Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and He will reward them for what they have done. Proverbs 19:17
“What the adversary tried to take away, let Christ receive; your property must not be retained now or loved; by which you have been both deceived and conquered. Such wealth is to be avoided as an enemy, to be fled as a thief, to be feared by its possessors as a sword and poison. What has remained should be of benefit, only to this end that the crime and sin may be redeemed by it. Let your good works, be done without delay and in abundance; let all your wealth be expended on the healing of the wound; let us lend our goods and means to the Lord, who is to be our Judge. Thus faith flourished under the apostles’ time; thus the first people of the believers kept Christ commands — they were prompt; they were generous; they gave all to be distributed by the apostles…”
Cyprian of Carthage (c. 200-258) in On The Lapsed 35, edited and translated by Helen Rhee in Wealth and Poverty in Early Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2017) 41. I shot the new header photo on my evening walk last night with my wife and our dog.
Rhee adds this commentary (xxvii): “As the sign of true repentance, the (wealthy) lapsed should apply themselves frequently to “almsgiving, by which souls are freed from death” (35; cf. Tob. 12:8). Cyprian urges them to invest their earthly goods and riches with their Lord, their coming Judge, a practice that could allow them to be readmitted and reconciled to the church.”
A time of peace between instances of persecution may have caused Christ followers in the third century to become complacent in their faith. Rather than participate in a community of sharing, many appear to have stored up treasures for themselves. It sounds similar to America in modernity. Prosperity contributes to the tendency for Christians to assimilate to the culture, rather than functioning as a caring community.
Cyprian beckons followers of Christ to do good works “without delay and in abundance” like the first believers by holding nothing back. Ironically, people focus on how much people give and God focuses on how much we hold back. What we retain impacts us like poison and betrays our misplaced trust. We can gain the world and lose our souls in the final judgment, but when we distribute it to the poor, we can be sure of reward from the Judge.
This is not about earning salvation through almsgiving. It’s about generosity serving as a sign of genuine faith. Cyprian seems to echo James who said that faith without good works is dead (cf. James 2:17), and that faith with good works is alive and reflects the pattern the apostles set forth for us in obedience to Christ. Wealth was good then, and is good now, only insomuch as it is used according to God’s purposes.