If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth,
who will trust you with true wealth?
The wealth of this world is not true wealth. It has a tendency to make us dishonest and selfish. It tends to create a sort of amnesia that makes us forget that everything we have is on loan to us, that it is meant to have a purpose larger than ourselves.
It is not the case that money is the root of all evil, but the disproportionate love of money. All the resources we are given are tests to see if we are found to be trustworthy with them.
The person who is trustworthy in very small matters
is also trustworthy in great ones;
and the person who is dishonest in very small matters
is also dishonest in great ones.
Paul was so happy to see the Philippians reive their concern for him and send something for his needs because he knew that by doing so they were being faithful in small matters. They were using the wealth of this world to be united as friends of God. Such friends, Paul knew, would have a place in the eternal dwellings of heaven. It was not so much that they earned that place, but by giving they became more and more people who would fit in and that neighborhood. By being found faithful with dishonest wealth they acted as people who are trustworthy to receive and appreciate the things of heaven.
No servant can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
We are either faithful with our money and other worldly gifts or we will find ourselves enslaved by them. The seeming necessity of money makes it feel as though we cannot live without it. The changes of fortune we experience in this world serve to reinforce our impression that we ought stockpile the gifts we have received for ourselves as protection against what might happen in the future. To avoid the winds of circumstance tempting us to put our trust in money we need to learn the secret Paul learned.
I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry,
of living in abundance and of being in need.
Paul learned something that was a secret hidden from the world. The world could not usually learn to be in need. But if they could, it was only by a complete rejection of things. They couldn't allow themselves to have something at one time, but not at another. Having it for them was the same as depending on it. But not for Paul. Paul could handle either circumstance and alternate between them without risk. What was his secret?
I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me.
When Jesus is our strength our circumstances don't matter. Full stop. And it is ultimately only with him as our strength that we have the freedom to resist the temptations that wealth offers to our survival instincts. It is in him, by his Spirit that we can walk in freedom from sin.
So, then, we should ask: is our love primarily for God? Or do the things of this world have first place in our hearts? Dishonest wealth will fail if we rely on it. We have a friend who wants to welcome us into eternal habitations. He wants us to dispose of our resources here below in such a way that we become fit citizens for the Kingdom where we truly and finally experience the glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
Let the poor man say, "i am rich in him."
Let the lost man say, "i am found in him."
Let the river flow.
Let the blind man say, "i can see again."
Let the dead man say, "i am born again."
Let the river flow, let the river flow.
Let the river flow, let the river flow;
Holy spirit come, move in power.
Let the river flow, let the river flow;
Holy spirit come, move in power.
Let the river flow, let the river flow,
Let the river flow.
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