So sang ABBA back in 1978, and they continued:

All the things I could do
If I had a little money:
It’s a rich man’s world.

Times don’t change much, do they? Nor do the men and women who populate successive eras! Did you read recently of that metal detectorist (horrible term, but it’s the one in vogue) who unearthed the largest collection of medieval gold and jewellery that has yet been found in the United Kingdom? Apparently the items come from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia (just over the border from Offa’s Dyke, if your historical geography is a bit rusty). Some of the experts interviewed on the TV were virtually salivating as they speculated on the amount the man who made the discovery could expect to receive now that the find had been officially designated as treasure trove. ‘At least seven figures’ suggested one of them.

‘What a stroke of luck!’ some might say. Others were probably consumed with envy and were more than a little infuriated by the unfairness of life – why him and not me? And back they trudged to their local newsagent where they joined the queue for the National Lottery in the hope that next week they might hit the jackpot.

The love of money

Years before ABBA there was a song featured, if my memory serves me right, by the Andrews Sisters, ‘Money is the root of all evil … Take it away, take it away, take it away’. Many assumed that the sentiments were biblical – indeed, virtually a quotation from the Bible. Actually they were not. What Paul wrote was ‘For the love of money is the root of all evil’ (1 Tim. 6:10), which is rather different; and a little later on in the same chapter instead of commanding Timothy to expel the rich people from the church or fleece them of their cash, he instructs him to ‘charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy’ (v17).

Money, or the lack of it, can be either a bane or a blessing, which is probably one of the reasons why in Proverbs we read ‘… give me neither poverty nor riches’ (30:8). Few of us seem able to cope successfully with either extremity.

But it is strange how equal and opposite reactions have been advanced allegedly as the correct biblical attitude to the presence or absence of wealth. They range from the virtual idolising of poverty as the most sublime form of human existence to the view that assumes its presence to be a sure sign of the disapproval, not to say the judgement, of God.

A biblical perspective

The authentic biblical position is somewhat different. Riches undoubtedly bring with them temptations to greed, self-sufficiency and worldliness, but they never satisfy, bringing with them, as they do, the insatiable give-me-more appetite. Poverty, on the other hand, opens the door wide to envy, resentment and all its attendant evils. Remarkably, the New Testament churches although composed in the main of those at the bottom of the social scale – the have-nots – did possess within their ranks some who were well-provided for in terms of this world’s goods. Nor were the apostles slow to supply appropriate words of advice, and sometimes of rebuke, for them all.

Throughout the Bible we are reminded of the consistent care and concern that Almighty God has for the poor and downtrodden and that therefore should be replicated in His earthly children. Similarly Christ in some of His most powerful sayings turns our attention to the deceitfulness of riches, and in one statement categorically asserts, to the perplexity of His disciples, how hard it is for rich men to enter the kingdom of God.

An historical perspective

Even so it is surely an undeniable fact that historically the gospel has had an elevating effect on those societies and those individuals in them who have taken its message to heart. Not so much is heard of it these days, but reference used to be made to the so-called ‘Protestant work ethic’. This theory, advanced as an explanation of the remarkable progress made mainly by those northern European countries that had been deeply influenced by the recovery of the biblical message in the Reformation, offered a very plausible account of why and how it was that spiritual attitudes had a practical economic effect in the lives of people and then in the societies of which they were part. Convinced by the Christian message that they must work as to the Lord and not simply as men-pleasers, they became better and more reliable workmen. Consequently they were rewarded with better wages, which, in turn, they saved and used for the benefit of their families rather than squandering them in selfish indulgence. As a result society itself flourished, business developed along with scientific investigation and a whole host of related intellectual pursuits. But when the spiritual impulse declined so the whole movement degenerated into the thrusting desire for wealth and its accompaniments. Stripped of its spiritual background it eventually ran to seed and produced the unbridled and unprincipled greed that played an enormous part in the collapse of the international economy that we have witnessed in the last couple of years and that had its forerunner in the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The credit crunch that we are all experiencing (or from which, according to some politicians, we are now emerging) has caused us all to tighten our belts and make economies that would not have been thought necessary a few years ago. Sadly, even Christians make such economies at the expense of the Lord’s work – witness the plaintive complaints that echo from churches, missionary societies and charities as their income shrinks and cutbacks become inevitable.

Ought we not to be asking whether the present recession – or whatever you prefer to call it – is not composed of at least two elements? One, the judgement of God on a humanity that seems intent on flaunting His laws and shaking its fists in His face. The other, a God-given opportunity for men to reflect on the transience and uncertainty of worldly wealth and instead to turn their minds and endeavours to the pursuit of ‘solid joys and lasting treasure’ that are to be found only in Him.

The politicians of all shades will continue to demonise their opponents, blaming them for what has been and what might yet be.  Who but Christians are able to look both deeper and higher than mere economics to Him who alone is the answer?

Graham Harrison is a consulting editor of The Evangelical Magazine.