Reconciliation in Christ المصالحة في المسيح

A blog site dedicated to showing the world the reconciliation that God offers to us and between us through the blood of Christ--the blood He shed in love for us and for all nations, to make us one with Him, and one in Him, for eternity.

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Early Christians on Wealth

These are quotes taken from the same site as the quotes on violence (now defunct). I believe they're very thought-provoking.

I'm coming more and more to believe that the two biggest idols of the American church are power and money. May the Lord free us from the love of both, and may Jesus be the only treasure that we crave.

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We who formerly treasured money and possessions more than anything else now hand over everything we have to a treasury for all and share it with everyone who needs it.
Justin, First Apology 14

That we for the most part must be considered poor is no disgrace to us but an honor. A life of luxury weakens the spirit. Frugality makes it strong. And yet, how can anyone be considered poor who does not feel any want, who does not covet what belongs to others, who is rich in God’s eyes? Much more should he be considered poor who always craves for more while he already has much.

Let me tell you what I think. No one can be as poor as he was at birth. The birds live without any inheritance, and cattle find their fodder each day. Yet these creatures are on the earth for our sake. We possess all of them if we do not covet them. Just as a man traveling on the road is the better off the lighter his bundle, so too, he who makes himself light by poverty, who does not need to pant under the burden of wealth, is happiest on his journey through life. If we regarded wealth as useful we would ask God for it. He surely could give us a share of it, for everything belongs to him, but we would rather despise wealth than have it in our hands.
Minucius Felix, Octavius 36.3–7

Happiness does not consist in ruling over one’s neighbors or in longing to have more than one’s weaker fellowmen. Nor does it consist in being rich and in oppressing those lowlier than oneself. No one can imitate God by doing such things. They are alien to his sublimity. On the contrary, anyone who takes his neighbor’s burden upon himself, who tries to help the weaker one in points where he has an advantage, who gives what he has received from God to those who need it, takes God’s place, as it were, in the eyes of those who receive. He is an imitator of God. In this way, though living on earth, you will know with awe that there is a God who reigns in heaven, and you will begin to proclaim the mysteries of God.
Letter to Diognetus 10

They do not keep for themselves the goods entrusted to them. They do not covet what belongs to others...They do not neglect widows. Orphans they rescue from those who are cruel to them.

Every one of them who has anything gives ungrudgingly to the one who has nothing. If they see a traveling stranger they bring him under their roof. They rejoice over him as over a real brother, for they do not call one another brothers after the flesh, but they know they are brothers in the Spirit and in God. If one of them sees that one of their poor must leave this world, he provides for his burial as well as he can. And if they hear that one of them is imprisoned or oppressed by their opponents for the sake of their Christ’s name, all of them take care of all his needs. If possible they set him free. If anyone among them is poor or comes into want while they themselves have nothing to spare, they fast two or three days for him. In this way they can supply any poor man with the food he needs...
Yet they do not cry out in the ears of the masses the good deeds they do. Rather, they take care that no one should notice them. They hide their giving like someone who conceals a treasure he has found.
Aristides, Apology 15,16; ca. A.D. 137

They are as poor as beggars, and yet they make many rich. They lack everything, and yet they have everything in abundance.
Letter to Diognetus 5, 6 (end of second century)

They [the elders of the church] have attained this honor only through their good name, never through the use of money, for nothing that is of God can be bought for money. Even though we have a kind of cash box, the money does not come from admission fees, as when one buys membership or position in a society. That would be like “buying religion.” Rather, every man contributes something once a month, or whenever he wishes to, and only if he wishes to, and if he can; for no one is forced, but everyone gives his share freewillingly. These contributions might be called the deposit funds of fellowship with God as they are not spent on banquets or drinking parties or on gluttony. Rather they are used to feed and to bury the poor; for boys and girls without means and without parents to help them…for shipwrecked sailors; and for those doing forced labor in the mines, or banished on islands, or in prison, provided they suffer for the sake of God’s fellowship.
Tertullian, Apology 39, 40, A.D. 198

We have been taught not to hit back at people who harass us, not to go to court against those who expel us and rob us...When they take away our coat, we are to give them our overcoat as well.
Athenagoras, A Plea Regarding Christians I.2

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