Tag: Wealth

The Content Ambitious Man: Reconciling Faith and Ambition

I. Introduction


A. The Average Religious Guy Wants to Convice you That Amibtion and Faith are opposing forces.

The only problem is that this philosophy is dead wrong. The average person looking to place faith and ambition in opposition is just looking for an excuse to justify his personal failures.

“If I’m not successful and you are, the only reason is because I’m more spiritual than you are! You must be really worldly to have amassed all that worldly success”.

Just like these men do when they purport the Poverty Gospel, they must demonize ambition and worldly success as well.

Their only choice to make themselves feel better is to make the issue of success a moral one. The fastest way for religious people to claim the high ground is to take an amoral position and convert it into a moral one.

By doing so they make their necessity a virtue.

content ambitious

B. People are more successful now than ever.

Even people who are “failures” are more successful than people have ever been in history, financially speaking. They may not have the drive or personal success, but they have money that civilizations past could only dream of.

This is just like the poverty gospel where even the “poor” have more material wealth than the wealthy would have had just a few hundred years ago, let alone when the Bible was being written.

There is no room for anyone to babble on when it comes to success, failure, and ambition. Even people with no ambition have luxuries that the hardest-working businessmen couldn’t have dreamed of in centuries past.


C. Thesis statement: Contrary to the false philosophy of the poverty gospel, contentment, and ambition are not mutually exclusive but rather complement each other.

Colossians 3:23 is the key biblical text supporting this idea.

II. Understanding the False Philosophy of the Poverty Gospel

A. You already know what the poverty gospel is. It’s the envious idea that people who have wealth are automatically evil. It has no rationality behind it, or any validity in reality, but nevertheless, it is popular in religious circles. Including the religions of environmentalism and socialism.

Religious people desperately need wealth and faith to be opposing forces so that they can justify their lack of wealth to themselves.

But it’s all relative – again reflect on centuries past and you will see the poor today have unimaginable luxuries compared to the people of the past.


B. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, and Joseph – Content Ambitious Men

The Bible describes Abraham as a man rich in livestock silver and gold [Gen 13:2].

Now is Abraham evil because of his wealth?
Is he a bad guy because he amassed possessions in this material world?

No, we know that is not the case. We know it is possible to be Spiritual and wealthy at the same time. The two are not opposed. And Abraham’s is a great example of that.

What about Isaac [Gen 26:12-13]? He followed in his father’s footsteps and became so wealthy that he was the envy of the Land. Was this man materialistic and evil because he amassed so much wealth and possessions that he made other people feel bad? He hurt their feelings with how successful he is, but he would still be righteous.

Jacob followed the example of his father and his father before him [Gen 30:43]. Amassing possessions to the point of “excessive wealth”.

Did that possession make him evil? No.
Was he able to be righteous despite wealth? Absolutely.

Perhaps the most striking example is Job. This is a man whose story opens with an outline of his possessions, and of his character. Here is a man whose character is made more important because of his wealth. He is more impressive because despite having more money than everyone around him, he is still a righteous and just man.

Though He would lose all these possessions, he would maintain God as his priority. He never lost focus on God because he was a righteous man. And he was rewarded with double the possessions that he had before.

The faith of each of these men is not negative because of their wealth, but rather it is made more impressive.

Almost anyone can be righteous while they are poor. Give them a little money or a little power and they will show you who they truly are.

III. The Essence of Colossians 3:23: “Doing All as Unto the Lord”


A. Colossians 2:23 tells us clearly and succinctly that the attitude we should have while working is that we are actually working for the Lord.

This mentality helps us to maintain integrity in work. We might steal from our fellow man, but would we steal from Christ?

Additionally, it gives us permission to work with intensity and work to be successful.

If you were to work as if you were working for God and not your “stupid boss”, wouldn’t you be more successful? I would argue that you would be very successful at least within your own character.


B. By working for the Lord, you may start to find contentment in life.

Your job may be boring, and your co-workers may be annoying, but what your hands have found to do can be something that you honor God by doing.


C. Colossians 3:23 dispels the popular myth that if I’m working hard in the material world, I must be worldly.

No, we have a biblical admonition to work hard in the secular workplace. Therefore faith and ambition cannot be opposed.

IV. The Complementary Nature of Contentment and Ambition


A. Many have difficulty because their ambition overrides their ability to have peace.

They are so hungry to be successful that they cannot be peaceful anymore. I have been in that boat many times, so I understand the argument.

But since there is a biblical admonition to work and provide valuable service, and there is also a biblical admonition to be content, we know that both must be true.

God would not ask people to do things that are impossible or mutually exclusive. Therefore in some way, it must be possible to be content and ambitious.

When used correctly, ambition and contentment can have a symbiotic relationship, but it all depends on your mentality.

Attitude is always the key.

The key is that both your contentment and your ambition must exist in the present moment.

When you look into the future constantly or look constantly outside yourself at what you don’t have, you will find it hard to be content.

Also if you are constantly focused on the outcome of your ambition, it will be difficult to be content.

Rather you need to be ambitious for the present moment. Release your need to control the outcome, or the results, of your ambition.

When ambition exists right now, it is powerful. When I become ambitious for the present moment I can concentrate on the work right in front of me. And I can focus on doing the best I can right now. That is present-focused ambition.

And this present focus creates peace. Living in the past or present creates anxiety. But anxiety has a hard time living in the present.

When my goal is to work for the Lord and not for men, but I am content no matter the final results of my work – I am a content ambitious man.

I love goals and I am chasing outcomes in my life. So in no way am I suggesting you not have goals, plans, or things you are pursuing. But what you must do is what the ship captain does. He pulls out his map, marks the port he is sailing to, puts the map away, and sets sail, focusing on the process of sailing rather than an obsession with the port he is sailing to.

So be sure to have goals, but once you set your goals, put them away. Glance at them from time to time to check progress and course correct if you are going the wrong way. But do not obsess over how long it is taking to get there or how difficult it is. You must exist in the present.

The way to be the content ambitious man is to ground your ambition and contentment in the present moment.

Be ambitious for “the now”.

Concentrate that focus on the present and let go of your need to control the outcome. Trying to control the results is a surefire way to create anxiety in your life.

Where contentment provides peace amidst challenges, and ambition drives growth and progress.

V. Contentment: A Foundation for Healthy Ambition

Contentment is “present-oriented”. You are content when you look at what you have right now and are at peace with it. You are not looking outside yourself and generating envy for what you don’t have. You simply have peace with what you do have.

Contentment, therefore, is the foundation for ambition. As you ground yourself in the present to be content, you then. Have a good starting point to “leash” your ambition. Not that you are limiting yourself, setting small goals, or avoiding challenges and work – but you “leash” your ambition to the present. That will give you greater peace.

If you are struggling with contentment it could be because you are missing out on gratitude. A simple but effective technique to work on this is to make a gratitude list. You’ve likely heard about that a million times, and it almost seems silly to talk about, but for greater contentment, count your blessings – have gratitude. We sing the hymn “Count your many blessings“, but how few of us do this?

The gratitude list brings your blessings into your awareness. We forget about everything we have because it falls out of our awareness and we become accustomed to it. But activate your attention spotlight and point it at your blessings and you will realize how well off you are.

B. Without grounding in the present moment, ambition will be hollow.

Has nothing to control it, and it will run wild. You will become obsessed with outcomes and rob yourself of the pleasure of the process.

Many make the mistake of thinking that if they are content and thankful for what they have, they will become less hard-working and less ambitious. That will only happen if your ambition is future-oriented. Turn the fiery focus of your ambition to the present. Align it with the now, and you will have the same burning drive you have always had, and it will be directed into a moment that brings you greater peace – the present moment.

Ambition that is future-oriented, and that is detached from the present moment will create unnecessary pain through greed. There is nothing wrong with working to gain material things. But without gratitude or a present focus, it becomes a hollow obsession that drains the joy from the process

VI. Ambition: An Expression of Faith


Ambition, when aligned with God’s statutes for wealth management, becomes an expression of faith and obedience through proper stewardship of talents and resources. Faith is action-based. Taking action in the direction of our goals does not mean we lack faith in God to provide for us. That is the type of mentality that results from perverting the teachings of the Bible.


God has always expected His people to take action. Each man is personally responsible for his own life and must act according to [Ezk. 18:20] This applies in every avenue of man’s walk: from religion to profession, to health, to finance.

A Man’s task is to row his own boat without expecting God to do all the heavy lifting.

Conclusion & Key Takeaways

The content-ambitious man exists. It is possible to be both content and ambitious at the same time.

  1. Misconception of Faith and Ambition: Some suggest faith and ambition oppose each other, attributing success to spirituality over worldly achievement. This is a fallacy used to justify personal failures.
  2. Success: Relative and Multifaceted: Even “failures” today possess more material wealth than historical civilizations. The poverty gospel notion and demonizing ambition are attempts to morally justify the lack of success.
  3. Biblical Examples: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, and Joseph amassed wealth without compromising their righteousness. Their faith and abundance coexisted, showcasing that spirituality and material success aren’t mutually exclusive.
  4. Colossians 3:23: Encourages working for the Lord, promoting integrity, intensity, and permission for ambition in the secular world. This dispels the myth that striving for success in the material realm equates to worldliness.
  5. Contentment and Ambition Synergy: Balancing ambition and contentment is possible. Grounding ambition in the present moment fosters peace. Being present-focused on ambition while releasing the need to control outcomes cultivates content ambition.
  6. Contentment as Foundation: Contentment, rooted in gratitude and present awareness, acts as the base for healthy ambition. A gratitude list can enhance contentment by highlighting one’s blessings.
  7. Ambition Aligned with Faith: Ambition, when guided by biblical principles of stewardship and faith, aligns with proper wealth management. It expresses obedience through action while acknowledging personal responsibility.
  8. Taking Personal Responsibility: Faith doesn’t absolve individuals from taking action in their lives. Man is accountable and must actively engage in all aspects of life, including religion, profession, health, and finance.

“If you Want to Know What God Thinks About Money…”

“If you want to know what God thinks about money…Just look at who He gives it to.”

Do you mean like Job (Job 1), Abraham (Genesis 13:2), Isaac (Genesis 26), Jabob (Genesis 30), and Solomon (1 Kings 10:23)?

This statement comes from yet another one of the misconceptions that religious people have about wealth and money in general. But this ignorance is not limited to the religious. In fact, if someone does not have a lot of money, you can expect them to make statements like this. It is usually a symptom of envy. These people have no wealth, so the best they can do is berate those who do.

We are already aware of the fact that many religious people will try to conflate virtue and poverty by suggesting that the reason they are poor and not rich is because they are “spiritually rich” and “not materialistic or greedy.



As has been previously stated, it is extremely judgmental to suggest that just because someone is wealthy, then they are automatically materialistic or greedy. Wealth is just a numerical representation of how much value one has provided to society. A specific level of wealth is not equal to greed; a person’s attitude about wealth is what determines greed. There are plenty of greedy poor people and generous, wealthy religious people.

Jesus clearly taught that it is easy for people to become materialistic (Matthew 19:24), but the reason we have the old testament examples of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, and Solomon is to show that it is possible to be righteous and rich at the same time. That does not mean anyone is guaranteed wealth in life, but it is available for them if they are willing to work for it.

If you really want to know what God thinks about money, look at who He doesn’t give it to.

He does not give it those who whose faith would be damaged by it. This is the striking lesson of those old testament examples. These are men who not only were righteous, but who managed to be righteous while being incredibly wealthy. That is not the lesson you hear very often in the church.

“But I thought if you had any money it means you were focused on the things of this world. How is this possible?”

Abraham, the father of the faithful, was a man who had such great spiritual wealth that God deemed him worthy of managing great physical wealth. Many religious people have improper attitudes about money. the second they come into any kind of wealth they think improperly about it. If you are going to think right about God, it begins with thinking right about money. The two are not unrelated.

We need money to survive, but we are required to be separate from this world.

Developing a level of mental detachment from possessions is key. We have to be grateful for what we are given and yet be unattached to it. Even secular men like the stoics practiced similar mental exercises.

God thinks


You must avoid the class warfare that the church has managed to drag itself into. Poor people despise the rich thinking they are worldly. Some of the rich look down on the poor for being lazy (which some of them are). What you must do is be completely unattached to these philosophies. Recognize money for what it is: a useful tool and a metric of value. Your worth to the marketplace is determined by your income. Not your value as a person or as a creation of God. But your value to society is what determines your income. If you do not like your income, you need to adjust how society values you.

God thinks that money is a tool and a part of life.

There is no way around this fact. The Bible teaches more lessons about money than about any other subject matter. So if you want to know what God thinks about something, you might want to see what He has said. If His Word is gospel, you might consider listening to it.

If you want to know what God thinks about money, read the Bible.

But that is something that many Christians, including many of the poor are not doing. Most of their time is occupied with keeping up with the secular interests of this world. Many Christians simply lack the basic Biblical knowledge necessary to allow them to think right about money. If you are in this habit, you need to break free of it.

If you wanted a masterclass on money management, look to the Proverbs. These passages contain so many timeless truths that even secular people use them. This may be the most marketable book of the Bible, because there are so many simple, easily applicable and non-ethereal teachings in it.

If you want to know what God thinks about money, then learn about money.

Too many Christians lack not only biblical knowledge but also financial knowledge. The financial education of the majority of people in the world is dismal. It is even worse than their biblical education. To better understand what God thinks about money you need to increase your financial education. you also need multiple sources of this.

If you typically listen to hyper-conservative thinkers (monetarily speaking) like Dave Ramsey, then expand your information intake slightly. You do not have to change your actions, just increase your knowledge. Ty Ramit Sethi who wrote the book, “I Will Teach You To Be Rich“. Also, there is Tony Robbins who wrote “Money: Master the Game“. And any of the Rich Dad Poor Dad series of books are fantastic. Each of these will expand your thinking.

Never allow yourself to be limited or bogged down by one single philosophy. You need to be able to shift between ideas. If you are too rigid in any endeavor in life, you risk being shattered.

Give these ideas a thought.

How to Have Character and Riches

A root principle of Spartan Christianity is the idea that your poverty does not make you righteous, and similarly, you can be wealthy and still be of good character. This was the case for Abraham (Genesis 13:2) and Job (Job 1), you can make it the case for you. Riches do not determine spirituality, but character does.

Please understand that this is not a health-wealth gospel, but simply a refutation of the “Riches = Materialism/worldliness” gospel, which is just as pervasive and just as damaging to men.

Riches

Here is a principle passage for the proper management of riches:

Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

1 Timothy 6:17-19

If you have headings in your bible you may find that it says, “instructions to the rich.” This line was likely directed at men who were already rich in possessions and were converted to Christianity at a later time. However, this passage undoubtedly can apply to people who are in the process of gaining riches as well. Even though Paul tells us not to be greedy or love money in previous verses of 1 Timothy 6, the fact of the matter is people are going to have wealth, so what they need to know is how to manage it.

Though men should not be greedy, they should still be ambitious. And ambition tends to be followed by riches. Given that many men will achieve success and riches, they should train their character so they can handle that wealth. This can be a difficult balance – ambition versus contentment.

This passage gives four brief points that outline how individuals with wealth should behave:

  1. Do good
  2. Be rich in good works
  3. Ready to give
  4. Willing to share

Technically you could lump these into two groups based on similarity:

1. Do good + be rich in good works.
2. Ready to give + Be willing to share.

This is as simple as it gets. If you happen to have riches, supplement that with good works. Be rich in good works. Engage in masculine behavior (which just so happens to be Christian behavior).

In addition to that, be willing to share those riches. Understand that you are a manager of material possessions while on earth so do good with them by helping those in need and using wise generosity.

The management of riches can also be supplemented with 1 John 3:17:

“But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?”

1 John 3:17

It is interesting to note that one of the ways an individual who just so happens to have riches can demonstrate godly love is by helping a brother (a fellow member of the church) who is in need. This idea certainly goes against the notion that “he who has wealth is worldly“. In reality, he who has wealth can help him who is in need. He who does not have wealth can help no one.

These five parts together are the foundational principles of how to have riches and still be a man of character simultaneously. The majority of the difficulty will come from dealing with self-righteous church members who believe that the only reasons they are not rich as well is because they are “super spiritual and not focused on worldly possessions“.

Do not place your riches above God.

That is the philosophy that is encapsulated in the five notes we mentioned before. If you are not placing your wealth above God, then you will naturally do good, be rich in good works, be willing to share, ready to give, and help needy brothers. You understand that the focus in this life is not on the material, but on the spiritual. You understand that the earth is temporary but the character is forever.

Begin to work on your character and it will not matter if you made 10 dollars or one-hundred million, you will be the same man. To be constant in our philosophy and behavior despite changing circumstances is the key.

Greed

“A greedy man stirs up strife, but the one who trusts in the Lord will be enriched.”

Proverbs 28:25

“But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

1 Timothy 6:9-10

“One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.”

Proverbs 11:24

What is it that men want in this life? Many Christian men will lie to you about the “virtue” they are pursuing when they are really only interested in money; but because they have no money, they pretend like they are spiritual. They will tell you this world is not about the material items we possess or the money we make, yet they will go out the very next day and burn themselves into the ground trying to make tremendous amounts of money. Now there is nothing wrong with making a lot of money or working hard to pile up resources, the problem arrives when money becomes the sole focus of our lives or when we trust in money to save us.

We need to have more than just the desire for material wealth because we will find it hard to focus on God at the same time. This is what Christ meant when He said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:24).

Greed is addictive because making money feels good, buying items feels good, and the idea of not having to work a job we hate anymore because we saved enough money or developed enough income streams sounds incredible.

Anyone who tells you money cannot buy you happiness is stupid. For most people, quitting their job would bring happiness, which could be brought about by the acquisition of enough funds. Everything that you enjoy in life, more of it can be acquired with more money. It is delusional to think otherwise. While money itself does not bring you happiness, money can be used to acquire whatever makes you happy, including free time. The only people telling you that money will not make you happy are people in the church with no money or superbly wealthy people who have not worked through the great existential questions of life. 

Even if you believe money can’t buy happiness, you cannot deny that poverty cannot buy anything. 

Contrary to what you hear in the church, it is possible to be wealthy and not greedy. All you have to do is avoid fixation on money and resist the urge to place wealth above God.

Greed itself is not limited to money. Man can be greedy for power, pleasure and even food. Greed is an intense desire or craving for something. The problem is that we are typically desiring and pursuing something worldly while forgetting about God. This is a difficult principle because we often do not “emotionally want” God nor do we want to do what He says, and for this reason we have all participated in greed in one form or another. This greed must be eliminated from our life.

Mantra

Correct the mind to correct the actions. I am avoiding Greed in my Life.

greed

Application

Get to the root of your greed. Ask yourself multiple times why you want the items you are intensely desiring, because often the first answer does not go all the way to the root of the problem. Many people are greedy for money not because they are evil, but because they have great insecurity after being raised poor, or they are terrified of being bankrupt and on the streets. 

Men fear the results of what will happen if they do not have money, so they pursue wealth with a burning passion.

Many men also want money because they know it will give them access to more women. These are cases of a faith problem (deep), not a greed problem (superficial). We lack faith in God to provide us with what we need, so we become greedy and pursue wealth instead. 

Some men have damaged egos due to being raised with few possessions, so they chase money to fill the void and protect their ego from that intense level of shame. Perhaps we hate mindless jobs with a passion and we hate the people we work with, so, ironically, we work extremely hard so we can get to the point where we can stop working. Our hatred of our fellow man and our distaste for the work of our hands drives us to acquire wealth so we can end our career and live with freedom. The underlying problems with greed are often not directly related to greed itself. 

Once you isolate your specific problem, lay your ax to the root of the tree.

Start correcting the deep faith problems that have resulted in a greedy mindset or behavior. You have to increase your level of trust in God.  

Never expect overnight results in any endeavor of personal change. All you can do is make one small improvement at a time, and eventually those will add up to make the difference in your life. Start by correcting your thoughts. Every change begins in your mind, in the seat of your being. Correct the fallacies of the mind and you will see an accompanying change in actions. 

You must separate the idea of acquiring wealth from your ego or fear, because fear is the emotion that drives you on and perpetuates your irrational way of thinking. Cast aside those emotions and build wealth not because you are greedy, but because you have shown yourself worthy of being entrusted with riches. 

Tactic I – Reclaim Rationality

  1. Detach from yourself and all your emotions.
  2. View wealth and possessions like the amoral tools they are.
  3. Ask yourself what it is you truly want in life.
  4. Lay out concrete steps to achieve your goal and do so without becoming emotional.
  5. Remain unemotional and remind yourself constantly that God is in command of the world. But never use that as an excuse to avoid working hard.

Lay the axe to the root. 

Purge your mind of evil. 

Be at peace within your soul. 

Kill your ego. 

Conduct yourself like a man.

Using Virtue to Justify Poverty

By equating poorness with righteousness, people can use justify their poverty by turning it into a virtue.

“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.”

Proverbs 13:22

“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.”

Proverbs 22:7

“You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”

Deuteronomy 8:18

“I’m only poor because I’m not greedy or materialistic”. “I choose to focus on God rather than on material wealth”. These are statements that are made by poor Christians attempting to justify their poverty by turning it into a virtue. This is one of the most disgusting things you see in the church today. Anti-wealth ideology rapidly propels young men away from the church, because weak religious individuals make it seem that there is no way to be successful financially and be a Christian, because allegedly all “good” Christians are financially broke people filled with emotionalism. 

Look up the most popular verses about money or wealth. The first results are never the Proverbs that teach you principles for how to properly manage your money, instead it is always the verses telling us about the evil of the world or the “bad things” money can do to a Christian. Undoubtedly those articles were written by people with no money. Any time men try to discourage behavior by saying “bad things will happen to you if you do this”, rest assured that they have no logic or reasoning behind what they are saying and can only resort to fear mongering and other assorted scare tactics. 

Let’s take a look at a few of the common myths propagated by not so well-meaning Christians:

Myth #1: “I’m a good person because I have no money. Obviously I’m not focused on the material things of this world and that is why I have no money”.

Myth Rebuttal #1: Your poverty does not magically make you virtuous. Religious people who say, “I would rather be spiritual than have wealth” are the same people who say “I would rather have brains than brawn”. The only people who make such statements have neither.

Great faith and great wealth are not mutually exclusive. 

Being poor does not automatically make you a good Christian. Ever heard of Abraham? He was very wealthy (Genesis 13:2). Ever heard of Job? He was tremendously wealthy, and was made twice as wealthy after his trials (Job 1 & 42). In fact, his character is even more impressive because of the way he acted with his wealth. Because it’s one thing to have good character and be broke, it is another thing entirely to have good character while being the richest man in the land. The same principles applies to pride: it is easy to be humble when you are a loser, it is much more difficult to be humble when you are a champion.

Abraham and Job were two of the most righteous men to walk the face of the earth, and they had enough earthly possessions to last multiple lifetimes. This idea in the church that being poor is something that is good and reflects good human qualities is not only stupid, it is immoral because it is a bald-faced, anti-Biblical lie.  

Myth #2: “I don’t have money because I’m simply not a greedy person”.

Myth Rebuttal #2: Being poor doesn’t mean that you are not greedy for material wealth. There are plenty of poor people who are greedy for money and plenty of rich who are also greedy for money. Simply possessing money does not confer greediness. Just because a man is poor does not exempt him from the sin of greed. It’s not the amount of money in the bank that makes someone greedy, it is their view and attitude towards money. 

Furthermore, of all the people in the world to have money, shouldn’t the Christian be the one to possess it? Wouldn’t money be better used in the hands of the righteous than in the hands of the worldly? If so, why are Christians so adamant about remaining in poverty, and justifying it by calling it “virtuous”?

Myth #3: “I don’t have money because I followed my passion. You know, I was just called by the spirit to go into youth ministry, so I did. And that is the reason I am poor, because I focus on spiritual matters in my work”.

Myth Rebuttal #3: The reason you think you don’t have money and the real reason you don’t have money are very different. You have no money because you know nothing about money and refuse to work hard or do valuable work, not because you are righteous.

Sure, you may have “followed your passion” to do what you want in life, but look where that got you. Poorness is a result of the poor decisions in the critical period of youth when you decide what skills you need to develop to build a career. You listened to what your parents had to say (who themselves had no money, a reflection of their lack of knowledge about the subject of money) about going to school and getting good grades so you could be a good little cog in the wheel of business. Like a good boy you did what they said so you could earn a paycheck, rather than build a company and be the one cutting the paychecks. You studied English, history, psychology or some other useless subject in college and landed a job making barely over minimum wage and wonder where you went wrong. 

Bad decisions, not virtue, create poverty. Or maybe you fall into the camp that believes that God directly gives money to people. In which case, why hasn’t He chosen to give money to you? Perhaps because He knew you could not handle it, that you could not be faithful to Him with that much money. Such a truth would deliver a fatal blow to the idea that poverty is for the virtuous.

Myth #4: “Well Jesus had no money”.

Myth Rebuttal #4: True, but he also did nothing that you are doing. His mission and purpose were clear from the beginning of the earth, while you had to give $30,000 to a college so you could “find yourself”. Jesus wasn’t sitting around texting on a thousand dollar iphone or sleeping in on the weekends. He wasn’t sitting around gossiping with His friends or complaining about the state of the world or who the current emperor of Rome was.

If you are going to compare yourself to Jesus, you have to do so in every avenue of life. Jesus was a carpenter, are you? Jesus never did anything wrong, how about you? He worked constantly and left little time for leisure, what about you? You might say, “Those things are irrelevant to the modern Christian life”; the fact that Jesus had no money is not relevant to your life either, so don’t use it as an excuse for poverty.

Mantra

Poorness is not virtuous.

justify poverty

Application

Build wealth. Become financially literate. If your parents were poor or middle class their whole lives, they know nothing about money. If they knew anything about money they would not have remained as poor or middle class individuals. This is why you have to learn about money now and change your family tree. Invest money in assets that put money in your pocket instead of investing in liabilities that take money out of your pocket. It truly is that simple. 

You must dump the idea that poorness is synonymous with virtue, and that wealth is synonymous with greed. This is not what the Bible teaches and it is the propaganda of radical conservatives who have never made a lot of money or radical liberals who earn a handful of dollars an hour as a social worker. 

Christians should be the ones possessing the wealth of the earth, not the evil. There is nothing wrong with working hard to earn a lot of money. Nor is There anything wrong with working very little and making your money work for you. There is nothing wrong with wealth, it is all about your attitude towards your wealth. Make money. Reject radical conservative and liberal propaganda. Become wealthy. Be a Man.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Page 1 of 2
1 2