By Russ Ramsey
Wealth is a relative concept. Compared to some, I don’t have very much. Compared to others (to most of the people in this world, actually), I am a man of tremendous riches. I can turn on a faucet and drink the water that comes out. I can drive a mile or so from the home I was approved to purchase, in a car that I own, to a grocery store where I can fill my cart with all sorts of foods that have been prepared for me. Anyone who can do these things is, by the world’s standards, wealthy. Still, sometimes I drive past houses and cars that are nicer than mine, and I wonder what it would be like to be that rich.
Jesus said that the poor will always be among us (Mark 14:7). This means our call to make room for the poor will never expire. But as soon as we say we need to make room for the poor in our lives, we’re tempted to start drawing lines that aim to define what qualifies someone as “poor.” Do we mean a person experiencing homelessness? A refugee? Someone who earns less than we do?
Wealth and poverty can make people feel worlds apart from one another. But we’re really not. In God’s economy, people are not distinguished simply by their financial circumstances but are also called to be faithful stewards of the resources He has given them. Paul says we dare not set our hopes on the wealth of this life (1Timothy 6:17–19) but instead make room for the poor in our lives because, materially speaking, nothing can be taken beyond the limits of this life. No one really owns anything. So Paul tells the wealthy not to hoard their resources but rather to use them to do good. Whatever our resources, the ways we can make room for the poor can be at our tables, in our budgets, or on our calendars. Scripture calls the wealthy to be generous and open-handed, ready to share. In other words, we are to use our resources as people who have the next life in view—the eternal life into which we will carry nothing except for the grace and name of Christ.
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