Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 1 Timothy 6:9
“Despise riches, if you would have riches. If you would be truly rich, become poor. For such are the paradoxes of God. He would not have you rich from your own care, but from His grace. Leave these things to Me, He says; make spiritual things your concern, that you may know My power [cf. Colossians 3:2]. Flee from that yoke of slavery, which riches impose. As long as you cleave to them, you are poor. When you despise them, you are doubly rich, in that such things shall flow in upon you from every side, and in that you shall want none of those things, which the multitude want. For not to possess much, but to need little, is to be rich indeed.”
John Chrysostom (347-407) in Homilies on First Timothy 11.
Last night Jenni and I got to a Colorado Rockies baseball game with Paul and Marj Lewan. They are truly rich people because they don’t let riches stay with them. With openhanded generosity they are “doubly rich” people who joyfully serve as conduits of God’s material and spiritual blessings.
Chrysostom is spot on when he depicts the handling of money as one of the “paradoxes of God” as those who chase after it, lose everything. Those who want to possess it end up empty, while those who “make spiritual things” their concern end up truly rich.
How can you grow in your generosity journey? Find people who have the right perspective on this paradox. Spend time with them. They “know” God’s power by experience. Riches don’t secure our life, they seek to enslave them. Carve out time with truly rich people who “need little” and you will begin to understand.