poverty of wealth

The Poverty of Wealth


In Genesis 1, God said six times that his creation was “good”

(verses 3,10,12,18,21,25) and once that it was all “very good”

(verse 31).


These material blessings thankfully received and rightly

used are a blessing to everyone. Coveted for self, however, and

they become objects of worship – what the Bible calls mammon.


The Poverty of WealthAre we human beings or human havings?


John 10:10The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.


Matthew 16:24Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.


Luke 18:29,3029 So He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.”



Mammon as Master


Matthew 6:19-2119 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.


Matthew 15:19For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.


Matthew 6:24No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.



Mammon as Master



Mammon as MasterMammon as Servant


Matthew 25:34-3634 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:


Matthew 25:34-3635 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’


2Corinthians 8:1-71 Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia: 2 that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality.


2Corinthians 8:1-73 For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, 4 imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.


2Corinthians 8:1-75 And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God. 6 So we urged Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also complete this grace in you as well.


2Corinthians 8:1-77 But as you abound in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us—see that you abound in this grace also.


“Our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures,

fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. We are like an ignorant child who wants to go on

making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the beach. We are far too easily

pleased.” C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses

poverty of wealth

Spiritual