Wealth

[Martin Stoyanov]

I've lived in North America for well over a decade now, and there is something I can't understand. A lot of people I know, Western Christians, are convinced that the wealth and the really high standard of living in the US is a reward from God. I suppose those starving kids in Africa did something to really tick Him off... I don't know. I always thought that rewards were going to be reaped later. The manner in which the US got to have its riches (what happened to the "Indians", slavery, etc.) also does not appear, on the face of it, to be something God would sanction.

Now I grew up in a communist country. Perhaps that is why the most common things I heards from the bible were stuff about the rich man and the camel and the eye of the needle, or that if you have two shirts (it may be a different article of clothing in the English translation), you should give one to your neighbor.

What is the Orthodox view on wealth, particularly God's supposed granting or withholding thereof here, on Earth?

[Andrew]

Saint John Chrysostom wrote a book on this topic :) Saint Vladimir Seminary Press has an English edition of it... I think it's called On Wealth and Poverty.

There are rich saints and there are poor saints; it doesn't matter how much we have, it matters how we use it for the building up of the Kingdom. God doesn't reward people with money. He allows some people to have more than others, in the hopes that some people will come to salvation through being Christian stewards of what they have been giving. Think of Saint Vladimir or Saint Stephen the Great. He allows some to have great riches so that they can give it all away, like Saint Anthony.

[John Charmley]

Dear Martin/Andrew,

A good question and answer.

Our Lord's views on this question seem clear, but not as simple as some, seeking to make of Him a politician, have supposed.

Matthew 19:23-24, Mark 10:25, Luke 18:25 are all warnings of the dangers to the rich that their wealth brings.

Matthew 27:57 however, shows how a man of wealth can use his position to do good, as does Luke 10: 30-37.

Matthew 26: 7-13 addresses directly the issue of the use of wealth. When the 'woman' at Bethany (identified, of course as Mary, in John 12:3) anoints His feet with costly oils, the disciples

were indignant, saying, Why this waste?
9 For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.
10 But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me.
11 For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always.


It seems two lessons are here for us. The first is that great wealth brings with it great temptations to take us away from God. We can see it around us in this society, dedicated to materialism and self-gratification; that is not the way of the Lord. Those with great wealth have a great struggle against temptation.

The second is that that struggle can be waged successfully, the wealthy can devote themselves to allieviating the effects of sin in this world. When Andrew Carnegie said that the rich man who died rich died shamed, he was articulating the practice of many Christians over the centuries.

I live in a part of England where the countryside is dotted about with the signs of how the wealthy have tried to use their money in the service of God - there are hundreds of Churches scattered about the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, built to the glory of God by wealthy men in the past.

As with all our talents, it is how we use what God has given us that counts; as we are told in Luke 12:48

But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

We must not be misled by political ideology into taking simplistic lines on the question of wealth. But one fears for so many of us in the west when one sees how that wealth is used.

In Christ,

John

[Andreas Moran]

Somebody once said, asceticism does not mean owning nothing: it means making sure that nothing owns you.

In Christ,

Andreas.

[Andrew]

Somebody once said, asceticism does not mean owning nothing: it means making sure that nothing owns you.

In Christ,

Andreas.

What a great quote! The goal of the Christian life is to be truly free, from all cares, all binds, and passions... to have the freedom of Divine life.