Is Money The Answer For Everything?

Is Money The Answer For Everything (Eccl. 10:19)?

Bhojraj Bhatta (June 22, 2011)

"A feast is made for laughter,

and wine makes life merry,

but money is the answer for everything"

Have you ever taken the time to reflect upon the claim Jesus made when he said "I am the way and the truth and the life" (John 14)?  What must he be thinking when he said this?  Does it have any relevance for us today as we face daily challenges of living a life in a world that is so hostile to everything we wish or desire?  The world and its system appear to be at odd with the kind of life and living we desire; if you don't fight and strive for the quality of life in this world, the life you desire would simply not come to you.  The very things that would have added quality and meaning to a life in this world, if left unchallenged, will eventually take life away from the living.  Things such as wealth, property, power, knowledge, pleasure, fame, freedom, security, love and such have great potential to make life worth living in this world; and they can also be the cause of destruction of life.

            According to the author of Ecclesiastes, "money is the answer for everything" (10:19), and how true it is in today's world!  Money does answer a lot of things, it does make life easier to live.  It can help you add material things or property to your life, it can give you power, it can even provide you the opportunity to increase your knowledge, it can bring you health and pleasure and even give you fame, it has the ability to give you freedom and security and even love and friends; there are so many things money can do.  Stephen Hawking can live and do what he is doing primarily because of the power of money and the opportunities it provided him with the scientific advancement because he was fortunate to be born in an affluent nation.  Had he been born in one of the poorer nations, we might have never heard his name; he might not have had the chance to live even the quarter of the length of life he has lived so far. 

            As much as money is the answer for good things in life; it can also be the answer for bad things.  Osama bin Laden became such an icon for the Islamic Jihadists primarily because he had the power of money at his disposal when he began his terrorist pursuit, and even after his death, his terror group continue to run havoc once a while because they still have the flow of money from their sympathizers.  But LTTE (Liberation of Tamil Tigers Elam), once a fierce terror group, saw itself disappear from the face of the earth because the flow of money was cut into it.  As long as the flow of money was on, there was no way of controlling its activities.   Therefore, either for good or bad, money is the answer in this world.  Money can do a lot of good and it can also equally do a lot of evil.  Most of the evil that is in the world appears to be due to the human desire to have money as it promises to give life, liberty and dignity. 

            Jesus also recognized the power and the place of money in human life when he said that man can only serve one master, he said "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and Money" (Matt. 6:24).   Jesus never says that money is evil, but he recognizes the power of money.  Money can meet almost every material needs in life and thus blind a person so much that he or she will start worshiping it, loving it to the end where one will be willing to forfeit even the eternal life if it requires one to give up money.  The best example is found in the life of a rich young ruler who came to Jesus asking as how he could inherit eternal life and when Jesus told him to give up the money, he rejected the offer of life and went away sad (Matt. 19:16-22).  One is willing to give up eternal life instead of money because money appears to be the answer for every issue in life, but unfortunately the life that money can give is life without the "truth" and the "way".   It may meet the material needs, but when it comes to the questions of eternity and spirituality; man is left without the instructions and the way forward.   As there are no instructions to the way of life, no commandments to guide his path, no absolutes to rule his mind; man is left at the mercy of his fallen and sinful nature to tell him how to live and for what.  Because he loves the money, he hates the truth and the way God has provided for him.  Instead of turning away from evil, he devises evil plans to gain more money and eventually his evil gets to him and is destroyed.  Thus, the Bible becomes right when it says "love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs" (1Timonty 6:10).

            Bible never says that money is evil; nor does it say that money can give you life.  It only says that money can be the answer for many things in life and recognizes the positive side of having it in one's life.  Bible has never hesitated in appreciating the power of money in life so long as the money was not the object of one's worship and devotion.  God is and ought to be recognized by all who believe in him to be the ultimate source of everything in life, including money.  When Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life" he said this in the context of comforting his disciples whom he was about to leave in the world.  He asks them to live between the two ages; one is the present age and the other is the age to come.  He was going to prepare a place for them and then will come back to take them there.  While they were in this world, they had to walk in the way he has shown them, live by the instructions he had given them and by living according to his words, they were to live in him.  This was the only way to live for the disciples of Christ.  He promises them the Holy Spirit who will help them live this life in Christ and encourages them to pray whatever they need and he will hear.  In fact, he promises them that they will be able to do greater things than what he had done while on earth.  They were to live a life that is marked by supernatural provision and power.

            In Matthew 6 when Jesus said said "no one can serve two masters", he told his disciples that they were not suppose to worry for the material things in this world; not because they won't need, not because they should live in lack and need and poverty, but because their heavenly father knows what they need and he will supply all that they need or ask from him.  Thus, for the believers, money is not the source, God is the source and money is a means.  God will provide the money so that a believer will be able to live a life that is marked by truth and lived in Christ as he or she journeys in this world until his second coming.  As money is the answer for everything in this world, Jesus promises to provide everything to the disciples who would live in "the way and the truth and the life".

            Apostle Paul also has left us with no doubts about God's intentions regarding this divine provision when he said "though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" (2Cor. 8:9), "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work" (2Cor. 9:8), "you will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God" (2Cor. 9:11).  The ultimate purpose of God's provision in this passage is that we might become generous on every occasion.  God wants us to live a life that is marked with generosity and thus he promises to provide whatever we need; specially the financial needs.  The Bible does not promise the financial blessings for the purpose of being generous only, it also takes into account our personal needs and wants.  Paul says "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment" (1Timothy 6:17).  God is a father who delights in his children's happiness and thus he provides us with every good things so that we can enjoy life.  There is nothing wrong for the believers to enjoy life because God intends us to live a life that is filled with joy and peace and love.  Once we have found the joy of life in God's blessings, then we become generous as Paul continues to admonish the rich to be rich in generosity and good works.  He says, "in this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life" (1Timonty 6:19).  The true life is a life that will keep on living long after we are gone from this world and money is unable to give us that kind life; only God can give us.  But at the same time, money will not be able to hinder us to enter that life if we allow God to rule our life.  If Jesus is the way for us to walk, if his word guides our affairs in this world, then money, instead of becoming a curse, it can become a blessing, a means to lay up treasure in heaven.  God desires that we live in this supernatural provision and financial liberty in which we are free to be generous in every occasion.  If you lack your basic necessities for life; it is hard to be generous and thus you cannot experience the joy of being generous.  As a child of God one must know what it is to be generous and for that to happen, one must come to a place where God meets all the urgent needs so that there is something left to give to those who are in need.

            Material poverty is not a sign of spirituality; it is a sign of sin and curse resulting from individual or corporate sins.  When Jesus said "blessed are you who are poor" (Luke 6:20), by no means did he bless the state of poverty as a universal human condition.  Neither the Old nor the New Testament sees poverty as a preferable state to be in compared to the wealthy state.  In fact, poverty or wealth is meaningless without God.  However, Jesus knew what it is to be poor right from the birth and thus in God's provision we are told that as he lay in a manger as a son of a poor man, three wise men from the east had to travel with gold, precious incense and myrrh.  This tells us that God had provided all that Jesus needed from the birth to death.  He would need gold to live, healing aroma of incense for a baby and mother to be of good health and myrrh for him to be used when he would eventually die and be buried for three days.  Joseph and Mary might have been poor in the eyes of the world, but the God they believed was a God who keeps his promises and thus we must get rid of the mentality that Jesus was a poor teacher longing for a meal and a place to lay his head at night.  He was the only sinless man who walked on the face of this earth and he was free from the curse of poverty; yet he took that curse upon himself so that through his poverty all mankind could also come into the life of blessings he knew.      

            Most of the nations that are poor today are poor because of the rampant corruption and stealing from the people and as a result the multitudes are living a life that has lost all color; there is no dignity in begging for a bowl of soup, there is nothing desirable in distributing food to the multitudes who can't afford a meal a day.  Such a charitable work done by many Christian nations and organizations (most of today's humanitarian INGOs are or were founded by Christians) is a shame on the face of a world that is greedy and wants everything for self.  A world that knows nothing about being generous and is willing to let its people starve to death while the corrupt rulers enrich themselves.  Ironically most of these rulers are very religious and it turns out the more gods and goddesses they worship the deeper in sin they sink, the more corrupt and cruel they become to their subjects.

            Thus, poverty was a curse, is a curse and will always be a curse if the issue of sin is not settled first.  It takes away dignity, respect and quality of life for many in this world.  The only solution is to repent from personal and corporate sins and turn to him who became a curse for us so that we might receive the blessings that God has intended for us (Galatians 3:13-14).  Once we turn to Jesus, he becomes our way of life, his word becomes our guide and we begin to experience the life that is truly life. 

            When a person tastes the true life in Christ; even as he or she stands in line for a bowl of soup in some sub-Saharan nations, he or she does not stand in that line with disgrace and humiliation but with dignity and self-respect knowing that it is just a matter of time when Christ will set him or her free from the bondage of poverty and curse.  Such a person's eyes are opened to the reality of what God has done in Christ and the person begins to realize that the source of the soup that he or she is holding in his or her hand is not the donating agency but God himself.  God had ordained that such an agency would be there at such a time to provide a means to survive and if God was able to command an agency to come to meet that need at that time, he can also do so without being forced to stand in line with humiliation and disgrace; God can meet that person's need supernaturally and give him or her the ability to experience such blessings naturally. 

            But, first, the issue of sin in life has to be addressed and confessed.  Any amount of blaming the rich, the fate, and the place of birth will not help.  Any amount of lamenting won't help.  The only thing that will set a person free from the grinding curse of poverty is the turning away from sin filled life.  Turning from sin and turning to God will lead that person into a quality of life whose needs are supplied from heaven's gates.  In Malachi the word of the Lord comes from the prophet that God is willing to open the floodgates of heaven to pour out a blessing that one cannot contain if the people would turn from their wicked ways and honor God their creator (Malachi 3).  Such promises of God are not relative to certain nations or continents, but they are relative to a nation, a continent and a person that will turn from sin and turn to God.  God gives us true life and that life ought to be lived here and now as a sign that we are on the pathway to a greater life in the age to come.  Sufferings and sorrows are part of this life here in this world but the Lord promises to carry us through them all!  God never promised to leave us in our misery; he promised to bring us out of our misery and our later life will be better and greater than our former when we make Jesus as the Lord of our life.  Spiritual transformation will also result in our physical and material transformation and a wealthy believer in Jesus Christ will be a blessing to many around him or her while he or she herself will rejoice in the quality of life that money brings because a believer will always be aware of who the true master is.  Thus, to answer the question, is money the answer for everything? No, money is not the answer for everything, it is only a means to everything; Jesus is the answer.  He is the way the truth and the life that will never perish and while we are here in this world, he will provide all that we need in order to live a generous life.