“The radical abundance Jesus invites us into is the economy of a shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. It is the interruption of every economic system because it refuses the law of scarcity and insists that the impossible can happen. God’s people can survive for forty years on bread that falls out of the sky. Five thousand people can eat their fill and still have leftovers from a meal of two fish and five loaves of bread. God’s economy is not a new system to be established in the world. It is, instead, the fundamental truth of the universe. It is the miracle that keeps us all alive, despite our rebellion against God and selfishness in relating to one another.
God’s abundant life is not success as the world defines it. It doesn’t mean God wants you to live in a mansion on the hill. Such extravagance is far less than what God desires for every person–a restored relationship with our Father and the family that gathers around his welcome table. The abundant life Jesus offers is freedom from the poverty that says some people are worthless and freedom from the wealth that tempts others to forget God. Beneath the illusions of the power called money, this is our deepest hunger: to know we are loved unconditionally and to know our neighbors in light of that love.”
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove in God’s Economy () 50-51.
In the Greek NT, the term “oikonomia” only appears three times: 1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 1:9-10; and, Eph. 3:8-10. It can be translated as God’s “economy, plan, or divine order of things.” From these texts, we learn that it is rooted in Christ; it is the opposite of the world’s system; and, it functions through the church.
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove opens our eyes to see the divine order of things: life in God’s economy is one of abundance and love in relationship to the Father and all are welcome. All of us! I pray this inspires each of us today not to settle for the life money offers but to take hold of “real” life in God (1 Tim 6:19).