I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth,
so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
What, for us, is dishonest wealth? Jesus isn't suggesting that we actually cheat earthly masters such as our employers by diverting their resources to use for our purposes. We are by no means called to dishonesty. It is rather that wealth itself is inherently dishonest, and this for several reasons. The first might relates to social justice and inequity. For all wealth draws from and feeds into a system that is not based on what is due in justice to each individual, but merely on historical accidents of accumulation, and exertions of power and domination of people and groups over others. Though we rightly try to avoid feeding into such inequalities there are countless hidden ways inbuilt in our economies where we might do so without realizing it. Without conscious effort our wealth will help make the rich richer and the poor ever more oppressed and marginalized, to say nothing of hidden costs at other levels like the environment.
But there is another way that wealth is dishonest that is even more significant than the social justice aspect. It is dishonest in the way it appeals to us, in what it seems to promise. We read about all of the ways in which the use of wealth appears to be at the root of the problems in our society and we tend to believe that the proper solution is in fact the use of wealth. The power, we think, is simply in the wrong hands, being used the wrong way. If we had the power, if we directed the wealth, surely it would be better. Could we not, given enough money, fix everything, from poverty, to racism, to global warming? This is the subtle snare that by which wealth can capture us, moving us from a concern that is mostly for justice, to one that is mostly about power. It is very much like the way good hearted characters perceived the One Ring in the Lord of the Rings.
"I would use this ring from a desire to do good... But through me, it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine."
Unlike the Ring however, in spite of all the inherent danger in dishonest wealth we (or most of us, at least) are not called to avoid it entirely, which would be impossible. We are called instead to honesty in what is within the sphere of our control. This is possible when we remember that dishonest wealth always overpromises, and that it cannot buy what is most essential, "eternal dwellings". We must still interact in the economy in which we find ourselves. But we must remember that our lives and those of everyone cannot be perfected by money, but only by Christ himself working on our hearts to make us trustworthy so to each he can at last give what is ours.
If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another,
who will give you what is yours?
What Christ give us that is truly ours, that is not dishonest, and that we can keep for all eternity? Only himself. This is the master we should prefer. We may have to use mammon, but let us not serve it. Let us serve Christ alone. Society tells us otherwise, insisting that wealth and power are somehow the solution to the very problems they cause, but let us remember that society always gets it wrong, "for what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God".
For even when I was at Thessalonica
you sent me something for my needs,
not only once but more than once.
It is not that I am eager for the gift;
rather, I am eager for the profit that accrues to your account.
Paul was helping the Philippians learn to use dishonest wealth in a way that was properly ordered to their end as creatures meant for eternal dwellings. He was eager for a profit to accrue to them that was something of much greater value than the dishonest wealth of this world. This true wealth would empower them to live like Paul himself who "learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of living in abundance and of being in need". Having abandoned the false promises of worldly power Paul found true "strength for everything through him [Jesus Christ] who empowers me".
When we learn to sacrifice our desire treat dishonest wealth as though it were eternal for the sake of that which truly lasts we too can become ""a fragrant aroma," an acceptable sacrifice".
His heart is steadfast; he shall not fear.
Lavishly he gives to the poor;
his generosity shall endure forever;
his horn shall be exalted in glory.
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