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
“My mouth is not sufficient to praise you, neither am I able to conceive the care and providence which you have had for me. For I desired to gain riches, but you by a vision showed me that they are full of loss and injury to those who gain them; and I believed your revelation, and continued in the poverty of the world until you, the true riches, were revealed to me, who filled both and the rest who were worthy of you with your own riches and set free your own from care and anxiety.”
Judas Thomas a.k.a. “the Twin” (d. 72) in The Acts of Thomas 145, edited and translated by M. R. James in The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1924), updated and revised by Helen Rhee in Wealth and Poverty in Early Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2017) 30. Today marks the third of fourteen excerpts of voices from early Christianity that we will explore with Rhee’s assistance.
Church history reports that Judas Thomas, known more commonly as “doubting Thomas” to many, was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, he went on to proclaim the gospel in India until his martyrdom.
Rhee notes (xxiii): “The Acts [of Thomas] shows a particular interest in portraying Jesus as a poor one (on earth) yet a generous dispenser of true (heavenly) riches. This portrayal of Christ seems to be a natural outworking of the apostle Paul’s description of Christ in 2 Corinthians 8:9.” For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
In short, today’s testimony from Thomas begs this question: What kind of riches are you pursuing? The wrong choice results in “loss and injury” or “ruin and destruction” as the apostle Paul put it. The announcement of Jesus about the possibility of gaining the whole world and losing one’s own soul intends to shake and wake hearers to pursue true riches (cf. Mark 8:36). If this all seems hard for you to grasp, then listen closely and take comfort.
This reading reveals that it was hard for the one known as “doubting Thomas” to conceive of the care and providence of God. So if it seems hard for you, take heart in knowing that you are not alone. Thomas would beckon you to believe. Just as Christ set him from care and anxiety, He can do the same for you!