Filthy Rich

Filthy Rich

1 Timothy 6:17-19

“Filthy rich” is one of those expressions used by people who aren’t wealthy.  It expresses a negative reaction to those who have money from those who don’t.  We don’t think of “filthy” as a positive adjective.  When we were children our mothers never praised us for having filthy hands or filthy clothes from playing in the mud and dirt.  Saying someone is filthy rich indicates that we don’t like him/her very much—even if that person is a complete stranger to us.

Is it a fair statement?  For some of the rich, undoubtedly.  They seem to be concerned only with gaining more wealth—not caring how they do it, who they hurt, or what anyone else loses as a result of their gain.  We hear about people running Ponzi schemes—scams which promise phenomenal returns on money invested with them, but which only enrich the scammer.  News media run stories about people who cut corners or even break laws in order to gain more wealth at the expense of others.  “Filthy rich” is a term that seems to fit them perfectly.

Paul’s letters to Timothy are referred to as “pastoral epistles.”  Timothy was a young protégé of Paul.  These letters were intended to help him grow as a pastor to his people as well as in his own spiritual life.  Paul gives him advice about what to teach his flock:  lessons on how to help his parishioners grow spiritually.  While some of his advice is dated, and more suited to the ancient world than to our age, much of it is still useful.  This is one of the useful passages.  Paul has seen the damage that wealth can cause.  He understands how it should be handled by professing Christians.  He also knows that the Jewish prophetic tradition calls God’s people to help the poor and disenfranchised.

“As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches,” Paul says.  He understands just how uncertain wealth can be.  It sounds as if he has lived through a recession or depression, and has himself experienced a loss of wealth. 

There is no guarantee that wealth will last.  Times change.  Fortunes come and go.  The makers of buggy whips never thought the automobile would put them out of business.  The manufacturers of typewriters didn’t recognize the threat computers posed.  Personal computer makers are beginning to realize that their product could be made obsolete by increasingly powerful and multi-faceted cell phones.  We never know what new invention is going to make the current front-runner an also-ran.

Paul urges Timothy to charge the wealthy members of his church to set their hopes “on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.”  I know—this sounds like pie-in-the-sky religion.  Don’t worry about where your next meal is coming from, or where you’ll sleep tonight.  God will give you everything you need.  Those who were on the wrong side of the last recession, either directly or indirectly, know that people still need food and shelter, and these are not always as available as we would like.

What Paul is getting at is that the rich are to use their wealth to help others.  “They are to do good,” he continues, “to be rich in good works [italics mine], to be generous and ready to share.”  God gives wealth in order that those who have it may share with those who can’t seem to get a start in life, or having started well, fall beside the way because of circumstances beyond their control. 

Whatever we have, be it little or much, God has allowed us to have it so that we may use it to satisfy our needs, and then help others meet theirs.