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Christian Network

Christians in America are wealthy. That may sound like a sweeping statement but it is nonetheless true. By comparison with the rest of the population we Evangelicals might not have quite as high an average annual income but I suspect the difference is negligible. Like other Americans we live in the upper reaches of the attainable as far as material wealth. According to Christian financial ethicist Gary Moore our wages ‘are probably among the top one percent in human history’. Any thoughtful believer in the United States must grapple with the implications of such affluence.

During the late 1970’s some left leaning Evangelicals attempted to motivate us to shed that wealth purely through the use of guilt. The standard bearer for this approach was Ron Sider’s book ‘Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger’. Its stark message was that the church in America was literally on its way to Hell, both individually and corporately. Sider’s basic premise was this: we are a bunch of camels who are never going to make it through the eye of the needle. He asserted that we were living off the misery of the Third World. He declared that we were global economic criminals. It was, and still is, a scary book to read.

Then Communism came crashing down. Sider’s approach had been to sell Christians on a sort of ‘Christian Socialism’, one that would include pushing for the secular kind too. But with the triumph of free market capitalism on a nearly global scale any kind of pseudo-Marxist philosophy became passé, even the kind which wore a cross around its neck. Sider has since completely rewritten his book to encourage Christians to be more generous; minus the fear manipulation and thinly veiled call to what might indeed be described as ‘Christian Marxism’.

However the fact remains that American Christians seem to be as caught up in our nation’s runaway consumerism as they have ever been. What are we to make of Jesus warnings about wealth? How much is too much and what should the Church be doing to keep believers from shipwrecking their faith in the pursuit of wealth? There is no easy solution but the core problem is that we have not really even addressed the issue in many churches. It seems somehow ‘Un-American’ to suggest that people learn to live on less and give more. For one thing political conservatism tends to be a champion of unbridled capitalism and a large majority of affluent, Bible-believing Christians here describe themselves as conservatives. We are also influenced by the rags to riches allure of ‘The American Dream’ with its promise of material wealth and the freedom to do with it what we will.

But we are not ‘to do with it what we will’. We are to do with wealth what our Father wills. It is not ultimately our money, it’s His. We might know this in our minds but our lives rarely seem to reflect it. Despite what television and the rest of the advertising media tells us we do not need the nice house/car/vacation in the Caribbean/etc. The Bible is clear that what we really need materially is only food, clothing and basic shelter, nothing more. The rest is what we want. Now it is perhaps true that God ordains some of His children to receive more of those wants than others. Oftentimes, though, we American Christians want what we want when we want it. If God does not quickly provide an answer as to whether it is His will for us to have the desired thing or not we go ahead and buy it anyway. It is unlikely that the vast majority of American Christians can honestly say they have never followed their own will in this area. The author among them.

It should be stated that the New Testament does not condemn wealthy believers out of hand. In 1 Timothy Paul gives the wealthy instructions on how to live (1 Tm 6:17-19), encouraging generosity yet not calling on all to completely divest themselves of earthly affluence. The story of the rich young ruler apparently does not apply to everyone. Yet somehow it seems doubtful that most of us who make up the affluent church here in America are meant to have so much when much of the rest of the world has so little. If we claim to live by the Spirit of Christ, to aspire to love as He loves we must be willing to sacrifice at least some, perhaps most, of our luxuries to help others. While the best reason for this may be love, not fear, we are warned to avoid seeking after wealth and told of grave consequences if we do not. As someone once said it is with ‘both the carrot and the stick’ that God often motivates us and, biblically, this appears to be very much the case with questions of financial stewardship.

So what is the church’s corporate responsibility in regards to its member’s wealth? Some would say it is a purely individual issue Like Leonard Bacon who wrote the following in The Christian Doctrine of Stewardship in 1832:

‘The church was not formed to manage the property of its members, or command their charitable efforts; nor can it show any commission to that effect. You are a steward not for the church, but for God. The property which you have, or may not have in possession, belongs to you; as an individual and not as a member of the church; and you as an individual, must account for it to the supreme proprietor’

But for the larger church perhaps it is as simple as preaching the whole council of God on the subject. There will no doubt be opposition. Some will cry legalism, others that the Church is embracing a discredited social gospel. But if the truth is told in love it may be possible that many believers here will have their eyes opened to what is of eternal value. Then we in America can offer our countrymen a truer vision of the Kingdom of God and save ourselves from spiritual catastrophe as well.