceful that, when no Jew ever has to beg, and the impious Galilaeans support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us."

 Third-century Christian author Tertullian observed,

“It is our care for the helpless, our practice of loving kindness that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. ‘Only look,’ they say, ‘look how they love one another!’”

So there was a hope and peace in Christians that was nurtured by the Holy Spirit. There was an attitude of outgoing love even in the sore trial they faced. Around A.D. 260, at the time of the plague, Dionysus wrote:

Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty; never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. Many, in nursing and caring for others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead…. The best of our brothers lost their lives in this manner, a number of presbyters, deacons, and laymen winning high commendation so that death in this form, the result of great piety and strong faith, seems in every way the equal of martyrdom.

John Wesley came up with rules for church stewards and here is one of them --

If you cannot relieve, do not grieve, the poor. Give them soft words, if nothing else; abstain from either sour looks or harsh words. Let them be glad to come, even though they should go empty away. Put yourself in the place of every poor man, and deal with him as you would God should deal with you.

John Wesley personally practised what he preached.  He limited his expenditures by not buying the kinds of things generally considered essential for a man in his station of life. In 1776 the English tax commissioners inspected his return and wrote back,

“[We] cannot doubt but you have plate for which you have hitherto neglected to make entry.” They assumed that a man of his prominence certainly had silver dinnerware in his house, and they wanted him to pay the proper tax on it. Wesley wrote back, “I have two silver spoons at London and two at Bristol. This is all the plate I have at present, and I shall not buy any more while so many round me want bread.”