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PERSONAL OPINION
Dealing with wealth

John H. Redekop

As a child, I grew up with the impression that it was highly commendable to work hard to acquire additional income and assets, but I also got the impression that to become wealthy was suspect. I could never quite figure it out. Why was it a good thing to strive for something but not a good thing to achieve it?

During the financially desperate years in depression-plagued southern Saskatchewan in the late 1930s, I heard more than a few sermons on the spiritual benefits of poverty but none on wealth. Maybe we had none on wealth because no one in that congregation was wealthy. In any event, if poverty was such a God-pleasing state, then why did all of us work so hard to escape it – if not to become wealthy, then at least to become more prosperous?

Moreover, if it was more likely that poor people were spiritually praiseworthy, and if acquiring more worldly goods made such a status less likely, then why did virtually everyone in that church describe the gaining of more income – better crops, higher crop prices, more income – as a blessing from God?

It seems to me that through the ages Christians, including Mennonite Brethren, have held confusing, if not contradictory, views about prosperity and wealth. I have detected affirmation but also suspicion, perhaps masking envy; I have detected gratitude, alongside some criticism and distancing. The significance of this ethical uncertainty has come into sharper focus as ever larger numbers of Mennonite Brethren have moved up the economic ladder to achieve impressive prosperity and, beyond that, substantial wealth. And many of those who have not moved up the rungs have not lacked the desire.

Not surprisingly, ethical ambivalence has not prevented the church and its many institutional arms from requesting the wealthy, alongside those who can give only modest sums, to support major capital programs and operating budgets. In fact, as I read the evidence, none of our elementary schools, high schools, colleges, seminaries, camps, major communications ventures and assorted other major Kingdom-expanding initiatives such as Church Partnership Evangelism and Discipleship, would have achieved their present effectiveness without large-scale support from those of our members whom God has entrusted with wealth. It is, I think, not saying too much to suggest that faithful stewardship on the part of wealthy sisters and brothers in our midst has made it possible for North American Mennonite Brethren mission agencies and numerous para-church agencies to thrive. We need to acknowledge that fact and to thank God for it.

Given the above, we need to develop a clearer and fuller understanding of biblical teaching about prosperity and wealth. In searching the Scriptures, the following has struck me.

While we find numerous positive statements about those who are poor in this world’s goods, the correlation is not one-to-one. Nowhere do I find the Bible saying that anyone is spiritually praiseworthy because he is poor. Poverty may for some people be a consequence of godly faithfulness, but it is not a prerequisite. The rich young ruler, for example, was instructed by Jesus to sell his assets and give away his money not because he was well off but because his wealth had become his god.

The acquisition of assets is sometimes affirmed in Scripture. In Matthew 25, Jesus criticized the “wicked, lazy servant” who had not used his money to make money. As well, “a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph,” provided the grave for our crucified Lord (Matthew 27:57-61). Further, when God Jehovah wanted to express exceptional affirmation for King Solomon and his choices, He lavished “wealth” and “riches” on him (2 Chronicles 1:1-12). Perhaps the key example is Job. It took me many years to understand that this “blameless and upright” man, who “feared God and shunned evil” and of whom God said that there was no one else on earth like him as an example of godliness, was also extremely wealthy, apparently the wealthiest man “among all the people of the East” (Job 1:1-8).

Wealth creates options; just like poverty, it does not in itself establish or reflect a moral direction. I thank God for wealthy sisters and brothers who have combined deep spirituality with material success and honoured God with what has been entrusted to them.

John H. Redekop is on the faculty of Trinity Western University and is a member of Bakerview MB Church in Abbotsford, B.C.

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Last modified August 13, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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