I can’t think of many downsides to being rich, never having been blighted by that temptation. Just in case something totally unforeseen should bring a bonanza, like most of us, I have always left the door open by admitting that the Bible nowhere condemns being rich. It says, “They that desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare.” I Timothy 6:9. And “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” Verse 10. And Christ told His apostles “It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:24. A Christian who has disciplined himself to give more than ten per cent of $600.00 per week, might find it difficult to give a proportionate amount of $6000.00 although I have seen some dedicated Christians who could and did.
One advantage of not having much is we can always say what we would do if we were rich! “I don’t contribute much, but if I were rich I would do fantastic things,” we can say.
Ted Turner, one of the world’s richest men, has pledged to give one billion to the United Nations over the next 10 years. He said, “I’m trying the best I can to make a difference.” He put his money where his mouth is!
In II Corinthians 8:12 the Bible tells us, “For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according as a man hath, not according as he hath not.” In other words, we are judged by what we do with what we have not what we would do if things were different. If we use what we have – money, talent, time, self- selflessly to God’s glory, that is accounted an A plus, no matter how much or how little it is. This is why Christ looked at the widow’s two “mites which make a farthing” – perhaps a sixth of a cent – and said, “She hath given more than they all for they cast in of their superfluity and she cast in all that she had, even her living.”
A little poem I read years ago comes to mind:
It’s not what you’d do with a million
If riches should e’er be your lot,
But what you’re doing at present,
With the dollar and a quarter you’ve got.
