The Uncomfortable Truth About Wealth: What Scripture Really Says About Money

We live in the wealthiest nation in history, surrounded by abundance most of humanity could never imagine. Yet when we open Scripture, we find something deeply unsettling: God seems obsessed with the poor. Jesus talks about money more than heaven. The prophets constantly cry out for justice. And the early church practiced an economic radicalism that makes most modern Christians squirm.

So how do we reconcile our comfort with Scripture's relentless call for justice?

Jesus and the Rich: An Uncomfortable Pattern

Let's start with the passages many churches avoid on Sunday mornings.

"Sell your possessions and give to the poor," Jesus says in Luke 12:33. Not "consider being generous." Not "tithe responsibly." Sell your possessions.

Then there's the rich young ruler in Mark 10. A man comes to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus looks at him with love and tells him: "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

The man walks away sad. He has great wealth.

Jesus then delivers one of his most famous lines: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Not difficult. Not challenging. Easier for a camel to pass through a needle's eye.

And perhaps most striking of all, Matthew 6:24: "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

Notice the binary. It's not "try to balance both" or "wealth is fine as long as you tithe." It's you serve either God or money—not both.

The Love of Money: The Real Issue

Here's what's crucial to understand: Jesus isn't condemning wealth itself. He's identifying the love of money as the problem. He's warning that attachment to wealth is a spiritual threat.

Consider Zacchaeus, the corrupt tax collector. When he encounters Jesus, his immediate response is redistribution: "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."

That's what repentance looked like for a wealthy man. Not just remorse—redistribution.

Or take the widow's mite in Mark 12. Rich people throw large sums into the temple treasury. A poor widow puts in two small copper coins. Jesus says she gave more than all the others. Why? Because they gave from abundance and kept most for themselves. She gave from scarcity—everything she had.

The measure wasn't the amount. It was the sacrifice.

How the Early Church Responded

If you want to see what the first Christians did with Jesus' teaching, Acts paints a stunning picture.

"All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need" (Acts 2:44-45).

Acts 4 goes even further: "There were no needy persons among them, for from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need."

No needy persons among them.

In a society with crushing poverty, followers of Jesus created a community where need was met. Nobody was left behind. This wasn't communism imposed by the state—it was voluntary, Spirit-motivated sharing. But it was radical nonetheless.

The Prosperity Gospel: A Dangerous Distortion

Today, a troubling teaching has infected many churches: the prosperity gospel. It claims God wants you wealthy, that financial abundance signals God's favor, that poverty reveals a lack of faith.

This teaching doesn't just miss the point—it inverts Jesus' actual message.

Scripture doesn't view poverty as a faith problem. It views it as a justice problem. Job's friends assumed his suffering meant he'd sinned. God told them they were wrong. Wealth doesn't equal righteousness, and poverty doesn't equal sin.

The prosperity gospel also exploits vulnerable people. Preachers with mansions and private jets tell struggling families to "sow a seed"—to send their last dollar with the promise God will multiply it. When blessing doesn't come, they're told they lacked faith. That's not gospel. That's abuse.

Stewardship, Not Ownership

Scripture doesn't condemn work or profit. Genesis shows Adam called to work before sin entered the world. Proverbs celebrates the diligent worker. Paul says those unwilling to work shouldn't eat.

The issue isn't making money. It's how we view it.

Psalm 24:1 declares: "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it." We don't own our wealth—we steward it. We manage resources on God's behalf.

Faithful stewardship means earning ethically, living responsibly, giving generously, and seeking justice. It means recognizing that generosity isn't optional charity but a spiritual discipline reflecting God's character.

As 1 John 3:17 asks pointedly: "If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?"

Beyond Individual Charity: Systemic Justice

Here's where it gets challenging. There's a difference between individual generosity and systemic justice.

Giving a homeless person $10 is good. But it doesn't address homelessness. It doesn't fix the systems creating poverty.

Scripture calls for both personal compassion and structural change. Amos 5:24 demands: "Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream." That's not individual charity—that's systemic transformation.

Proverbs 31:8-9 commands: "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy."

Biblical justice looked like the Jubilee—every fifty years, debts forgiven, land restored, debt slaves freed. God cared about systems that trapped people, not just individual hardship.

What This Means for Us

The kingdom of God operates by radically different rules than the world around us. In the world's system, you accumulate, hoard, compete. In God's kingdom, you give, share, care for the vulnerable.

For those with wealth, faithfulness means asking hard questions: How did I get this money? Is it just? Am I using these resources for God's kingdom? Am I generous in ways that actually cost me something?

For the middle class, it means distinguishing between needs and wants. Simple living doesn't mean poverty—it means intentionality, freedom from consumerism's grip, teaching children that worth isn't measured by net worth.

For those in poverty, Scripture offers more than "accept your suffering." It demands justice, insists systems change, calls the church to solidarity rather than patronizing charity.

The Call

We're constantly told that more is better—buy more, earn more, achieve more. That's the world's lie.

Jesus offers something different. He says the last are first, the poor are blessed, those who give generously are rich toward God. You can't serve both God and money.

That's radical. That's countercultural. But it's the gospel.

The question isn't whether it's sinful to be rich. The question is: What are you doing with what you have? Does money serve you, or do you serve it? Are you using your resources to advance God's kingdom and care for the vulnerable?

Because everything belongs to God. We're just stewards.

And that changes everything.