{"id":956,"date":"2010-01-24T09:33:09","date_gmt":"2010-01-24T09:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2010\/01\/new-years-resolve-jesus-and-money-part-eight.html"},"modified":"2010-01-24T09:33:09","modified_gmt":"2010-01-24T09:33:09","slug":"new-years-resolve-jesus-and-money-part-eight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/01\/new-years-resolve-jesus-and-money-part-eight.html","title":{"rendered":"New Year’s Resolve: Jesus and Money Part Eight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Thumbnail<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.brazospress.com\/Book.asp?isbn=978-1-58743-274-3<\/a><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/isbn=1587432749\/bakerbookhouseA<\/a>
<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

One of the more persistent myths about money that circulates in some Christian circles goes like this….\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Myth Five:  <\/span>‘Money is
\nthe root of all evil’ hence the nick name ‘filthy lucre’ or unrighteous
\nmammon’. Ergo, it’s better for Christians just not to get too involved with
\nfocusing on making money, if it is at best a necessary evil. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What Paul actually says in 1 Tim. 6.10 is
\nthat “the love of money <\/i>is a root of
\nall sorts of evil.”  <\/span>In other words, it is
\nthe heart attitude towards money that is being critiqued, including the sin
\ncalled greed.  <\/span>Money in itself is just a
\nmeans of exchange.  <\/span>It is no more
\ninherently evil than any other material thing God created.  <\/span>The warnings in the Bible however remind us
\nthat fallen human beings find things like money a great temptation to
\nindulgence of various kinds that are unhelpful to one’s Christian life.  <\/span>This being the case, a very cautious approach
\nto money, and the making and saving of it, is in order, with one being
\nreflective about how and why one is wanting to purchase this, that or the
\nother.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I was once watching TV while stuck in a hotel in New York, and Reverend Ike came on the TV– his subject “the lack of money is the root of all evil”.  I kid you not. The sermon went like this— ‘is money too much of a temptation for you? Let me help you with that— send it to me!  Do you find that when you have money, you spent it unwisely— well let me help you with that— send it to me to support my ministry.”  I was appalled, not merely by the blatant twisting of Scripture to say the opposite of what it says, but the brazen appeal for money based on that distortion.  Too many TV preachers and local preachers have been guilty of twisting the text in order to bring in the financial resources they need.<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

And even when we are dealing with ministers with Christian principles, they may be working with the wrong principles— take for example the ever-present exhortation to tithe.  Tithing is a practice enunciated in the OT. It is specifically connected to the Mosaic covenant, but one could as readily find the principle in other contexts as well.  And Jesus does indeed say to his fellow Jews, in particular the Pharisees, that it is fine for them to tithe dill, mint and cummin, but they should not neglect the weightier aspects of the Law when it comes to giving.   But here is the issue— Jesus is talking to those already under the Mosaic covenant. This is an inter-Jewish discussion.  Nowhere in his instructions to his fledgling disciples does he urge them to tithe.  Indeed when he talks about giving and is addressing the disciples he sets up examples of sacrificial giving, usually more than a tithe, though in the case of a poor person it could be less than a tenth.  Consider for example the story of the widow giving two lepta into the Temple treasury (Mk. 12.41-44). She gave all her liquid assets. This is not an example of tithing.  My point is simple.  Jesus inaugurated the new covenant, and with it new rules.  Tithing was not one of those rules, sacrificial giving was.  Of course the phrase sacrificial giving will mean different amounts of giving for different persons. For the rich, giving a tithe would be no sacrifice at all in most cases– it would just be a tax write-off.  For the poor giving a tenth might be financial suicide.  In other words, under the new covenant we have the duty to examine our own lives and figure out what sacrificial giving looks like— whether more or less than a tenth.
<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Ergo, it’s better for Christians just not to get too involved with focusing on making money, if it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nNew Year's Resolve: Jesus and Money Part Eight - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/01\/new-years-resolve-jesus-and-money-part-eight.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Year's Resolve: Jesus and Money Part Eight - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"http:\/\/www.brazospress.com\/Book.asp?isbn=978-1-58743-274-3 http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/isbn=1587432749\/bakerbookhouseA One of the more persistent myths about money that circulates in some Christian circles goes like this…. 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He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. 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