Biblical View of Poverty and Wealth

There are divergent views within the Christian community on what should be christian’s attitude to wealth and poverty. The former is a state of having many riches, while the latter is a state of lack, most especially basic necessities of life. At one extreme are those who preach a prosperity or gospel of wealth for all believers. 

According to these people, one cannot be converted and remained poor. Wealth, they say, is christian’s heritage and birthright. The extremists along this line measure spiritual or ministerial success on the degree of one’s affluence. It is regarded as a sin for a Christian to poor.

What is the Biblical View of Poverty?

At the other extreme are the conservatives who condemn wealth in all its ramifications. To them, wealth is wrong for christians. They regard wealth as an impediment to righteousness, or an obstacle to heaven. 

The extremists in this line support their views with several sayings of Jesus in the synoptic Gospels: “Woe to you that are rich, for you have received consolation. Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep” (Luke 6:24-26). “No one can serve two masters.... You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13). 

The rich man is depicted as a fool in the parable of the rich farmer (Luke12:16-21). “Delight in riches” is one of the thorns that choke out the seed of the Word (Mark 4:19). The parable of the rich man and the poor Lazarus effectively sums up Jesus’ teaching on the poor (Luke16:19-31). Finally, the harsh saying of Jesus in Mark 10:25, “It is easier for a carmel to go through the eye of a needle them for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

But a deeper and critical look at the Bible reveal the original intention of God on wealth and poverty. Poverty was not in the original plan of God for mankind. In fact it was never part of His creation. There was no metion of poverty in the creation story (Gen.1-2). Poverty came into the world simultaneously with sin. 

In other words, ther was no manifestation of sin. Poverty therefore, was a consequence of the fall of man (Gen.3). The world began to know poverty, sorrow, malnutrition, hard labour, suffering, diseases and death when man sinned against God, and consequently God’s curse (Gen.3:17-19). 

According to Damilola Olatunde, the curse has made it impossible anywhere in the world to eradicate poverty. Food insecurity, housing problem, sorrow, diseases and death would persist as long as the world exists. Jesus Christ also confirmed that poverty eradication was not possible when He said ... “the poor you always have with you...”(John12:8). All that can be done is to reduce the condition of poverty so that the living standard of the majority will be improve and standardised.

Yet,  Oral Roberts said that connecting poverty to Christianity is a man-made doctrine. To him, Christians today commonly believe that Jesus was poor, and they believe that God wants them to be poor too. This, he said, is not true. Jesus was not poor , and He wants all those who have come to believe in Him as their Lord and personal Saviour- christians – to prosper in everyway, including financially. 

As a boy, he observed how abject poverty humiliated his father who served as a minister. From that time he was sure that God did not want christians to be poor. The author showed that not only was Jesus not poor, but in several important ways He was rich. He pointed out that Jesus had a house, a treasury, a team, a door base, good clothes, provision for burial, and a new way to meet all our needs according to His riches in heaven.