Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 1 Timothy 6:17-18
“Timothy is not only to warn the rich of the perils they face, but also to alert them to the duties they have… Timothy must seek to develop in the rich a sense of responsibility… Command those who are rich… to be rich in good deeds. Let them add one kind of wealth to another. This is a necessary admonition. Wealth can make people lazy. Since they already have everything they want, they have no need to exert themselves for their living.
It is not for nothing that some people refer to ‘the idle rich’. Timothy is to command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share, using their wealth to relieve want and to promote good causes. In so doing, they will be imitating God. For He is rich, yet out of His riches, richly provides us with everything we need.
Since God is such a generous giver, His people should be generous too, no only in imitation of His generosity, but also because of the colossal needs of the world around us. Many Christian enterprises are hampered for lack of funds. And all the time our conscience nags us as we remember the one fifth of the world’s population who are destitute. If wealthy people are really and sacrificially generous, it goes without saying that they will no longer be wealthy as they were. They may not become poor, but neither will they remain rich.”
John R.W. Stott in The Message of 1 Timothy and Titus (TBST; Downers Grove: IVP, 1996) 161.
Today I head to Omaha to speak multiple times at a conference in the next three days invited by my friend Jon Wiebe at MB Foundation. The theme is “Salt and Light: Faithful Living in a Secular Culture.”
I will speak on four topics: Faithful Stewardship, Faithful Leadership, Faithful Governance, and Faithful Accountability. I appreciate your prayers for me. My aim matches these words of Stott.
I “seek to develop” the Christian workers I will serve to model and promote these topics to multiply good and faithful stewards and help the ministries they serve to thrive with standards.
And I pray the same for you. I pray your ministry in the lives of rich people causes them to neither be rich nor poor but having obeyed the command from Scripture to be two things.
I want each of us and the rich among us to be obedient to God and dependent on God. If the rich reflect those those two traits, needs will be met, ministries will have resources, and the gospel will spread.