Poul Madsen
"Be ye free from the love of money; content with such things
as ye have; for himself hath said, I will in no wise fail thee,
neither will I in any wise forsake thee." Hebrews 13:5
MEN think that money gives safety and security. Our secure salvation, however, depends on the death on the cross of the Man who was stripped of everything as He hung there. At Calvary was anyone thinking about money? Did money play any part at all in the work of salvation? Emphatically No! "We were redeemed from our vain manner of life, not with silver or gold ..." (1 Peter 1:18-19). Could our Saviour have accomplished more if He had possessed more money? The question is so absurd that it needs no answer. The greatest thing that was ever done was done without the least help from money. The Lord Jesus did not have silver or gold and never asked for them. He was never dependent upon earthly wealth -- and so His priceless work has never depreciated in value. [61/62]
The Lord's Servants
No-one accomplished more for the Lord than His apostles and their co-workers, but do we ever hear them asking for economic support? Not even once! It is clear that they did not carry out their great work with the help of gold and silver but by the sacrifice of their own lives. A work of spiritual significance can, by its own nature, never depend upon something so unspiritual as money. What it needs is not so much money as those who will follow in the footsteps of their Lord, prepared to lose everything for His sake.
If we ask then how did they get their daily bread, we must also ask if He who had taught them to pray, 'Give us this day our daily bread' would forget to answer the very prayer He had instructed them to pray?
In Paul's case the prayer was sometimes answered by his working as a tentmaker and earning his keep. Should he then be disqualified as a 'full-time worker'? Could he have accomplished more if he had been what we call a 'full-time worker'? Again the answer must surely be No! So far as the other apostles were concerned, it seems that humanly speaking they lived from hand to mouth -- "Silver and gold have I none" (Acts 3:6) -- but they never lacked what they needed. He who had Himself said that He would never fail them was alive to implement His assurances.
We might argue that when we have money in the bank we can better concentrate on spiritual work without anxiety, but the apostles did not look at life like that. I do not imagine that they desired earthly security. They had such an intimate relationship with the Lord that they could truly say, "If I only have Thee, I desire nothing on earth besides" (Psalm 73:25 Danish ) and they could say it because they meant it. So often had they experienced that the Lord was their Helper, and would not for the world be without such rich experiences. What is more, they knew that the security which is given by money is false; a safety which disappears just when we need it most is quite illusory.
Their View of Service
This attitude towards money surely sprang from the fact that they always kept their eyes on the cross of Christ. There, without human support of any kind, He had completed the wonderful work of their eternal security. Since the apparent foolishness displayed there for all the world to see was really the supreme wisdom of God, they realised that human wisdom and clever considerations have no part in the work of God, but, on the contrary, are a hindrance to it.
The thought that their service was dependent upon money or that they could accomplish more for the Lord if they were richer never occurred to them. No-one can accomplish more for God than to follow Christ, and mere money can never help him to do that. On the other hand, they did not regard their independence of money as some great accomplishment of faith, but just as their privilege. They were content to complete their mission as what Jesus had described as lambs among wolves, and were content to count all things as loss in comparison with the heavenly riches of knowing Christ and walking with Him. Such service was, and still is, incomprehensible to the natural mind. Humanly speaking it rests on the most uncertain basis imaginable, without any support, but yet it worked in a living way then and still works today.
Those Who Have Money
There are, then, those who own nothing and yet make many rich. This is nothing to boast of, as we have said, for it is a privilege given to them by the Lord, so that they must never be jealous of those who have money and nor must they think of despising them. Clearly there were those in the early churches who were rich in gold and silver, because this was the specific will of God for them. Were their riches an advantage to them? Not in the eyes of the apostles, but nevertheless since the Lord had so called them, then they were told to regard their wealth as a responsibility committed to them and act accordingly. The important thing was, and still is, that no love of money should creep into their hearts.
