As a follow up to some earlier comments, I thought I'd post Luke 12, in which Jesus makes some strong commentary on religious and economic issues. While we shy away from controversies like this in most polite company, Jesus certainly didn't - nor did he mince words.
The first part of Luke 12:
Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, "Beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
"But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.
"Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the
light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops.
"I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do.
"But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!
"Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is
forgotten before God.
"Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear;
you are more valuable than many sparrows.
"And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God; but he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
"And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will
not be forgiven him.
"When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say."
Someone in the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, tell my brother to
divide the family inheritance with me."
But He said to him, "Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator
over you?"
Then He said to them, "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions."
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Thoughts?
9 comments:
Dan, I am expecting you will continue with this through the next verses so I will withhold what I mainly have to say on the subject. But let's at least bring out that we probably don't all agree on what greed is.
In many other translations this last versicle renders the word greed as covetousness. Either word will do actually to convey the idea of pleonexia which would be the desire to have more.
More than what? More than you need? There's no firm basis for this in the Bible. Many people of the Bible were shown to be approved by God even though they had much more than they needed. God worked directly through the rich much more often than through paupers.
The word (and it's OT equivalent betsa = 'dishonest gain') most often are used in a since of covetousness, that is, wanting something that belongs to someone else ... wanting something that someone else earned by their toil and ingenuity while you did not earn it.
While this can be applied to the rich who use force and fraud to persuade workers to produce an amount of goods but only allow the poor to take a small fraction of those goods for themselves, it also applies to the taking of goods from those who earned them to support the idle and slothful who COULD be earning their own livelihood were it not for their idleness and sloth.
This latter category includes the willfully ignorant, those with a debilitating hangnail, those wallowing in a victim mentality. They are casting their eyes on the goods earned by others while they earned none and by the Biblical definition this is greed.
It also includes idle pontificators, exegetes, activists, theologians, and all manner of such folk who do not want to earn their bread but rather make a living out of covetousness, constantly pointing to laborer, rich or poor, and wanting to have a portion of the earner's bread in exchange for their pontification.
Eleutheros,
What a great explanation! I am excited to see Dan's reply.
That's just good stuff. Jesus tells it like it is: that life is more than material things - and that the spiritual reality of our relationship with Him is far more weighty.
>"I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do.
>"But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!
>"And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God; but he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
>"And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him.
He balances the somber truth of our spiritual need with a personal picture of His love and care:
>"Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God.
>"Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.
Thanks for the input Eleutheros. I don't know that I disagree with anything you said. Other than to say that the Bible doesn't list too often (rarely, but there are a few examples) of the poor being the ones who are exploitative. On the other hand, it is the wealthy who are constantly (not in every situation, but in the vast majority of instances in the Bible) criticized for having an oppressive wealth, or a wealth gained by unjust means, or who are merely blinded by their wealth into trusting that wealth and not God.
That is to say, there are some examples (Abraham, Job, David?...) of people with plenty in the Bible who are not condemned. But the vast majority of times wealth and the wealthy are spoken of in the Bible, it is in a negative light. If someone wants to be energetic and do a count, that would be cool. I'm guessing it'd be at least 10 to 1 anti-wealth.
Conversely, there are a handful of times where the stingy poor or the lazy poor are mentioned, but that is the exception, not the rule. The rule is that God is on the side specifically of the poor and marginalized.
Again, if anyone wants to go through and verify this, I'd love it.
Dan:"I'm guessing it'd be at least 10 to 1 anti-wealth."
I would submit to you that looking on the Bible as anti-wealth is a bias and not an objective exegetical analysis. The Bible takes a stand against greed, exploitation (in some ways, slavery is OK), lack of compassion, etc. and these short-comings often involve wealth. But where is the Bible against wealth per se? In a few places, to be sure, but the vast majority of the time it isn't wealth itself that falls into condemnation but rather greed and acquisitiveness. Filter out those places where it is not wealth but rather the greedy that are being spoken against and what happens to your 10 to 1 ratio?
As you know, Dan, I advocate (and live) a Spartan life and assert that if everyone did the same, the world would be suffering few of its present problems. But I do not find an an endorsement of this in the Bible. No condemnation of it, but no endorsement of it either.
It would seem to me that if one approached the Bible as a complete and non-contradictory message and one finds in it the extreme wealthy being approved by God and also the extremely poor and everyone in between, the only logical conclusion to draw is that one's economic status is NOT what's being addressed.
You are correct, that I'm lumping the verses that appear fairly directly "anti-wealth" ("Woe to you who are rich!" "Isn't it the rich who exploit you?" "But the rich God sent away empty handed...") with the multitude of verses that are against oppressive economic structures and systems. So, when I said the Bible is 10-1 "anti-wealth," I'd do better to say 10-1 "anti-exploitative-wealth-and- cautioning against wealth."
But that would be a mouthful.
So to be clear, I'm not saying I am (or the Bible is) anti-wealth: I'm saying that wealth is nearly always warned about and is often associated with unjust economic structures.
I think this Luke 12 passage is a good representation of what the Bible has to say about wealth and religion - which is not to say that either are bad, but they are both consistently warned about.
I have pointed to the many warnings of wealth and it's trappings and some have accused me of being anti-wealth. I've never said that I am (with the noted exception - now corrected - of saying the Bible was 10-1 "anti-wealth.")
In Ched Myers' writings, which I've been encouraging here, he talks about God as a God of Plenty. Plenty for all. He talks about biblical economics as not being about scarcity but about plenty. There was enough manna in the desert for everyone. You could gather ALL you wanted to eat. You could be Manna wealthy.
BUT, you could not store it up.
I'm not, nor do I think the Bible is, anti-wealth in and of itself. I don't know how clear I can make it.
I'll extend an apology for giving the impression that I'm against wealth in and of itself. But, given the way the Bible talks about it consistently, I'd hope one could extend some grace my way.
A sampling:
"People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap" ~1 Tim 6:9
"Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have." ~Heb 13:5
"But woe to you who are rich!" ~Jesus, Luke 6:24
"Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? ...Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?" ~James 2:7
"Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you." ~James 5:1
"the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." ~1 Tim 6:10
"Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God" ~1 Tim 6:17
"God has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty." ~Mary, Luke 1:53
"Do not save riches for yourselves here on earth" ~Matt 6:19
"You cannot serve both God and Money." ~Matt 6:24
"Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint." ~Prov 23:4
"Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread." ~Prov. 30:8
"For I have learned to be content, whatever the circumstances may be." ~Phil 4:11
"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." ~Mark 10
"Whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." Jesus, Luke 14:33
"For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?" ~Matt 16:26
Bam! Bam! Bam! Over and over again, we read warnings and rebukes about wealth and its trappings.
I'd think we'd do well to be conservative (ie, cautious, prudent) in our approach to wealth.
Yes, of course the Bible warns against the dangers of riches. Common sense does too as have most philosophies and religions. For example a hymn to the god Pan attributed to Socrates
Oh dear Pan and all the other Gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside. Let all my external possessions be in friendly harmony with what is within. May I consider the wise man rich. As for gold, let me have only as much as a moderate man could bear and carry with him.
Nihil sub sole novum!
In the New Testament (to say, in the Greek vernacular) there are two words commonly appearing as wealth in translation. One is chrema which means goods. It is seldom used and seldom condemned. Different from this concept are the words derived from plutos (Pluto is, of course, the god of Wealth). It does not convey necessarily the idea of physical possessions but more the idea of influence authority over others. Remember that in Biblical times it was not a cash economy as we have today. Wealth in the sense of a plutarch meant the ability to command others to do the work while the wealthy remained idle to pursue their own interest free from the daily toil of the world which is the common lot.
Forget for a moment bank account balances and expensive cars and such and take in the concept of wealth as it would have been understood in Biblical times, not silver shekels jingling in one's pocket but the ability to remain idle while others did your work.
Now of days our sustenance might come from grants, donations, offerings, etc. to give us the freedom from toil that allows us to pursue our idle interest including preaching and peacemaking. But by definition we are then rich, plutos, and are in the very state the Bible direly warns about.
>the only logical conclusion to draw is that one's economic status is NOT what's being addressed.
Given the context of this passage that Dan chose, the far more weighty issue is the spiritual (internal) and not the issue of merely how much money one has (external). For one can have a lot of money and be spiritually poor, and one with little money can be spiritually rich. The cross addresses our spiritual status and not our economic status.
>But by definition we are then rich, plutos, and are in the very state the Bible direly warns about.
Riches by definition do not necessarily equate to sin (Our heart towards them matters more: see 1 Timothy 6:10 for the dangers of loving riches). Sin is what the Bible warns about. Jesus' statements about judgement, hell, and confessing Him all relate to repentance of sin - in which the solution can only be found in Him - and not in ourselves. We can deny externals in and of ourselves, but we cannot solve our sin problem in ourselves. That's why we must be 'in Christ'. All sin is judged - either in ourselves or in Christ on the Cross.
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