Now, the problem here is not that this man’s business prospered. It’s almost inevitable that gifted, hard-working business people with integrity are going to run businesses that prosper. By and large, they’re going to be successful. They’re going to make a lot of money.
That’s not what Jesus condemned here, as though he would say, “You know, if you’re good at what you do, you should stop doing it.” That’s not the way Jesus dealt with things.
The problem was the bigger and bigger barns. The problem was accumulation accompanied by — I say accompanied by because it could be both cause or effect — a sense of self-reliant, self-satisfied ease in this world as though the next world, or the world in need over there (in who knows what neighborhood), don’t really matter to me.
Jesus correlates excessive accumulation with the place where your heart is resting: “Where your treasure is, there’s your heart” (see Matthew 6:21).
If it’s not evil to be successful in business, but it is evil to accumulate and accumulate and accumulate because of your sense of needed security, your pride, your indifference to the world, and your indifference to coming judgment, then the implication would be that something else should be done with the proceeds from all that God-given success.
Let’s turn to 1 Timothy 6 and see what he says.
Using Christ to Get Rich
Paul says, “Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content” (1 Timothy 6:6–8). This is the kind of witness which may attract the world because it’s unusual.
“If we have food and clothing, we’ll be content. Christ has made an incredible future for us and provides all our needs.”
This would cause the world to ask, in the words of Peter, “What’s the reason for the hope that is in you?” (see 1 Peter 3:15). They will ask that because they can see that our hope is not based on what they base their hopes on — getting richer and richer and richer. That’s why they say, “What’s the reason for the hope that is in you? You seem to be content with food and clothing, and you’re somehow making yourselves a conduit of extraordinary generosity.”
