Outline Christian and Jewish teaching on wealth and poverty.

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29th September '02

R.S. Coursework (A part 1)

Outline Christian and Jewish teaching on wealth and poverty

Christians believe that wealth can be used be used for good and also for evil and that it is not a bad thing to have wealth, but obtaining wealth must only done lawfully and morally correct. When money is obtained it is a blessing from God and not theirs, so it must be treated and used with respect. Several teachings are that if you have the wrong attitude about wealth, it will lead you away from God. Christianity tries to teach the dangers of prosperity, the right attitude to wealth and where money should come in your life.

There are many warnings in Christianity teaching about the dangers of wealth. An example of this is in Luke 12:16-21 where there is a teaching about a rich selfish fool. This is the parable of a man who had so many things that he had no room to place them all; he then built himself extra room. He then said to his soul, " Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." To which God replied,

"Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" The morale of this story is that although he has acquired so much and he believes he will be happy with all his possessions, when the he dies all these possessions which belonged to God already will be still be Gods and the fool will be left with nothing.

One of the popular teachings about the dangers of money is in 1 Timothy 6:10. This is the teaching of the evil of money.

"For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." This is the teaching in which it speaks of people who have inherited money in evil ways. People have desired wealth and have inherited it in ways, which have gone against the principles against their religion, which means they have gone against God. They have forever pierced their souls with their wrongdoings all because of the desire for money. This is a warning of what money can do to people and tries to ward off people from committing evil deeds for money.
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There are however teachings in Christianity on the right attitudes to wealth. In 2 Corinthians 9:7 it teaches of how God favours those who give willingly,

"Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." This teaches the right and proper way that people should distribute wealth to those less fortunate then themselves. Christians should not reluctantly give money, it should not be a chore to give money and that it is there duty to give to those who ask because they ...

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