If Christ and his kingdom are all that matters, we find money and material possessions put in their proper place. They are not rejected as evil, of course, but they find their orbit around Christ as the true treasure. This kingdom framework helps us in understanding the challenging things Jesus says about wealth and also about caring for the poor.
In Luke’s reproduction of the Beatitudes, we learn that Jesus had alternate versions to the clause on poverty. “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20). Matthew’s Gospel, written primarily for a Jewish audience, focuses on a poverty of a different kind (Matthew 5:3), but Luke, writing primarily for Gentiles, wants us to know that the kingdom’s coming has real implications for the materially poor too. And yet, the gospel for the poor is still not money.
As we’ve seen, there is plenty in the Scriptures to commend the need for social justice initiatives as implications of the gospel, but almost nothing to commend them as the gospel itself. The gospel for the materially poor is not financial justice, although that is a valid implication of the kingdom’s coming to bear in the world, but instead the same gospel to the poor in spirit—eternal life in Christ Jesus. Why must we hold this distinction between gospel content and gospel entailments as it relates to poverty? Here are nine reasons.... Keep reading
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