1 Timothy 6:17-19
Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy. 18 Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, willing to share, 19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the age to come, so that they may take hold of life that is real.
I wonder how many times I’ve glossed over this passage. After all, I’m not rich, am I?
According to some statistics I’ve seen, people who earn the median income in the USA are in the top 6% of income earners in the world. If I’m lower middle class I could still be considered rich.
In the last few years there have been times when I have felt poor when income has gone down, health problems have come up and car and cat repairs multiplied along with inflation. At the same time, I have been realizing my spiritual poverty more and more (Matthew 5:3). Although I can’t say I’ve been truly poor materially, I’ve felt like it and I wish everyone in this country could have a taste of what that feels like because it helps to develop a humble perspective and dependence on God (with always much room for improvement).
That said, aside from any caveats we could try to build from the income statistics, and not knowing exactly what constituted a rich person in Ephesus at the time (comments?), many of us reading this blog in the Western world are rich materially. This really stuck out to me the other day while reading this passage. It is indeed easy “to be arrogant or to set [our] hope on the uncertainty of wealth”. My surroundings and narrow worldview can deceive me into thinking I’m not rich.
Those of us who are rich, even if we are lower middle class, need to realize it and heed the warnings given in this passage.
We can of course thank God “who richly provides us with all things to enjoy” with what he has blessed us with materially as long as we are following the instruction “to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, willing to share, storing up for [ourselves] a good foundation for the age to come, so that [we] may take hold of life that is real” realizing this is a gift from Him and that we are godly in acting similarly.
God, he [Paul] says, richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment (cf. 1 Timothy 4:3-4; see also Ecclesiastes 5:19-20). Enjoyment, however, does not mean self-indulgent living (1 Timothy 5:6). The reason everything may be enjoyed lies in the recognition that everything, including one’s wealth, is a gift, the expression of God’s gracious generosity.
Gordon Fee, 1-2 Timothy, Titus
In the seemingly upside down world of the Kingdom of God, we are blessed when we are poor in spirit and we lay up treasure (true riches) for ourselves by giving away.
How great it is to be blessed when we are spiritually poor and to be strengthened to be content whatever our temporal circumstances.
Philippians 4:11-13
I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well-fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. 13 I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Christ’s Poverty
2 Corinthians
2 Corinthians 8:9
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
What exactly does “poor” mean here? At first glance it would seem that He became poor in a material sense. But logically this would seem to imply that he became poor so that we could become materially rich. This wouldn’t make sense unless you like TV evangelists with big hair.
We don’t even know if in fact He was materially poor. He said he didn’t have a place to lay his head in Matthew 8:20 but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s poor in that sense.
Garland says in his commentary on 2 Corinthians that, “Becoming poor refers to his ‘emptying himself’ (Phil 2:6 *; see also Rom 15:3; Heb 12:2) and suggests that this is something he did voluntarily. But how does this make us rich? Christ’s incarnation [embodied in flesh] climaxed in his death, and the principle of interchange–he became poor; we became rich–is the same as in 2 Corinthians 5:21: ‘Jesus gave up his righteousness (becoming ’sin’) in order that believers might become the “righteousness of God.”‘” (Sorry for all those quotation marks.)
Garland quotes C. Lapide:
*The word “exploited” makes much more sense to me:
Philippians 2:6 NRSV who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,