The Dark Side of Money

Part 2

by Richard J. Foster

Storing Eternal Treasure
This is the third article in a series on generosity, one of Vineyard Boise's seven core values.

 

Our desire to resolve the problem [the apparent conflict between the light and dark side of money] has brought about two prevailing distortions. The first is that money is a sign of God’s blessing, and hence poverty is a sign of God’s displeasure. This has been turned into a religion of personal peace and prosperity: crudely stated, “Love Jesus and get rich.” Many churches are saturated with readily available gimmicks for blessedness, all the way from exact mathematical formulas (God will bless you sevenfold) to much more subtle by equally destructive forms. This distortion, of course rests upon a piece of important biblical teaching, namely the great generosity of God, but it is a distortion because it turns one aspect of the Bible’s teaching on money into the who message.

A second distortion about money is found in the prevailing view of stewardship today. Discussions of stewardship, almost without exception, view money as completely neutral and depersonalized. It is merely “a medium of exchange,” as we say. God has given us money to use, to administer, to put into service, goes the teaching. And so the emphasis is always placed upon the best use, the proper stewardship, of the resources God has entrusted to us.

What all this talk about stewardship fails to see is that money is ot just a neutral medium of exchange but a “power” with a life of its own. And very often it is a “power” that is demonic in character. As long aw we think of money in impersonal terms alone, no moral problems exist aside from the proper use of it. But when we begin to take seriously the biblical perspective that money is animated and energized by “powers,” then our relationship to money is filled with moral consequence.

Money as a Power

The New Testament teaching on money makes sense only when we see it in the context of the “principalities and powers.” … When Jesus uses the Aramaic term mammon to refer to wealth, he is giving it a personal and spiritual character. When he declares, “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt. 6:24), he is personifying mammon as a rival god. In saying this, Jesus is making it unmistakably clear that money is not some impersonal medium of exchange. Money is not something that is morally neutral, a resource to be used in good or bad ways depending solely upon our attitude toward it. Mammon is a power that seeks to dominate us… According to Jesus and all the writers of the New Testament, behind money are very real spiritual forces that energize it and give it a life of its own. Hence, money is an active agent; it is a law until itself; and it is capable of inspiring devotion.

It is the ability of money to inspire devotion that brings its dark side to the forefront. Deitrich Bonhoeffer has rightly said, “Our hearts have room only for one all-embracing devotion, and we can only cleave to one Lord.” What we must recognize is the seductive power of mammon. Money has power, spiritual power, to win our hearts. Behind our coins and dollar bills or whatever material form we choose to give to our money are spiritual forces.

It is the spiritual reality behind money that we want so badly to deny. For years I felt that Jesus was exaggerating by fixing such a huge gulf between mammon and God. Couldn’t we show how advanced we are in the Christian life by giving each his due, God and mammon? Why not be joyful children of the world just as we are joyful children of God? Aren’t the goods of the earth meant for our happiness? But the thing I failed to see, and the thing that Jesus saw so clearly, is the way in which mammon makes a bid for our hearts. Mammon asks for our allegiance in a way that sucks the milk of human kindness out of our very being.

The rich young ruler asked Jesus how he could have eternal life and received the startling reply, “Go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Matt. 19:21). The instruction makes sense only when we see that the rich young ruler’s wealth was a rival god seeking his complete devotion. And not that when this young man went away sorrowful Jesus did not run after him and suggest that he only meant it metaphorically, that all that was really required was a tithe. No, money had become an all-consuming idol, and it had to be rejected totally.

For Christ money is an idolatry we must be converted from in order to be converted to him. The rejection of the god mammon is a necessary precondition to becoming a disciple of Jesus. And in point of fact, money has many of the characteristics of a deity. It gives us security, can induce guilt, gives us freedom, gives us power and seems to be omnipresent. Most sinister of all, however, is its bid for omnipotence.

It is money’s desire of omnipotence, for all power that seems to strange, so out of place. It seems that money is not willing to rest contented in its proper place alongside other things we value. No, it must have supremacy. It must crowd out all else. That is, I say, the strange thing about money. We attach importance to it far beyond its worth. In fact, we attach ultimate importance to it. It is tremendously instructive to stand back and observe the frantic scramble of people for money. And this does not occur just among the poor and starving. Quite to the contrary – the super-wealthy, who have really nothing ot gain by more money, still seek it furiously. The middle class… continue to buy more houses than they need, to acquire more cars than they need, to have more clothes than they need. Many of us could live on half what we now receive without much serious sacrifice, yet we feel we are just barely making ends meet – and we feel this way whether we are earning $15,000 or $50,000 or $150,000.

Think of the symbols we attach to money – symbols that are unrelated to its true value. If money were only a medium of exchange, ti would make no sense at all to attach prestige to it, for example. And yet we do. We value people in relation to their income; we give people status and honor in relation to how much money they have.

These strange facts make sense only as we come to understand the spiritual reality of money. Behind money are invisible spiritual powers, powers that are seductive and deceptive, powers that demand an all-embracing devotion. It is this fact that the apostle Paul saw when he observed that “the love of money is the root of all evils” (1 Tim. 6:10). Many have rightly observed that Paul did not say “money” but “the love of money.” Given the almost universal love of money, however, they are often the same in practice.

As we come to understand better the dark side of money – its demonic tendency – we have a greater appreciation of Jesus’ radical criticism of wealth. Without this insight it would be very easy for us to make Jesus’ critical statements regarding money apply only to the dishonest rich. Certainly those who have obtained their money honestly and use it wisely are not included in his criticism – are they? But much of Jesus’ teaching cannot be confined to the dishonest wealthy, for it speaks with equal severity to those who have acquired their wealth justly. There is every indication that the rich young ruler had gained his wealth honestly (Luke 18:18-30). In the story of the rich man and Lazarus there is no hint of dishonesty related to the condemnation of the rich man (Luke 16:19-31). In the parable of the rich farmer who tore down his barns to make way for expansion, we have every indication of honesty and industry (Luke 12:16-21). We would call him prudent – Jesus called him a fool.

This radical criticism of wealth makes no sense to us at all unless we see it in the context of its spiritual reality. It is one of the principalities and powers that must be conquered and redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ before it can be usable for the greater good of the Kingdom of God.

Next week – the light side of money