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OBEDIENCE BRINGS SECURITY And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great (Luke 6:46-49).
Jesus told His followers to obey Him. Any follower of Christ who does not obey Him is like a man who builds his home on foundations of dirt. The security of the house is no greater than the security of its foundation. There is no doubt what the foundation rock is: obedience to Christ.
The same language of hearing and doing is found in the Epistle of James: "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was" (James 1:22-24). The person who hears Christ's words but fails to obey them is as unstable as a dirt foundation in a storm. He does not know who or what he is.
The image of a house built on a rock is compelling. The house will withstand storms. This is a metaphor for life. The Christian life is supposed to be a life that cannot be washed away by life's inevitable disruptions. Obedience to Christ's words is the basis of this security.
Hard Words This warning appears at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. In this sermon, Jesus presented a series of difficult obligations regarding wealth and its uses. He hit His listeners where it hurts most in every generation: in their wallets. Then He called them to obey His words.
Does this mean that salvation is by works? Yes, it does. But the works are Christ's, not ours. Jesus lived a perfect life as a perfect representative man. His perfect righteousness is imputed judicially to us by God the Father. God the Father declares us to be not guilty. Paul wrote: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation" (II Cor. 5:17-19). Thus, Jesus' works become our works by God's judicial declaration to redeemed people: "Not guilty." This is the legal basis of our access to eternal life.
Then what about our good works? Do they count for anything? If we take Jesus' words seriously, they count for a great deal. But they, too, are gifts from God. Paul wrote: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). So, everything that we possess of any value is ours solely by God's grace. James wrote: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17).
We are to obey Christ. As we become more obedient, we will become more firmly grounded in the faith. We are building on a rock. We learn to trust God for the success of our efforts. We test the truth of Jesus' difficult words and find that they are reliable. When we rely increasingly on the cause-and-effect relationships described in Luke 6, we discover that what seemed improbable at first is in fact reliable.
It takes great faith to begin this testing procedure. We are transferring our trust from this world to God. We are surrendering faith in our own efforts. We are acknowledging that God is really sovereign in our affairs. This is what it means to obey God rather than mammon. We must step out in faith. Our faith will then be ratified by the results. It will be strengthened. In this sense, our faith must be tried by fire. This fiery purification ordeal may take more time than we expect or think we can endure. Our pain and doubt may be intense for a time. We may cry out to God, "How long, O Lord, how long?" But, over time, we will come to trust more in God's system of causation instead of the world's.
It is not easy to begin. Jesus said that we must place our scarce economic resources in service to God by serving the poor and even our enemies. We are to lend, expecting nothing in return from a poverty-stricken debtor.(1) This is not easy, but it is what Jesus told His followers to do. We begin tentatively, almost as toddlers take their first hesitating steps. We find it hard to believe that God will intervene in our economic affairs in order to enable us to succeed. But He must intervene if we are to succeed. Were God not to intervene on our behalf, how else could zero-interest loans to the poor (Ex. 22:25) match the return on interest-bearing commercial loans?
God does not promise His followers great tangible wealth, i.e., exceptional wealth compared to what others in their society enjoy. In fact, Jesus indicated repeatedly that great tangible wealth is a spiritual snare. It has eternal risks attached to it. The authors of the first three Gospels recorded Jesus' statements to this effect. The story of the rich young ruler is recorded by all three. Jesus told the rich man to sell his goods, give away the money as charity, and follow Him. "And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" (Luke 18:24).(2)
In 1897, the Italian social scientist Vilfredo Pareto reported a previously unsuspected statistical fact: the slope of the curve of national income, from the richest to the poorest recipients, remained remarkably constant, nation by nation in Europe.(3) This was irrespective of tax policies or the time period. The statistics that he compiled indicated that about twenty percent of the population earned about eighty percent of the income, though there was some variation, country to country. Similar findings for both income distribution and wealth distribution appear in all twentieth-century industrial nations, despite varying tax systems.(4) Pareto later wrote, "This law being empirical, it may not always remain true, especially not for all mankind. At present, however, the statistics which we have present no exceptions to the law; it may therefore be accepted as universal."(5) There is no agreed-upon explanation for this uniformity. There are very few attempts to explain it. What seems true is this: the rich we shall always have with us, and they will own most of the income-producing tangible capital.
It is obvious from Christ's words that Christians should not strive to enter the ranks of the rich minority. If exceptional wealth comes to a Christian as a byproduct of his consumer-satisfying services to others, or by inheritance, this is legitimate, but great tangible wealth should not be pursued actively. Christians should remain content as middle-class people. A middle-class lifestyle is the biblical standard for covenant-keepers. "Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain" (Prov. 30:7-9). But if Christians live as middle-class members of a nation whose citizens own a significant percentage of the world's wealth, they should not feel guilt-ridden.(6)
Wealth and Security Money is the most marketable commodity. He who has a great deal of money is a person who has the largest number of options or choices. He has financial reserves in case of unforeseen disasters. This is why the author of the Proverbs wrote: "The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as an high wall in his own conceit" (Prov. 18:11). Money is seen by most people as the basis of their security. The acknowledged source of a person's security is his god. This is why money is described by Christ as a rival god: mammon. "No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Luke 16:13).(7) Jesus made it clear: all men serve gods. The question is: Which god?
Money is impersonal. God is personal. Money seems to be under control by its owner. God is not under anyone else's control. Money seems subordinate to man, yet money is a god, a master, according to Christ. How can something under man's ownership be his master? Answer: in the same sense as a pain-killing drug can become addictive. The drug initially is the servant of man. Then it becomes his master. Money, as the provider of safety, becomes addictive. To lose money is to lose safety. It is also to lose social status and self-image. The fear of losing money can become a powerful motivator. Men then adjust their lives to this motivator. They begin this adjustment by reducing their fears through seeking safety in money. They end in the clutches of fear: fear of losing money. That which they had hoped would liberate them from fear becomes a source of their fear. They had sought peace; they receive worry. They had sought money to free them from life's cares; they steadily increase their cares about money. The parable of the four soils is clear on this point. "And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection" (Luke 8:14).(8)
What is the basis of a Christian's security? Answer: obedience to Christ. Increasing our reliance on Christ liberates us from cares regarding the creation. We become ever-more dependent on Christ without becoming addicted to something that threatens us. We appeal to Christ for mercy. First, we need the mercy of the grace of faith to enable us to obey Him. Paul wrote: "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" (Gal. 3:1-5). Second, we need the mercy of the grace of forgiveness when we disobey Him. This mercy is available free on request. John wrote: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9). Grace is what the economist calls a free lunch. It is free because Christ paid the bill on Calvary. There are not even any transaction fees other than prayer time and humility.
If obedience to Christ provides us with security -- our foundation rock -- and if our obedience is itself a free gift of God, then our true security-providing wealth is a free good. Yet few people ever claim this security as their possession. Why not? Because it takes great faith to claim it. Faith is a free gift, but it is not given to everyone. The same degree of faith is not given by God to every Christian. The grace of trust in God to provide security is available, but it is not universally given by God to His followers. In fact, it is given to very few of them. It must be requested. "Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:23-24).
The gift of faith is free, but our response imposes a cost on ourselves. The cost of acquiring this faith in God's provision of our security is our surrender of our trust in mammon. We must switch our allegiance. This begins with our acknowledgment of God's ownership of our things and our very lives. In the Student Manual of the Small Group Financial Study produced by Crown Ministries, we read this: "Consistently recognizing God's ownership is difficult. It is easy to believe intellectually that God owns all you have, but yet still live as if this were not true. Everything in our culture -- the media, even the law -- say[s] that what you possess, you, and you alone, own. Genuinely acknowledging God's ownership requires nothing less than a total change of perception."(9)
All people innately know that they are not the sole, exclusive owners of all that they possess. The work of the law is written on their hearts (Rom. 2:14-15). They know that they are not the true owners because they know that they cannot safely entrust all of their security to themselves as sovereign individuals. They want to trust something more powerful than themselves, something that can guarantee their security. But many people do not seek God. So, modern men seek security from that other would-be owner: the State. When they look to the State as the true owner, they perceive themselves as stewards of the State. This places them in bondage to other men who act collectively as agents of the State. This is another form of mammon worship, i.e., trust in an aspect of the creation.
Conclusion Christ called His followers to obedience. The Sermon on the Mount laid down some extremely difficult economic requirements. These requirements take great faith to accept and then follow, especially if the listener is rich. The rich man has money. He has greater physical security than most other men. He does not worry about where his next meal is coming from. He does not understand that he is in service to the world through mammon. Still, grace is readily available. God is gracious and will provide sufficient faith on request. The trouble is, it takes faith even to make the request. Not many rich men possess such faith. Not many Christians do, either.
The wealth distribution curve is not bell-shaped. It is skewed overwhelmingly to the right-hand side, with about twenty percent of the population owning eighty percent of the wealth. In industrial nations, most Christians are neither rich nor poor, though more of them are poor than rich. This is as it should be until such time as a large percentage of all five wealth quintiles are heavily represented by Christians. In such an era, Christians may then more safely dwell in the right-hand side of the wealth distribution curve, for the acknowledged basis of material wealth will then be men's obedience to Christ's words.
What is not as it should be today is this: the lifestyle of most Christians is middle class, but their obedience to the Christ's rules mandating charity is not significantly above average. They are too much like their covenant-breaking, middle-class neighbors. They do not lend to the poor at zero interest, hoping for nothing in return. They may not lend even to interest-paying debtors. They are more likely to be heavily in debt themselves than net lenders.
A middle-class lifestyle is available in two honest ways: Christian and non-Christian, either primarily through an open hand or primarily through thrift, education, and long hours of work. Those few Christians who have thought seriously about the basis of their middle-class lifestyle have generally accepted the second path, too often at the expense of their family life. Obedience to Christ builds on the rock's foundation, not obedience to the standard secular rules of thrift, education, and hard work, which are unreliable substitutes for Christian faith. It takes great faith to accept Christ's view of the proper origin of middle-class tangible wealth.
The economic benefits of diligence in our work are mentioned in the Proverbs. Sloth leads to subservience. Dominion is by diligence. "The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute" (Prov. 12:24). Sloth is destructive. "He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster" (Prov. 18:9). But Christ made it clear that the road to trustworthy economic security is through faith-based giving, not long hours of hard work. Charity begins in the heart. "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh" (Luke 6:45). To seek security apart from an open hand is to substitute man's ways for God's way.
Footnotes:
1. Chapter 10, above.
2. Chapter 41, below.
3. Pareto, Cours d' Economie Politique, vol. 2 (Lausanne, 1897), pp. 370-72.
4. See "The 20-80 Rule," Introduction, above.
5. Pareto, Journal of Political Economy, V, p. 501; cited in Vincent J. Tarascio, Pareto's Methodological Approach to Economics (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968), p. 115.
6. David Chilton, Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt-Manipulators: A Biblical Response to Ronald J. Sider (3rd ed.; Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, [1985] 1996).
7. See Chapter 38, below.
8. Chapter 14, below.
9. Student Manual (Longwood, Florida: Crown Ministries, 1995), p. 16.
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