Wealth for Kingdom Building–II

Last time, we looked at how the concept of “gleaning” might be a useful way to get started with using your wealth for kingdom building. That’s a great concept, but still just a start… from Old Testament times.

In the OLD Testament, the Bible records many instances of God blessing specific individuals with abundant wealth. For example, consider Job, Abraham, Joseph, David, and especially Solomon, whose wealth is estimated to have been US$2trillion in today’s terms. God blessed and enriched these people with vast wealth, just because He wanted to.

In fact, the material blessing of the LORD does not end there, countless others–even the entire nation of Israel–were blessed over and over with material wealth by God. Like a good father, God loved to bestow wealth on those He loved.

But things changed when Jesus came and announced the arrival of kingdom of heaven on earth. A whole-Bible search for the words, “prosper/prosperity”, “wealth,” “success,” and even the word “blessed” in the Bible returns hundreds of promises related to material blessing, but NONE of these are provided in the New Testament and NONE of them are promised for us today!

Jesus himself spoke many times about money & wealth, but He never once referenced any of the promises for wealth or material blessing given in Old Testament as being for us. Instead, his teachings indicated that wealth makes it difficult to enter the kingdom of God:

”Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” — Matthew 19:24

Furthermore, Jesus goes out of His way to draw a distinction between Old and New Testament times:

Until John the Baptist, the law of Moses and the messages of the prophets were your guides. But now the Good News of the Kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is eager to get in. – Luke 16:16 (NLT)

Now that Jesus has introduced the kingdom of God to the world, it’s all about “treasure in heaven” and the focus is no longer on worldly wealth as we know it at all! Remember these words of Jesus?

“If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” — Matthew 19:21

Those words are astounding enough on their own, but even more astounding are Jesus’ remarks to a group of business people on the very topic of wealth & success:

“What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.” — Luke 16:15b

Jesus really turns all of our thinking about wealth upside-down, doesn’t He? And, when we look further at every promise of blessing or success in the New Testament, we see that it ALWAYS relates to treasure in heaven, and NEVER has anything to do with wealth or return on investment here on earth.

Read this verse from the Apostle Paul, and then take time to reflect on your views of what you thought the Christian–the Christ-like approach–to wealth management should be.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.– Romans 12:2

Take time to carefully process what you just read today. It’s quite likely that this reading is completely at odds with what you thought good Christian (Christ-like) wealth management was all about.

Then, when you’re ready, move on to the last readings in this series to see how to proceed, how to merge the world we live in with the world to come.