Biblical View of Poverty and Wealth (Part 2)

Looking closely at the point of argument of Roberts on financial liberation from the grip of  Poverty, we could see vividly that the Jesus did not see poverty as being desirable. Rather , He used His miraclous power through the faith of the people to save, heal and bless them. Poverty was never a tool in the hand of Jesus.

His inaugural message in His home synagogue (Luke 4:16-19) and his message of ‘Abundant Life’ (John 10:10) conduct us to the fact that God wants prosperity for His people.

It is pertinent to also stress that, the Bible does not condemn wealth. “... Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the properity of His servant”(Ps.35:27).  John Avanzini also opined that poverty is not godly and certainly it is not biblical. He gave 90 Principles of Biblical Economics in order to finance the endtime harvest in God’s way. Accordingly to him, those principles if read, questioned, researched into, will consequently change one’s mentality about poverty.




On the whole, even though God wants the best for His people and take pleasure in the prosperity of His servant, christian believers are not to trust in it. Proverbs, Jeremiah, 1 Timothy and James all teach the believer should not trust in wealth but God, otherwise the wealth turns into another god (Pro.11:4&28; Jer.9:23; 1 Tim.6:17; Jas.1:11; 5:2). Wealth should be acquired and managed in a godly way.

Did the Bible encourage Poverty?

Poverty, of course, is not a friend to anybody or nation. It is an enemy of progress, success and fulfillment in life. Poverty is associated with need sorrow, hardship, sickness and death. It has the ability to assasinate a vision and frustrate a mission. It is a very chronic disease, so deadly and contagious; but unlike HIV and AIDS that is not curable, poverty can be cured, it can also be prevented.

This may appear like a goal nobody can achieve. For it is impossible anywhere in the world to eradicate poverty; the best any individual,government, even church can do is to alleviate it. Poverty is part and parcel of human existence.

From the biblical point of view, the poverty of the saints will be completely terminated only at the rapture of the saints (Rev.14:13; 21:1-5); while sinners would face stronger and eternal poverty in hell (Rev.21:8). So, we cannot talk of poverty eradication while we are still in the bodies, all that concerns us now is poverty alleviation, of which, the church needs to play a greater role.