Money, money, money

19 August 2004

PART 11 OF THE SERIES OF MEDITATIONS ON ‘WISDOM TO LIVE BY: MODERN REFLECTIONS ON AN ANCIENT TEXT’

Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:12

Whoever loves money never has money enough;

Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income (5:10)

THE subject that the Preacher addresses in this passage is not wealth per se, but insatiability.

The modern consumerist society is of-ten characterised by insatiability, the desire for the acquisition of wealth and posses-sions that knows no limit. Social theorists like John Kenneth Galbraith have argued that capitalist production is the culprit be-cause it “creates the wants the goods are presumed to satisfy them”. In his now classic The Affluent Society (1958), he argues famously and persuasively that modern capitalist production “fills a void that it has created”.

Although his arguments are mostly correct, his analysis is nonetheless partial. The main weakness of his thesis has to do with the fact that he has confounded consumerism with insatiability by linking both to capitalism. Consumerism is indeed the creation of capitalism; but insatiability is not.

The great Enlightenment phi-losopher, Immanuel Kant, is right when he perceptively argues that insatiability lies much deeper – it is part of human nature itself. In his celebrated Critique of Judge-ment, he wrote that it is not within human nature “to stop possessing and enjoying at some point and be satisfied”.

Capitalism did not create insatiability. It merely capitalises on it. While the cul-tural encouragement of insatiability is a modern phenomenon, insatiability itself is not. The Preacher, writing more than two millennia ago, testifies to this. Insatiability or covetousness is the character of fallen human nature.

The question regarding the purpose of wealth presents itself in these verses. The Bible and the Christian tradition clearly teach that money and goods are God’s provisions for our sustenance, and there-fore should not be despised. They should be received with gratitude and thanks, and managed responsibly.

There are certainly many advantages of being rich, and the Preacher lists some of them. The rich can afford to have a big family (6:3). And since there is a connec-tion between wealth and health, the rich can ensure that their health is properly taken care of (6:3). Wealth will ensure a good edu-cation for ourselves and our children (6:8). As Derek Tidball has put it, “Wealth means you can wear the right old-school tie.”

But the Bible goes a step further: be-cause these provisions are expressions of divine love, they should not be seen as ends in themselves. For the Christian, the provi-sions and material blessings that they receive from God are not just meant for sustenance. They also provide opportunities to reach out to those in need, and are therefore given to us so that we may in turn bless others. In other words, wealth should be used to serve others; abundance should be shared.

The Bible therefore makes a profound and sharp distinction between saving and hoarding. As someone has said, hoarding is the heresy of which saving is the orthodoxy! To hoard is to selfishly immobilise our wealth, while saving, according to the biblical understanding, has God-honouring goals. Because saving, according to the Bible, has the channelling of one’s resources in view, it is thus never an end in itself, but is a means to provide for the needs of others.

This principle is spelt out in Paul’s second correspondence to the Christians in Corinth: “At the present time, your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: ‘He who gathered much did not have too much and he who gathered little did not have too little.’ ” (2 Corinthians 8:15). As Gordon Keddie has put it so well, “The hoarder serves his hoard, but the biblical saver serves the Lord!”

This passage therefore emphasises the point that wealth in a sense is never neutral. This is because wealth always has a context, and its acquisition and use always presuppose a certain worldview. The Preacher stresses that when wealth becomes the ultimate end of life, when it defines life and gives it meaning, it becomes something quite sinister. Its acquisition or loss can destroy the person for whom wealth is everything.

The perspective that we bring is very important, and this applies not just to the wealthy but also to the poor. Indeed it applies to everyone, because insatiability, as we have seen, is the problem of human nature that is diseased with sin. Insatiabil-ity breeds greed, and greed is destructive for it blinds us to the welfare of others.

Greed is a form of inhuman-ity that is ultimately self-destruc-tive precisely because it destroys that which is crucial to human flourishing – trusting relationships.

In Matthew 6:19-21 Jesus puts wealth and possessions (which are in themselves good) into proper perspective when He admonishes His disciples not to store up treas-ures on earth. Notice that this is not a proscription but a prescrip-tion – earthly treasures, when un-derstood in their true value, have their place. But their value can only be perceived when they are not regarded as the ultimate, that is, the goal of life itself. Jesus exhorts His disciples to regard the spiritual treasures of heaven as the ultimate, definitive quest of their lives.

Only those who see the world from the perspective of heaven will not be enslaved by the seduction of wealth, and have the power to put insatiability at bay. Con-versely, the person who does not have the kingdom of heaven as his first priority will develop a distorting over-estimation of the significance of material prosperity and thereby come under the enslaving and dehumanising power of greed.

Dr Roland Chia, Director of the Centre for the Development of Christian Ministry at Trinity Theological College, worships at Fairfield Preaching Point in Woodlands.

ABUNDANCE SHOULD BE SHARED

‘For the Christian, the provisions and material blessings that they receive from God are not just meant for sustenance. They also provide opportunities to reach out to those in need, and are therefore given to us so that we may in turn bless others. In other words, wealth should be used to serve others; abundance should be shared.’

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