Rich, Wealthy or Poor
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
As the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus is as rich as God is rich. Indeed, our Lord owns everything and possesses all power, authority, sovereignty, glory, honour, and majesty. Yet during the time Jesus was here on earth, He willingly relinquished His eternal riches and most of the privileges of His deity. Becoming poor indeed, our Lord took on the nature of a lowly and humble servant (Zechariah 9:9; 2 Corinthians 8:9). And by the time our Saviour endured the tortures of the cross for us, His earthly possessions amounted to no more than the clothes on His back that were divided up by the soldiers who crucified Him.
Sadly, today, there are many prosperity preachers who would like you to believe that Jesus was rich while here on earth and that God wants nothing more than to lavish His children with an abundance of material blessings. After all, a rich Jesus would certainly make it easier for them to persuade their flock that God wants them to be rich, too. However, a materially rich Jesus Christ is utterly incompatible with biblical truth. Even a cursory examination of the Bible should dispel any notion of our Saviour being wealthy in an earthly sense. During His public ministry, Christ and His disciples depended entirely on the hospitality of others as they ministered from town to town (Matthew 10:9-10). As Jesus told a would-be follower, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head”(Luke 9:58).
It is unfortunate, then, that this false teaching about Christ’s wealth and its concomitant “gospel of greed” has gained a foothold in churches today. As Solomon aptly taught, however, “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).
The New Testament is filled with lessons where Jesus rebukes the rich and praises the poor. He taught us to “be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). Thus, it would be a strange paradox indeed—if Jesus Christ was of the rich class of people who, as He declared, would find it difficult “to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:23).
Bible Reading
Romans 16:17-18.
Prayer
Keep me to the truth of Your Word, Father God. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.
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