What God Requires of the Wealthy

The Responsibilities
of Wealth

As class warfare threatens, a question needs to be asked: What does God require of the wealthy? Wealth can be gained by good or evil means. Wealthy people also have a greater capacity for good or evil. Wealth does bring a greater responsibility for doing good in the world. In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus went on to illustrate how those who have been given much can do so much more for God. In Luke 12:41-48 he reminded us that to whom much is given much is required. Warren Buffett has been preaching that the wealthy need to pay a greater share of taxes, but that is only a small part of the story. Wealthy people have far more capacity to show love to their neighbors in practical ways than the average person. Love for neighbor is what God requires.

A Gamble vs the Safe Route

Take the Risk:
Learning to Identify,
Choose, and Live
with Acceptable Risk

Some Christians are totally against gambling, meaning games of chance. Those same Christians rarely criticize farmers, job-hunters or entrepreneurs for taking a calculated gamble. The truth is there are stupid gambles where the odds are terrible, like state lotteries, most Casino games and jumping into business with inadequate preparation. There are also calculated gambles, like starting a business after thorough preparation, having car insurance or planting a crop of potatoes. In Matthew 25:18, 24-30, Jesus staked a group of people and he asked them to take a gamble with his money. He did not ask them to take any foolish risks, but to take a chance never-the-less. Sometimes in life we simply need to step out and take a gamble. Remember, it was the person who took the safe route who was criticized in the Parable of the Talents.

Grace is a Risk

What's So Amazing
About Grace?

Rather than take a risk that people may abuse freedoms, the legalistic solution is to ban them. We try to be more righteous than Jesus, ignoring Bible passages which reveal many such things as blessings from God if used rightly. Ban lists down through the ages have included topics like sex, dancing, alcohol, and card-playing. Grace is a risk. Legalism is not. Matthew 25:18, 24-30 encourages us to take the risk of grace. Yet we seek the safe route, put all our blessings in a napkin and bury them in the ground. Let’s not live life as if we just sucked on a sour lemon. Legalism seems safe but it is not. It is a prison. Jesus did not obey such silly Pharisaic taboos. Instead he took giant risks, dying on a cross so that some might be saved.

The Greatest Talent

Capitalism:
A Love Story

Does The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) justify profit by any means? Does it justify paying poverty wages, cheating customers and other dishonest business practices as long as the profit is there? The parable is about the kingdom of heaven, so ought talents from God be used for dishonest worldly practices? The talents are spiritual gifts and the bonuses are given to those who are the most productive for the kingdom of heaven. When we deceive ourselves that we have greater value than others and then cheat our neighbors aren’t we really worldly and not spiritual? Does not the parable picture someone who produced the most in loving God and neighbor? Is not the greatest reward for the greatest obedience to the greatest command? Is not the greatest talent in the kingdom of heaven the capacity to love?

Same Salvation Different Rewards

Is equal pay for the lazy and the hard-working fair? Does the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) indicate that it is right to base pay upon an employee’s ability, diligence and results? Bible passages indicate a double share of inheritance for firstborns (Deuteronomy 21:17) and a double honorarium or pay for diligent preachers (1 Timothy 5:17). Is God okay with giving someone five times more investment capital and paying ten times what another received? Is God also okay with giving the productive person a ten percent raise on top of their great reward? What would God say about grossly excessive salaries that are perhaps hundreds of times more? Ultimate justice will be handed out in eternity where there will be the same salvation but different rewards based on what we do with what God gave us.

Some Important Spiritual Questions

Greed:
Economics and Ethics
in Conflict

The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) highlights some important spiritual questions. Is the kingdom of heaven a society of equals or does God give different abilities and levels of responsibility? If the spiritually productive are good and faithful, are the spiritually unproductive lazy and evil? Is the safe route sometimes in reality the riskiest of all leading to ultimate failure? Can faithfulness in small things lead to great things and can unfaithfulness in the smallest things lead to complete failure? Should we waste time criticizing the boss as too hard, or just get on with the job? Do spiritually successful people just get straight to work? Is it fear that often produces failure? Do those who produce more deserve more? What does the extra talent awarded to the most successful say about excessive versus moderate reward for effort?

Unanswered Questions

Parable of
the Talents

The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) does not seem to cover all possible scenarios. For instance, what if a servant did not bury his talent but lost it to bad investments? This parable is not talking about worldly money but spiritual capital. Heaven’s investments cannot fail because they are the currency of a kingdom which cannot fail. The only way to failure is to do nothing, to bury the gift of God in the ground. If used, it will produce fruit. What if a servant was given a large sum and decided to steal it and run? Again, we are not talking about a worldly master here but God and his kingdom. There simply is nowhere to run from God. The only thing that we can do with spiritual gifts received is either use them or bury them.

What is a Talent

What is a talent in the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30)? It is a unit of money for gold or silver. The Greek talent from Athens or Attic talent was equal to 26 kilogram (57 pounds) weight of silver. At the time of writing the spot price of silver was about $16 an ounce, giving a value of about $14,600 for a talent of silver. That value is somewhat helpful, but is a comparison for our time using volatile silver prices. Another way to measure a talent was used anciently. It was a value equivalent to nine year’s wages. If the current average wage is about $52,000 that would result in a talent being worth about $468,000. Whichever way we calculate it, it contradicts the criticism of the lazy servant. The master was very generous.

Summing up the Faith

There are many lesser rules and human traditions which divide the Christian Church but one great and wonderful rule which unites us all. It was outlined by Jesus in Matthew 22:34-46. The Bible contains many excellent summaries of right religion. Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). Do what is just and right (Isaiah 56:1). Seek God and live (Amos 5:4). Live by faithfulness (Habakkuk 2:4). They are articles of faith. Jesus chose a couple of other Old Testament statements to summarize the faith. One was from Deuteronomy (6:5) about loving God and the other was from Leviticus (19:18) about loving our neighbor. These commandments were not even specifically from the Ten Commandments, though they are there in principle. They unite all of Christianity under one statement of belief.

How Love God

Do we “give our heart to the Lord”? Instead of pop sayings, let’s see what Jesus said (Matthew 22:37). We love the Lord with our entire heart, soul and mind. This is the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:5), the central creed of both Judaism and Christianity. What that actually means is that we love God with all that we are and have. Is love "all we need"? Jesus said that differently too. Some forms of Christianity emphasize the heart and avoid the mind. Some varieties of Christianity are emotionless with very little heart. Some kinds of Christianity emphasize outward show but neglect the inner soul. Jesus summarized the entire Old Testament law as hanging from love. He also delineated that love as not just being empty emotionalism, but a love that includes everything in our lives: heart, soul and mind.