- Money is a tool that can be used for great good or great evil.
- John Wesley's 3 simple rules on money: Gain all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can.
- Money has the ability to hold us in its grp. The more we have, the more we desire. It can also cause irrationality.
- Matthew 6:24 (No one can serve 2 masters...)
- In today's theological world, there are two extreme views of money that we have to hold in tension.
1. Poverty Theology - essentially a reaction against materialism. It upholds a simple lifestyle and abhors extravagance. It is a strong advocate of ministering to the poor and needy. However, it tends to impose a degree of guilt on those who are blessed with wealth and affluence.
2. Prosperity Theology - focuses on the blessings that come with the virtue of giving. It strongly advocates tithing and the principle of "sowing and reaping". People who espouse this claim their right to be blessed in proportion to their capacity to give. When taken to the extreme, it tends to promote a consumer lifestyle and does not provide space for a Christian to be in lack. It is a theology not robust enough to take in the spirit of sacrifice portrayed through the Cross or the divine call to a life of simplicity.
- The theology that provides a pivot to hold these two extreme views in tension is the theology of stewardship. This view is built on the foundation that God is the owner and controller of all things. What we possess as Christians is a privilege rather than a right. We are simply stewards entrusted with resources, which include our time, talents, treasures and territory. We have to manage all of the above faithfully and wisely, according to His will.
- The true measure of godly success is not based on the amount of wealth we accumulate, but rather how faithful we have been in administering with wisdom what God has entrusted to us; be it little or much.
- Our goal is to hear the Father say to us, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"
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