Should Christians be poor? Or in poverty?

Question 11063.

Christians and poverty is a subject on which the church has swung wildly between two errors, and both of them are still with us. One says that God wants every believer wealthy and that poverty indicates a failure of faith. The other treats poverty itself as a spiritual achievement and regards money as inherently dirty.

Scripture will not support either. It says a great deal about money, most of it uncomfortable for the comfortable, and it refuses to make either wealth or want into a badge of spiritual standing.

God never commands poverty as a general rule

There is no verse instructing all believers to be poor. Abraham was extremely wealthy, Job was restored to great wealth after his suffering, Lydia was a dealer in purple goods and used her means to host the church, and Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man who had a tomb to spare.

The rich young ruler is often cited to the contrary, but Jesus’ instruction to him was diagnostic rather than universal. He put his finger on the one thing the man would not surrender, and the man went away sorrowful because he had great possessions. The command exposed an idol.

So on the question of Christians and poverty, the New Testament does not present a vow of poverty as the mark of serious discipleship. What it presents is a radical loosening of the grip, which is a different thing and often a harder one.

Jesus did say that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God, and I have no wish to soften that. But when the disciples asked who then can be saved, his answer was that with man it is impossible but with God all things are possible. The warning is about the peril of wealth, not the merit of poverty. It is at Mark 10:25 to 27.

God never promises wealth either

The prosperity teaching that dominates parts of the church is simply not in the text. Paul ended his life with a cloak he had left at Troas and asked Timothy to bring it, and he wrote about knowing how to be brought low and how to abound. That is not the biography of a man who had unlocked a principle.

Jesus said the Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head. The apostles were, by any measure, poor. Hebrews describes believers who were destitute, afflicted and mistreated, and says of them that the world was not worthy of them.

I have written more about the errors involved in the dangers of the prosperity gospel and in whether God wants us to be wealthy, because on the question of Christians and poverty this teaching does real damage to people who are already suffering.

What Scripture actually says about the poor

God’s concern for the poor runs from the Law through the Prophets into the teaching of Jesus and the practice of the early church. The gleaning laws, the sabbath year, the prophetic denunciations of those who trample on the needy, the collection Paul organised for the saints in Jerusalem, all point the same way.

Poverty in Scripture is never treated as the fault of the poor by default. Proverbs acknowledges that some poverty comes from laziness, and it also says a great deal about the poor being oppressed and their fields being seized. Both are true and neither cancels the other.

What is never permitted is indifference. Proverbs 19:17 says that whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed. That is a startling way to describe a coin given away.

There is also the matter of how a society treats its poor. The prophets do not address the poor about their poverty. They address those with power about their treatment of the poor, which tells us where God locates the responsibility. Any discussion of Christians and poverty that only examines the habits of the poor has read half the book.

Christians and poverty, and the real danger

Paul does not say money is the root of all evils. He says the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils, and it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. The problem is located in desire, not in currency.

That is why Christians and poverty cannot be settled by looking at bank balances. A poor man can love money desperately and a rich man can hold it loosely, and neither condition is visible from the outside.

Jesus put it in terms of masters. No one can serve two masters, and you cannot serve God and money. Notice he calls money a master rather than a tool, because he understood that it does not sit quietly in a drawer waiting to be used.

Contentment is the biblical target

Paul’s own summary is that godliness with contentment is great gain, since we brought nothing into the world and cannot take anything out of it, and if we have food and clothing with these we will be content. You can read it at 1 Timothy 6:6 to 8.

That is a remarkably low bar and a remarkably high calling at the same time. Food and clothing. Most readers of this article have both and a great deal besides, which puts the question of Christians and poverty in a rather different light for the majority of us.

Contentment is not the same as having enough. It is a learned freedom from the tyranny of more, and Paul says explicitly that he learned it, in plenty and in hunger alike.

What the wealthy believer is told to do

Paul does not tell rich Christians to divest. He tells Timothy to charge them not to be haughty, not to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but on God, to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future.

That is a working instruction rather than a renunciation. Wealth is treated as a stewardship with a job attached, and the job involves other people. I have set out more of this in what biblical stewardship means.

The test is whether your money is doing anything beyond your own comfort. If a believer’s giving has never cost them a change of plan, the grip may be tighter than they think.

What the poor believer needs to hear

If you are struggling financially, your faith is not the problem and God is not withholding. That needs saying clearly, because prosperity teaching has left many believers convinced their empty account is evidence against them.

James writes that God has chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, and he is fierce about churches that show deference to the well dressed visitor. On the question of Christians and poverty, the New Testament tilts its sympathy in a direction most of our churches do not.

Ask for help if you need it. That is what the church is for, and there is no shame in it. The believers in Acts sold property to meet needs, and the person receiving was not thereby a lesser member.

It is worth adding that Christians and poverty have gone together far more often in history than Christians and comfort. The global church today is largely poor, and much of it is more spiritually alive than the wealthy churches of the West. That ought to give us pause before we assume prosperity is a sign of blessing.

Holding it all with an open hand

Where does this leave us? Not with a rule about how much a Christian may own, which Scripture pointedly declines to give, but with a set of questions about what our money is doing to us and for others.

I would add one more question. Who knows what I give? If the answer is everybody, something has gone wrong, because Jesus warned against sounding a trumpet. If the answer is nobody at all, including my own household, it may be worth checking whether the generosity is real or only intended.

Am I giving in a way that costs something? Am I anxious about money in a way that suggests it has become my security? Would my faith survive losing what I have? Those questions cut across income brackets, which is exactly why Scripture asks them rather than setting a figure.

Christians and poverty, Christians and wealth, are both situations in which a person can walk faithfully or foolishly. The circumstance is not the measure. What you do with it is.

So, now what?

Look at your giving this week rather than your income. Not what you intend to give, what actually left the account last month. That number will tell you more about where you stand than any amount of theorising about Christians and poverty.

If money is a source of fear for you, take that to God specifically and tell somebody in your church. Financial anxiety thrives in secrecy, and a great deal of it can be eased by practical help from people who would gladly give it if they knew.

And if you have plenty, find someone who has not and do something quiet about it. Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive, which is either true or it is not. What would it take for you to find out this month?

“But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.”

1 Timothy 6:6 to 7, ESV