As I continue through Luke’s magnificent Gospel this month, I notice the tremendous amount of space Luke gives to the topic of money and wealth. I started scribbling little dollar signs at the top of each page where Jesus makes some reference to economic principles, and there are many!
In my last blog, I documented that Luke was a man of great compassion and ethical concern for the poor and the outcast, those we might call marginalized populations today. In his narratives, Luke emphasized Jesus’s teachings about economic inequality, generosity, greed, and financial stewardship.
In this article, I will summarize three teachings in Luke that make crystal clear the attitudes toward money that please God. Then I will explore three aspects of Christ’s teachings about the dangers of greed, that craving for wealth that can destroy a person’s faith and life. I will conclude with some applications to our own money-obsessed world.
God-Pleasing Attitudes Toward Money
We love God more than money and are willing to forsake material wealth and comfort for the sake of his kingdom. This is the cornerstone of all of Jesus’s other teachings about money. If we see ourselves as servants of God, we can’t allow money to become a master over our hearts. He taught,
“No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Lk. 16:13).
Jesus’s statement alludes to the first of the Ten Commandments, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). If money comes before God in our thoughts, attitudes, priorities, and actions, we are practicing idolatry and violating our covenant with God.
Jesus was approached by a rich ruler who wanted to attain eternal life. When Jesus suggested he follow God’s commandments, the man replied that he had obeyed them all his life. Jesus then advises him to sell everything he has, give the proceeds to the poor, and begin following Jesus. The text tells us that the man was sad to hear this because he was quite rich.
Most teachers of this passage assume that the ruler did not choose to do as Jesus suggested. But we don’t know that. We only know that he was sad. It would be very difficult to make this dramatic turn in his life.
The more riches we have, the harder it is to release our attachment to them. Jesus says so: “It is difficult for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God” (Lk. 18:24).
I don’t believe that this specific instruction to the rich ruler is applicable to every individual. But the point is clearly made. The love of money can keep us from following the call of God, and as Paul warns, “is a root of all kinds of evil” (1Tim. 6:10). We must at least be willing to forsake all if that is what he requires of us.
We give until it hurts. Jesus stood in the temple courts, watching rich people put money in the offering box. Then a widow came and put in her last two coins. Guess whom Jesus commends.
“Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on” (Lk. 21:3-4).
We can give proportionally out of religious obligation, or we can give extravagantly with cheerfulness. When we do the latter we demonstrate both our obedience to God’s will and our trust in his ongoing provision.
I love the heart of the Good Samaritan, who didn’t just rescue an injured traveler from certain death on the side of the road. He used his own resources to render physical care to this complete stranger. Then, he paid an innkeeper for the injured man’s lodging while he recovers, promising to return and pay any outstanding debt!
Who does that? Jesus says, “You go, and do likewise” (Lk. 10:29-37).
We are good, responsible stewards of our resources and assets. This attitude affirms our belief that every blessing we have to work with in this life comes from our Heavenly Father. The classic biblical text on stewardship is the parable of the minas, found in Luke 19.
Jesus tells of a nobleman who went on an extended trip and gave ten of his servants ten minas each, instructing them, “Engage in business until I come” (v. 13). Upon his return, he asked for an account from three of the servants. The first had invested the money well, doubling it. The second earned a 50% gain. The noblemen congratulated these two servants in turn, exclaiming, “Well done, good servant,!” promising they would be given authority over ten cities and five cities, respectively, when he became king.
The third servant, unlike the first two, had hidden his ten minas and had no return on the nobleman’s investment. He made some pitiful excuses for his failure, but the nobleman wasn’t buying it. He took away the original ten minas and gave them to the profitable servant.
There are several applications and messages embedded in this parable, but in our context here, I highlight this principle: If we do not responsibly and wholeheartedly work to expand the kingdom of Christ with everything he has given us—our time, talents, spiritual gifts, AND our money, we might miss out on eternal rewards when our “nobleman,” Jesus, comes into his kingdom.
The Dangers of Greed
We don’t allow wealth to make us lazy, complacent, or unfruitful in our faith. Jesus painted a picture for his followers of a landowner who had a bumper crop. He decided to build some bigger barns to hold the excess, and then just lay back and “relax, eat, drink, and be merry” for a few years. Jesus’s lesson is:
But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Lk. 12:17-19).
Not rich toward God. That stings a little bit each time I read it. This is the opposite of the godly attitude we’ve already considered. Being rich toward God means many things, including remaining watchful and diligent, in good times and bad, knowing that our lives are in God’s hands.
Another convicting parable—if we’ll let it convict us—is the parable of the Sower and the Seed. One type of ground described in Jesus’s complex analogy is ground that is full of thorns. When the seed of God’s word falls on this type of ground, it represents “those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature” (Lk. 8:14).
Anything can come along and lead an immature believer away from a passion for the things of God. Forbid it Lord that we should be so preoccupied with money that we do not fully mature in Christ. We want to bear good, ripe, lasting fruit that brings you glory!
We do not exploit, abuse, or extort others for the sake of financial gain. This theme is stated early in Luke’s Gospel and echoes throughout. The Lord will exalt the poor and humble and will bring down the greedy and proud.
We hear hints of it in Mary’s prayer and praise at Gabriel’s announcement of Jesus’s coming, “He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty” (Lk. 2:53).
We hear it boldly in John the Baptist’s instruction to repentant tax collectors, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do” (Lk. 3:13). And to the repentant soldiers, he says, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation and be content with your wages” (v. 14).
We see a vivid example of this repentance from greedy motives in the story of Zacchaeus. In the presence of the Lord Jesus, he finds salvation and cries out,
“Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount” (Lk. 19:8).
Zacchaeus has a sudden change of mind and heart, understanding that there is no freedom in stealing, but there is great freedom in giving back.
Finally, one of the saddest stories is that of Judas, whose repentance came too late. He was inspired by the entrance of Satan into his heart to betray Jesus and hand him over to the authorities to be killed. But he did it for the money (Lk. 22:5).
We don’t assume that we are righteous before the Lord just because we are financially blessed. This has been an unfortunate corrupting message from prosperity preachers in the last few decades.
Living humbly and honorably before the Lord and working steadily at whatever business he has given us may indeed bring prosperity. But prosperity is a fruit, and not the primary goal.
Being successful in this world is no cause for boasting. God is not impressed.
Witness Jesus’s parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. The rich man “feasted sumptuously every day” (Lk. 16:19) and failed to share with the impoverished, sick, and starving man Lazarus. Jesus teaches with his parable that in the resurrection, poor, humble, suffering souls like Lazarus will be brought to the bosom of Abraham, while the rich and arrogant will suffer torment in the flames of Hades.
It should be obvious that worldly wealth can never be a reliable indicator that a person is living rightly before God and is being blessed by him. Often it is just the opposite. Sometimes the rich are rich because, like the dishonest manager of Luke 16, they know how to operate in the systems of the world to gain “unrighteous wealth” (v. 9, 11).
Luke recorded masterfully these many stories and teachings so that we might “know the certainty of the things [we] have been taught” (Lk. 1:4). This includes Jesus’s teachings about money and wealth.
These teachings consistently endorse the commandment to love God with all of our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves, applying it to our attitudes toward material gain.
On the positive side, we have permission to enjoy the good things God allows in our lives, as long as we don’t make them idols. We submit our lives and wills to him and are willing to surrender all to follow him. When we have an abundance in any aspect of our lives—money, resources, time, talents, or spiritual gifts—we steward it well and share generously with those in need of our support.
On the negative side, we avoid greed and covetousness as if our lives depended on it. Our eternal lives do depend on it.
I’ll end with this, from our Lord, who knows what is best for us:
“Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Lk. 12:33-34).
Lord, please help us by your grace to let go of our attachment to this world and the things in it. Let your kingdom come and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
