DISCIPLESHIP AND MONEY MATTERS
Maybe near the beginning of a relationship with someone from the struggling class, we will receive a request for financial help. Listen to this. Atesha (not her real name) is a nurse’s aide, so she has some education beyond high school. At the office, she unburdened to Jodi, the head nurse, a middle-aged mother of three and an active believer in her church. Atesha is living with her boyfriend in the home of her boyfriend’s parents. Her mother would not allow Atesha to let her boyfriend to live with them, so had to move out. Her boyfriend asked her to marry him so they are engaged. Now she is pregnant. Her fiancée’s uncle promised them $80,000 for their wedding, but then backed off because he said that he has three kids in college and that is a big drain on his finances. How can they get married if they don’t have the finances to pay for a wedding—a dress, tuxedos for the men, reception banquet, photographer, honeymoon, etc.?
Her boyfriend’s parents face eviction because the landlord said that they didn’t pay the rent. Atesha says, “But I paid it.” Jodi asks, “Didn’t you give a check to the landlord? Didn’t you get a receipt?” “No, I paid cash.” Jodi wonders, “Did she give the money to her fiancée’s dad, who kept it for himself and didn’t pay the rent?” Her fiancée can’t work because he has cancer. He used to be on his father’s health insurance, but he was taken off because he is now too old to be eligible. That’s Atesha’s hard luck story. Then she asks Jodi, “Could you loan me $150 to buy medicine for my fiancée? We just don’t have the money right now and he needs it really bad. When I get paid, I’ll pay you back.”
Jodi and another staff member suggest that Atesha lower her expectations for a wedding. “It doesn’t have to be so elaborate. You can buy a used wedding dress for half the price. After all, it was only used once and is like new; and the reception doesn’t have to be in a restaurant. It can be buffet style like my wedding in the church fellowship hall.” Atesha takes the time to listen, but right away changes the subject and goes back to doing her work.
Jodi goes home and thinks about Atesha, her poor performance in the office and how she comes to work all stressed out. She realizes that although Atesha professes to be a Christian, she is living out a different set of values. Someone is telling Atesha’s inner self what to do, and it’s not Jesus Christ. Jodi wonders how she can get through to her. She already knows about church and Jesus in a superficial way. What can she ask or what can she say that will make living for Jesus meaningful? Atesha isn’t giving her an opening. Jodi wonders what to do and she prays about it.
Reviewing all of what Atesha has been saying about her life’s saga, Jodi decides to tell her something when she brings up her daily troubles again. She says to herself, “I’ll tell her, ‘I think you’re being taken advantage of. You’re in a trap—your mother wants you out of the house. Your boyfriend is sick and wants money for medicine. He’s not working. He doesn’t have insurance. He’s no longer on his father’s insurance. Now you’re pregnant. And they need money for rent or they will be evicted. What if the story-line about how they handled the rent payment is a lie? Do you have a way out?’”
Jodi is hoping that she will have an opening to say, “I know a preacher who will marry you for free. You’ll have to meet with him and he’ll give you a good base for your life together. I saw it happen, a wedding, right in the Sunday morning worship service and reception afterward.” That opening never came.
When Jodi learned that Atesha professed to being a Christian, she might have asked if she wanted a better life, and then in the same breath asked, “Do you know that Jesus brought heaven to earth?” And after a short explanation of that, she might have been able to ask, “Do you know that a person becomes like the god (idol) that they serve? And share that idol’s destiny?” That might have led to a snack at McDonald’s. At any rate, it would have left Atesha with something to ponder.
In dealing with requests for money or financial help, it’s well for us to keep the Biblical teaching about money in mind. As we do this, keep in mind that Jesus and the apostles were talking to people of the struggling class more than any other group of people.
Also keep in mind that God is speaking to us first of all. It’s easy to see the fault in others and overlook our own. Jesus told us to remove the plank in our own eye before we try to remove the dust out of someone else’s (Matthew 7:1-5).
Paul writes that greed is idolatry (Colossians 3:5). Atesha craves a large, showy wedding, something beyond her family’s means. The love of money (greed) gets in the way of true worship of God. We understand that worship acceptable to God includes giving him priority in our lives by obeying his commandments. Paul writes that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). To gain more money, people will be deceitful when selling a car or property. It prevents them from being honest when they prepare a paper for a school assignment (cheating). An applicant will misrepresent a past work history or academic achievement to try to get a better paying job. The question uppermost is what will help them get the most money, not what is God-honoring or beneficial to their neighbor whether prospective employer, client or colleague.
What God wants is to be honored by our worship, worship from a believing and submissive heart. In the Old Testament, no one would be accepted in worship or receive answer to their prayer if they did not bring an offering. God said, “No one is to appear before me empty handed” (Exodus 34:20). Even pagans knew this principle. Balaam, in service to King Balak of Moab, hoped that God would curse Israel if the king placated God with lavish offerings, seven bulls and seven rams (Numbers 23:2). It didn’t work because God does not change his purpose through bribery (Numbers 23:8). Naaman, a Syrian general, brought rich gifts to the man of God so that he would be cured of his leprosy, but he learned that obedience (to wash in the Jordan River) was better than sacrifice (2 Kings 5:5, 10). King Saul offered a sacrifice so that God would bless his troops in battle, but he did not wait for Samuel, God’s appointed servant, to offer it. Later, he and his troops offered thank offerings for the victory over the Amalekites. However, he did not obey the Lord by completely destroying the Amalekites and their possessions. Instead, he kept the best of the cattle and plunder while destroying the weak and despised (1 Samuel 15:9). When Samuel met Saul and heard the noise of feasting of the people, he said to Saul, “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:22-23). God delights in offerings, but only if given with a submissive heart.
When Israel brought offerings to the golden calves at Bethel and Dan, they were worshipping false gods, not their Liberator from Egypt, as Jeroboam claimed (1 Kings 12:28). They were doing the same when they presented offerings at shrines dedicated to the deities of heaven or to the gods of the nations around them. They desired a blessing for their crops, their herds and families, but they were displeasing to God, the fount of every blessing. Therefore, God punished his people by delivering them into the hands of their enemies and eventually letting them be taken into exile (2 Kings 17:22-23; 24:19-20).
When people present offerings in obedient worship, God blesses them and cares for them. Proverbs says, “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine” (Proverbs 3:9-10). Malachi charged the people with robbery, robbing God of the tithes and offerings. “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. ‘Test me in this,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it’” (Malachi 3:8-10).
After the people returned to Jerusalem from exile, they dedicated themselves to building their own houses while leaving the temple in ruins (Haggai 1:4). Consequently, they did not receive the Lord’s blessing. They planted much, but harvested little. They ate, but never had enough. They drank, but never were filled. They put on clothes, but did not keep warm. They earned wages only to put them into purses with holes in them (Haggai 1:6).
By the world’s reasoning, the church is robbing the poor of their means to keep a roof over their heads and food for their babies when it passes the offering plate. This could not be further from the truth. Jesus told us not to worry about food or clothing, the necessities of life. Concern about these things skews our thinking so that we prioritize our own concerns. Jesus said that pagans run after these things. Don’t worry because God knows that we need these things and he will provide. We are to seek first of all God’s kingdom and his righteousness, that is, to obey his will, and all these things (the necessities of life) will be given to us as well (Matthew 6:33).
Jesus is echoing a theme that threads its way throughout the Bible. The person who meditates on God’s law and makes it his delight to please him will prosper in whatever he does (Psalm 1:2-3). “The LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction” (Psalm 1:6). “The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously” (Psalms 37:21). “The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand” (Psalm 37:23-24). “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be a blessing” (Psalm 37:25-26).
Psalm 34:19-20 says, “The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.” This prophetic passage speaks of Jesus whose bones were not broken to hasten his death on the cross (John 19:36), but was delivered from death through the resurrection. In like manner, even though a believer is killed for his allegiance to Christ, he will reign with Christ and be raised from death at Christ’s return (1 Thessalonians 4:16; 1 Corinthians 15:49, 51-57).
Jesus taught that the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he sold everything to buy that field. It is like a merchant looking for fine pearls, who when he found one of great value, sold everything he had to buy it (Matthew 13:44-45). Thus, Jesus taught us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him (Mark 8:34).
Some of those in the struggling class feel they are too poor to give. Instead of giving, in their mind, they should be receiving. Yet, these same people will buy a lottery ticket each time they buy pop and cigarettes from the convenience store. They consider their life so difficult that when the IRS rebate check arrives, they believe they deserve respite, so they fly to Orlando to spend a weekend at Disney World.
Some preachers, even some on TV, cater to lust to get money. So they call “giving to the cause” seed money or an investment that brings personal wealth from God. It becomes not an investment in the treasures of eternal life, but an investment in self and personal prosperity. Jesus said that the widow, when she gave a penny, gave more than the rich did because she gave all that she had to live on for that day. She did not know when the next penny would be given to her for her next meal (Mark 12:44). Jesus did not say that by giving a copper coin she would leave the temple and be given a gold one. She gave trusting only that God would provide her next meal.
Atesha lives in a universe governed by greed. Her mother has pushed her out of her house, her boyfriend’s uncle turned back on his promise of a generous wedding gift, her boyfriend is no longer covered by insurance and now he is begging her for money to buy medicine, and his dad is asking for more rent money. The call to her is that she come to Jesus and find rest for her soul. When she does that, though, she will find that “her world” will abandon her. She will be giving up everything to find a life blessed and protected by a loving and generous heavenly Father. She’ll find a new family in the body of believers. She’ll find help, but she will also be challenged to totally surrender her will to God’s.
In talking about the gospel, strugglers will bring up problems that they have with payday loans, credit card debt that is choking them, rent payments that are behind schedule, lack of funds for school supplies and medicine, difficulty in paying for bus tickets or childcare. The list is endless. People need to learn how to give. In the very process of giving the first part of their income to God, they begin to put thought into managing their finances in a way that pleases God, and not thoughtlessly spend the money at hand on their cravings and desires.
This topic is so important that Bill Hybels and the Willow Creek Community Church in a wealthy suburb of Chicago found it necessary to offer a course for new converts on money management and stewardship. The church of the struggling class would do well to have a trained financial counselor available to administer a short course and/or help someone with one-on-one help.