The Land of the Wealthy

In Nocatee, Florida, the average household income approaches $200,000 a year. Most families own their homes, drive nice cars, take memorable vacations, and have access to top-tier education. On any given day, you’ll see families cruising in designer golf carts, headed to a luxury water park built just for them.

Welcome to a land of the wealthy.

That means I pastor at a church filled with people whom the world would consider “rich.” Many of our members are doctors, surgeons, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and investors—people who have worked hard to build their lives. Most of the people I serve live beyond necessities and can afford many luxuries. They steward significant resources compared with the rest of the world.

They also love Jesus and want to be faithful to him.

So, how does that happen? If it’s easier for a camel to thread a needle than for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24), then this requires careful biblical thinking. How do wealthy people walk faithfully with Jesus?

A Word to the Not Wealthy: Why You Should Keep Reading

Now, to all my “not wealthy” friends. I want you to keep reading.

Why? Because you are wealthy in some way. Wealth is a relative thing. It’s relative to your season of life, your community, your culture, and even your expectations. Think with me for a moment: if you have a roof over your head, food in your refrigerator, and a bed, you are living with luxuries that most of the world can only dream about.

Do not excuse yourself from the biblical teaching, warnings, and exhortations to the rich as something for “those people” out there. They are for you, too.

How To Be a Rich Christian

 All that being said, some of you reading this have been entrusted with significant wealth. You know who you are. God speaks to you specifically in several places of Scripture, and he gives you three very specific instructions about how to be a rich Christian if you want to honor Jesus with your wealth.

1. Embrace Your Role

 Paul tells Timothy to give specific instructions to those who are “rich in this present age” (1 Timothy 6:17). Lydia, a convert of the Apostle Paul, was most likely wealthy. She was a seller of “purple goods” who had enough space in her house for Paul’s entourage to stay with her (Acts 16:11-15). Abraham, David, and Solomon were rich. From the very beginning, God’s people have had “the rich” among them.

If you are a rich Christian, this means you should embrace your role as a person who has been entrusted with wealth. Recognize the stewardship that you have been given and realize that God wants you to honor him with it (Proverbs 3:9-10). Riches are not inherently sinful. God gives wealth (Proverbs 10:22). Receive this wealth as his blessing, and turn your attention to guarding against temptations and stewarding these resources well.

2. Recognize Your Temptations

Just because riches are not sinful does not mean they are not dangerous. The Bible repeatedly and carefully lays out unique temptations to people of wealth, and I want to warn you about three of them.

The first temptation is pride. Paul tells Timothy, who pastored rich Christians, to charge the wealthy to “not be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches” (1 Timothy 6:17). Wealth will tempt you to believe that your life consists in what you possess and look down on others. But the futility of riches will be seen when we are humbled by death and stand before God stripped of what we owned on earth (Luke 12:20).

The second temptation is greed. Greed is the insatiable and deceitful desire for more money. It’s a craving, a snare, and a pit (1 Timothy 6:9-10) that will ruin your life. Are you constantly wanting more? Are you always seeking one more zero at the end of your financial portfolio? Greed is summarized well by the famous story of John D. Rockefeller, who was asked by a reporter, “How much money is enough?” Rockefeller replied, “Just a little bit more.”

The third temptation is a hard heart toward God’s Word. One of the most terrifying temptations about riches is that it can choke out the Word of God. Jesus warns that one of the reasons God’s Word is not fruitful in the hearts of some is that “…the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22). Are you on guard against the deceitfulness of riches by regularly saturating your mind in God’s Word so that his truth sets your priorities about your wealth?

Rich Christian, you should know these temptations. Pray about them. Be accountable to other Christians to remain vigilant against them. Repent of any sign of these sins in your life and put on the new way that God calls you to think about your wealth.

3. Run Toward Generosity

Have you ever thought about why God gave you all this money? Why does God give you hundreds of thousands (or maybe millions!) of dollars every year? What’s the point?

Sure, he wants you to enjoy it (1 Timothy 6:17). But the fundamental reason he has given it to you is so that you can be generous and ready to share it. Paul says, “[The rich] are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share” (1 Timothy 6:18).

How do you guard against the temptations of the wealthy? You run toward generosity. You think about giving more than you think about receiving (Acts 20:35). You are eager to give (2 Corinthians 8:3-4). You are scheming for ministry (2 Corinthians 9:12-15).

The fundamental way to fight the temptations of riches is the fundamental reason God gave you the riches to begin with – generosity.

The richest person in the entire universe is the most generous person in the universe (John 3:16, 2 Corinthians 8:9). By God’s grace, may you take your wealth and be a small reflection of the most generous Giver – God himself.