Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ. Ephesians 3:8
“You know about the Ephesians, of course, and that large sums of money are in their hands, some of them belonging to private citizens and deposited in the temple of Artemis, not alone money of the Ephesians, but also of aliens and of persons from all parts of the world, and in some cases of commonwealths of kings, money which all deposit there in order that it may be safe.”
Dio Chrysostom (first century CE Roman historian, orator, writer, and philosopher) in Oration 31.54.
I shot the peaceful header photo on my morning walk to Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Tomorrow I deliver another paper at the conference here in Amsterdam: “The Economy of Ephesus in contrast to the Economy of God in 1 Timothy and Ephesians.”
In my paper, I use ancient evidence, like this testimony of Dio Chrysostom to reconstruct the sitz im leben or setting in life of the rich and the economy of Ephesus.
In so doing, I find a world that revolves around material wealth and honoring the goddess who watches over it in her temple. In this setting Paul charges Timothy to instruct people to live according to a different economy rooted in the boundless riches of Christ.
Today’s post sounds like the modern practice of storing wealth in financial institutions to keep it safe. Let me say, I am not against having back accounts with funds for dedicated purposes.
I think the Apostle Paul would urge faithful stewardship. And such stewardship often results in God expanding our stewardship and supplying more resources.
He does not, however, want us to try to locate our security in amassing wealth. That was the ancient practice in Ephesus and is a modern practice today but described as foolishness by Jesus.
I appreciate your prayers. Reply if you want a copy.