Precious and Worthless
Precious and Worthless
"Extract the precious from the worthless." (Jeremiah 15.19)
"Who can make the clean out of the unclean? No one!" (Job 14.4)
I dreamt recently that I was in a church where a paten (communion bread plate) holding consecrated wafers and copper coins had dropped onto the floor. I was anxious to gather up the communion wafers and put them in a safe place. The coins were left to lie on the floor.
In recent years I have happily taken part in a modest and unfinished reformation of the Church's thinking about and practical handling of money. Chief in this has been the restoration of Biblical giving ... especially the personal tithe (10th), free will offerings, and care for the poor. But many (especially Christian leaders!) have pressed this important recalibration beyond God's parameters and created (primarily for themselves) a theology of "conspicuous wealth". This distortion of the Gospel in fact has everything to do with getting, and very little to do with giving. It ties personal wealth to righteousness and (foolishly and vainly) attempts to relate the size of one's bank balance, house and car, to personal standing and favour with God. (Out of the way Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa!)
In the past I have unremittingly waged "war" on those Christians who, once they have carefully furnished all of their private needs, have set about enforcing their own code of mean-spiritedness and poverty-thinking upon the Church; most especially on their leaders who they view as mere employees.
But equally abhorrent to me is the current bout of heretical teaching concerning money, which so dangerously mingles the holy and unholy. Money is not holy. And money employed beyond the reach of the Bible's God-ordained proscriptions is unholy. Hence the completely unequivocal verdict,
"If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all the evils and some by longing (craving) for it have wandered (been seduced) away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang (spiked themselves on many thorny griefs). But flee from these things, you man of God; and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness." (1 Timothy 6.8-11)
"An overseer (elder or bishop), then, must be...free from the love of money." (1 Timothy 3.2-3)
I believe in that prosperity which is holy. And you are prosperous along these lines when you really know that God is taking care of you. That is without a doubt the apostolic definition,
"I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need." (Philippians 4.11-12)
Believe me when I say that I really do want you to prosper. But also believe me, that I do not want to see a warped view of material prosperity jeopardising your spiritual wellbeing, which is manifestly more important than anything else. And the two are powerfully (and dangerously) inter-related,
"If you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?" (Luke 16.11)
If the way you view and handle finance is off-beam, why do you think that God will trust you with His Spirit's anointing, gifts and mantles? It is of the greatest interest to me, that very often in church situations where "conspicuous wealth" is idolised, leaders view "their" ministries as a way of enlarging their own bank balances and pursuing self-centred lifestyles. This raises the plain and brutal question of what the true force and power is behind the "signs, wonders and miracles" which might seem to attend those ministries? If their "theology" indicates a lack of trustworthiness concerning cash, are they in fact in possession of the "true riches" at all?
"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'" (Matthew 7.22-23)
I believe that this dream indicates that it's now time for a genuine and radical separation of the sacred and the profane in God's House...especially in the Western Church. By-and-large we have trivialised Biblical morality. We've chosen convenient "hot" issues to go to war over, gone on worshipping success and wealth, and blithely ignored the Scripture's commands to take care of the poor and to labour for justice for everyone in our society.
"What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?...Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow." (Isaiah 1. 11 and 16-17)
Today we are not far from Israel's condition in the days of the prophet Ezekiel, and therefore (in spite of the cheerful spinning of "seeker friendly" gurus) we are in fact far from God,
"Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the clean and the unclean; and they hide their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Her princes within her are like wolves tearing the prey, by shedding blood and destroying lives in order to get dishonest gain. Her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeking false visions and divining lies for them, saying, 'Thus says the Lord,' when the Lord has not spoken." (Ezekiel 22.26-28)
