Poverty
“It’s no shame to be poor, and besides the salesmen leave you alone.” “Oh”, some will say, “so there is an upside to being poor!” There is indeed.
Speaking of Christ, the Apostle Paul wrote, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Prior to coming to dwell among men, God said through Haggai, that the earth’s silver and gold were His. Similarly, David said that the earth and everything that is in it, including each of us, is God’s. And Christ became poor by giving all that great wealth up, so that we, His possession, might be made rich.
When a potential disciple told Jesus that he would follow Him wherever He went, Christ replied: “And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head’” (Luke 9:58). In His adult life, He had no home to call His own. Then, at the end of His life, He affirmed that fact. “Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother!’ And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home” (John 19:27). Through the course of His life, Christ’s poverty was intended to be our riches. His life’s example was that we learn to deny ourselves in order to be empowered to do great good for others.
Do we have to live in physical poverty to do that? No, but we need understanding. “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:10). Money is a necessary part of living life, but to love it is a curse that can swell the mind with pride and separate us from God. The love of money can, in fact, rob us of the riches that Christ died to give us.
There are far more important things to be obtained in life than physical wealth. Christ said, “…but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:20–21). We lay up treasures in heaven by becoming like Christ and our Father who currently reside there. Through humility we learn to replace self-love with outgoing love for others! These are the riches Christ died to give us.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).
Double blessing: There will not be any soliciting salesman there either!
Marshall Stiver
