Christian Money

Being faithful with the unrighteous mammon - 15 May 2008

And if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? (Luke 16:9)

For me there are two key questions that arise out of this verse.
• Why does Jesus see money as unrighteous?
• How can we be faithful with something that is unrighteous?

PART 1 - WHY DOES JESUS SEE MONEY AS UNRIGHTEOUS?

Defn. Mammon:
The false god of riches and avarice - Webster’s dictionary
1. New Testament. Riches or material wealth. (Matt. 6:24; Luke 16:9,11,13)
2. (Often initial capital letter ) a personification of riches as an evil spirit or deity.
- Dictionary.com
"Riches are called by the name of a devil, namely Mammon, for Mammon is the name of a devil, by which name riches are called according to the Syrian tongue." - Peter Lombard

THE SPIRIT OF MONEY

In a number of instances Jesus referred to money as “mammon”, seeming to imply a spiritual entity behind it. Furthermore, he suggests in Matthew that a person can serve mammon as though it were a God, and states that service to mammon and God are mutually exclusive:

…You cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24)

Obviously gold coins, pieces of paper, numbers on bank computers or whatever else may be used as money, are in themselves inert. So, what is this all about?

THE GOD OF THIS WORLD (AND IT’S MONEY)

We know that the Lord God made the heavens’ and the earth and all that is in them, so why is Satan called both ‘The God of this world’ and ‘the prince of this world’ in the New Testament?

In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds… (II Corinthians 4:4 - KJV)

…the prince of this world is judged (John 16:11 – KJV)

The following verses may shed some light on these titles given to Satan:

Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
Then the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me and I give it to whomever I wish”. (Luke 4:5-6)

To me this suggests that the “kingdoms of this world” belong to Satan. Certainly Jesus did not contradict the devil’s claim. In fact by calling him ‘the prince of this world’ elsewhere, Jesus seems to add weight to this.

Further credibility to this perspective is provided by Ezekiel chapter 28. Here are some highlights:

“Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God:
“You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
You were in Eden, the garden of God;

(What – was the king of Tyre in the Garden of Eden?)

“You were the anointed cherub that covers;
I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God;

(This is definitely not the King of Tyre)

“By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned;
Therefore I cast you out as a profane thing
Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub…

(I’m confused, I didn’t think Satan was cast out of heaven for “trading”)

To understand Ezekiel 28, you need to understand that it is a blended passage. It starts out talking about the king of Tyre and then blends in talking about the true king of Tyre, Satan. The hidden power behind the temporal power.

Tyre was founded around 2750BC and still exists today (in Lebanon). In the ancient world Tyre was a key commercial center, hence Ezekiels reference to the abundance of its trading. From this passage we see a clear example of a commercial system whose true king was Satan, operating though the person of the king. Thus, at least in Tyre, money was wicked because it was part of a system of the devil.

THE LEADERS OF THIS WORLD

Let’s do a simple exercise.

FIRST – think of all the ungodly, wicked, corrupt world leaders you can, either contemporary or from history. (20 seconds). Easy wasn’t it, in fact you could probably go on with this exercise for quite some time.

SECOND – think of all the really godly world leaders you can (20 seconds). Hard isn’t it! BTW, if you thought of George Bush then you really need to do the homework set below.

DO MANY WORLD LEADERS ACTUALLY WORSHIP SATAN?

HOMEWORK – Google “skull and bones”.

There are numerous “secret societies” that engage in occult (or overtly satanic) practices, whose membership is like a roll call of the world’s most rich and powerful. Here are just a few:

• Scottish Rite Freemasonry
• Skull and Bones
• Bohemian Grove
• Priory of Sion

We tend to think of the way Satan works through world leaders as being by way of subtle influence over the worldly mind, however there is significant evidence that many of the top figures of politics and commerce knowingly worship Satan and take direction from him. In the context of looking at money this raises the possibility that our monetary system could even be devised by the devil himself?

THE UNGODLY NATURE OF OUR COMMERCIAL SYSTEM

Our commercial system is largely based on three principles condemned in the bible:

USURY

Lending money for interest (the entire basis of the current economic system including the creation of cash money supply in most economies).

Not only does the Old Testament forbid usury, but the bible warns us that:

…the borrower is servant to the lender. (Proverbs 22:7)

CONSUMERISM

Loving this present world when the bible teaches:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (John 2:15)

Doesn’t most advertising seek to encourage the very opposite of this. What does the bible say about those who teach others to sin?

PRIDE

The unstated objective in our “success” thinking seems to be to increase the power and status of man. Well, when you increase the power of man you increase the power of evil, for the bible says that the heart of man is desperately wicked. (Jeremiah 17:9). For instance, more technology also means more effective weapons of death.

CONCLUSION - WHY MONEY MAY BE UNRIGHTEOUS

OK, so going back to our original question about why Jesus characterises money as unrighteous. It seems that the answer may lie somewhere in the role of money in the commercial and political systems, and the nature of the both the earthly and spiritual powers behind those systems.

Of course there is a simple explanation as well. Our commercial system is only in the end an expression of the heart of man. Man loves all the earthly things and pleasures that money buys. There is nothing like money to draw out greed, strife and violence.

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? (James 4:1)

PART 2 - HOW CAN WE BE FAITHFUL WITH SOMETHING THAT IS UNRIGHTEOUS?

THE OBVIOUS

While money may be of an unrighteous origin it seems completely obvious that in our dealing with it we should display Christian characteristics, such as:

HONESTY

Avoiding both the outright and subtle lies that tend to go with commerce. A quick test:

• Did you explain all the faults of your car to the person before they purchased it?
• Do you promote things to customers that you wouldn’t buy yourself?
• Do you always stick to the laws, tax laws, bylaws, regulations, etc?

FAIRNESS

Christians are exhorted to love one another and to love their neighbor, Christian or non-Christian. What does this mean when:

• A tenant can’t pay their rent?
• We are in a dispute with someone?
• We are negotiating a price? (Do we make sure it’s fair to them as well as ourselves?)

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Do we consider the wider fairness of our actions? Some of our “neighbors” don’t live next door. Do we think about things like:

• Owning and consuming less so that we can help the desperately poor? (Either with provisions or by assisting the work of the gospel in those places)
• Avoiding products from companies known to abuse the poor? (e.g. sweatshops, coffee, oil companies – OK, admittedly there are real practical difficulties here in a globalised economy)
• At least taking the time to know what the issues are and what we can do to help

A LITTLE LESS OBVIOUS

If the bible speaks against Usury, is it right for Christians to work in the banking and finance sector?

Would it be right for a Christian to work in the arms industry? Who is the God of war? The red Indians were very clear that the god of war that they sacrificed children to was not the creator God.

THE FULL MEANING OF THE VERSE IN LUKE

And if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? (Luke 16:9)

This verse that we started with comes hard on the heels of the parable of the unjust steward who cheated his boss in order to win friends that would help him after he was fired. At the end of the parable it says:

“And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. (Luke 16:9)

Clearly, relating back to the parable, this is telling us that we should effectively rob the unrighteous mammon so that when we lose everything (death) we will gain an eternal reward. This implies something really interesting, and it’s the complete opposite of “prosperity doctrine”.

Let’s now apply this to the original verse (which is only two verses afterwards). What do we now see as the deeper meaning of being faithful with the unrighteous mammon? I see it as meaning that we should utilise our resources as much as possible for the service of God. What if we were to measure success, not in terms of what we have, but in terms of what we have been able to give?

A RADICAL CALL

Given a full understanding of our verse in Luke, how far should we take this thought:

• In our business?
• In our household budget?
• In our choices of holidays and leisure activities?
• In our use of time / money in general?

KP Yohannan points out that we often have to “pray hard” about whether to give to something, but tend not to pray at all about whether we should buy something for ourselves.

How will Jesus assess our faithfulness with the unrighteous mammon at the judgement seat of Christ?

In our responses to these thoughts, are we listening to the Holy Spirit or the pull of the flesh?

How much of our Christianity is just about us? (Our enjoyment of God)

THE EARLY CHURCH

The early church (pre-Constantine) often had quite different attitudes about money than we do.

To see something of their attitude read The dangers of prosperity

BALANCING THE RADICAL AND THE PRACTICAL

There are in many aspects of the Christian life a dynamic tension between radical and more practical Christian living and service. Although not related to money as such, for a balanced look at this topic see: Balancing Christian life