Expert: J.M.J. West - 4/29/2009

Question
Many times, preachers would talk about how we should focus on gaining spiritual wealth and that we should not put much attention to material/financial gain. It's simply foolish because we leave behind those material gains on this earth, but we will possess spiritual gains for eternity.

My question is if it's wrong to want to be successful and rich. In my attempt to be successful, I forgo the chances to cheat, blackmail people. However, in business you learn to be ruthless. I also pray daily to establish an intimate relationship with Christ.

I remember a passage in the Bible when it says that the chances of rich people going to heaven is slim; it's like trying to pull a camel through the pinhole in a needle.

Thank you.

Answer
Christ gave many parables, and they must be taken in context (both of the entirety of scriptures and also in the cultural and linguistic context of the day).

Christ told a rich young man who had otherwise kept the law to sell everything he had and give it to the poor in order to be perfect (Matt 19:21), and the rich man went away sad because he had much.  We are told to be "poor in spirit" (Matt 5 - the beatitudes), meaning not to be attached to wealth.  We are told that we cannot serve both God and Mammon (money), and that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil (1 Tim 6).  

But we're also told that if we pursue God, "all of these things will be added unto you, full measure pressed down", and Christ gives an account of heaven likening it to using wealth given by a master, entrusted to servants to use it to gain a 2 or three or 10 fold reward - and the servant who buries it for fear of losing it has what he had taken from him and given to the one with the most...

So, bearing all of this in mind, it would seem that money, in and of itself, is fine, so long as we do not let it rule us.  When chasing money becomes more important to us than the things of the Lord, we are in very dangerous territory.

That said, I do not think that one need be cheating, ruthless and blackmailing people to get a head in business regardless of if one is serving God or Mammon.

Hope that helps.

Pax Christi,

-J.M.J. West