Seeking Success without Sacrificing Your Faith
Does the pursuit of wealth go against the tenets of Christianity?
A Common Inner Conflict
This is one thing I personally struggled with for a long time. I had been told that Christians ought to be poor or completely disregard the pursuit of wealth and abundance, and this had created a conflict inside of me: one side of me was driven towards success in all areas, financial included, and the other side of me wanted to stay true to my faith and not go looking for things that would lead me away from it.
I have since found a way to reconcile my faith with the worldly pursuit of wealth, but this is still something that I know many Christians, specifically young, motivated, driven men struggle with.
There is a widespread myth that many Christians believe: that Christianity requires or favors poverty instead of wealth, and that it is morally preferable to lack material wealth than it is to have it. I’ve spoken to many who think that, under Christianity, it is morally wrong to pursue wealth —we’ll get to that—, and what I’ve seen is that those who hold this belief are usually, genuinely, trying to do and be good. But while their intentions might be good, the philosophy of poverty as the ideal Christian choice is still deeply flawed.
Because of this false belief in favor of poverty and self effacement, many —usually young men— feel a deep conflict in their souls, as they think their natural drive and desire for success is a sin they must shut down, lest they let themselves become wealthy and thus betray the teachings of The Lord.
The Problems Of This False Doctrine
This is a dangerous belief, and one that has become so widespread that it has made it so that nowadays most positions of power belong to satanists and evil men. When the vast majority of Christian men, who are the only ones that could outcompete non-christian men, believe they are called to be poor, wealth will naturally go to the hands of the immoral and twisted, as we often see to be the case today.
This leads to another point, which is the fact that choosing poverty is at its core a selfish decision, even when it’s motivated by an honest desire to do good under Christ. Before I elaborate on the former claim, let’s take a look at Scripture, and see the most common passages that proponents of the Poverty Gospel use to justify their view of Christianity, and we’ll comment on each one:
Matthew 19:21: Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
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