If no one deserves any blessings in this life, then why are some people wealthier than others? I don’t know. The Bible says
that ultimately any blessing comes from the Father, but does that mean that if
someone’s rich it has absolutely nothing to do with hard work or with
other decisions they’ve made in life? It has nothing to do with
financial decisions they’ve made, whether to save or to squander their
resources? If so, that’d seem to flatly contradict the book of Proverbs, which
is just as inspired as the Gospels and the epistles of Paul, right? The book of
Proverbs has plenty of financial counsel, on how to be wealthier than you would
be if you didn’t follow it: Shun laziness,
be careful to save,
avoid addictions,
etc. How do our financial decisions interact with God’s sovereign plan? Um,
that’s a great question. But the fact is that the same Bible tells us that A)
God is the One who sovereignly decides
how “exalted” we’re going to be in this life, and B) The financial decisions we
make can impact how prosperous we are. It’s really the same thing with
salvation: God is sovereign, and people are responsible for the choices they
make. How exactly his sovereign decisions interact with out free will is a
mystery we’re not going to really solve in this life.
So how can I apply the above? Well,
when it comes to your own wealth, that’s a complex question. But when it comes
to someone else’s wealth, it’s actually pretty cut and dried: Mind
your own business. Don’t worry about what someone else makes. Don’t begrudge
someone else their blessings.
Let me make a case for this by
taking us to the last chapter
of John’s Gospel. The Lord Jesus called Peter to “follow” him, both literally
and figuratively. When he did, Jesus issued some slightly dark predictions
about Peter’s end, strongly hinting that Peter wouldn’t be dying of old age,
but would instead be martyred. Peter looked behind him, saw John walking behind
them both, and asked his Lord “What about him?” Jesus’ answer? “If I want him
to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow
me.” Please allow me to paraphrase: “I love you Peter, but that’s none of your
business. If I want to keep him alive until I return while I let you die a
martyr’s death, that’s no concern of yours. How I choose to bless or not bless
someone is my concern. Your concern--your only concern--is to follow me.”
My friend, if we could internalize
those five words I highlighted above (“What is that to you?”), that’d revolutionize
our walk with Christ and completely eliminate the slightest trace of envy and
covetousness from our hearts. How God chooses to bless or not bless someone is
no concern of mine. If he chooses to make someone else so wealthy that they
could buy or sell Bill Gates on a whim while he keeps me on the Ramen Noodle
diet my whole life, that’s not my concern. First and foremost, my Lord doesn’t
owe me anything but judgment, but also it’s doubly not my concern how
he chooses to bless someone else.
Let me point you to another passage,
a parable from Matthew,
titled in the NIV as “The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.” I’m not
going to summarize it for you, since it’s a pretty straightforward story; just
please click on the link and read the passage. But let me point out something
to you: In this story the landowner, representing God, is not fair. He doesn’t give everyone an hourly wage. He gives the
first workers what they agreed to, but he gave the Johnny-Come-Lately much much
more than he even expected, nevermind what he deserved. But what I really want
is to note his response to the grumbling workers: “Don’t I have the right to do
what I want with my own money?” Wow. Sounds like a pretty strong endorsement of
property rights. Of course, this is a parable, commonly known as “an earthly
story with a heavenly meaning.” The primary application of this passage is God’s
sovereign prerogative to bless those whom he wishes to bless and to withhold blessing
as he wishes to withhold it. But his original hearers of this story apparently
would’ve assumed that what any
landowner who said what this
landowner said would’ve been perfectly within his rights: What you own is pretty much yours to do with as you please.
So the question that I keep
stumbling over is: In light of what we’ve just read, why is any concern over any type of “income
gap” considered legitimate among Christians who supposedly hold a high view of
Scripture? I don’t know. I’m not their judge, so I can’t say. All I can
say is “I gotta calls ‘em as I sees ‘em.” As best as I can tell, any
concern--much less this obsession—with how much someone makes versus how much someone else makes is completely unscriptural.
Wait a minute. There’s one passage I
mentioned before, the lone portion of Scripture which Christians on the Left might
be able to use to sustain their argument that income inequality is a concern of
the Lord’s. What about the Year of Jubilee? If you’re not familiar with it,
that’s fine. We’ll tackle it in the next posting.
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