Rich toward God

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying,  “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:13–21).[1]

Confusing Kingdoms

Have you ever had a conversation with someone only to realize they weren’t really listening? Maybe it was the way they responded or a question they asked, but whatever the case, they heard you speaking, but they were not listening. Maybe you just want to say: Did you hear a word I said? I wonder if Jesus felt the same way, after teaching on the weighty matters of the eternal consequences of a right or wrong confession and the unforgivable sin, only to be met with some man in the crowd blurting out, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me” (Luke 12:13). Did he even hear a word Jesus said?

Sometimes, though, you can’t seem to get something off your mind, a matter so pressing that it consumes your thoughts. Maybe this was the case with this man, who perhaps wasn’t listening because his mind was running. His request would seem to indicate this; the family inheritance can be a consuming matter, especially if your sibling is getting most of it, which was probably the case. Assuming his brother was older, according to Old Testament law,[2] he would get a double portion of the family estate. Perhaps this was why the man wanted Jesus to divide it. But this is purely speculation; there is so much about the man’s situation we don’t know, and the text is (intentionally) short on details. Although the man may have thought Jesus could and would help him, Jesus ends it, saying, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” (Luke 12:14).

Jesus never struggled with his identity or the purpose of his coming. From the beginning of his earthly ministry he preached, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15). He who came to seek and save the lost[3] did not come to negotiate family legal affairs. God made lawyers for that, I suppose. But when Jesus said, “who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?”, don’t miss the irony: He is the judge, and arbitrator too, of the kingdom of God.

Jesus told his disciples that God the Father “had given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22), because he personally would “judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:31). Scripture also describes him as the only “mediator [or “arbitrator”] between God and men” (1 Tim. 2:5). Through his atoning death, we have been reconciled to God and have received “the promised eternal inheritance.” The irony of ironies is the man wanted Jesus to mediate the matter of his family’s estate while Jesus came to give us the riches of the kingdom of God.

Can the same thing be said of us? Are there times when our expectations of God seem as if we aren’t listening to his Word at all? One commentator observes, “We get so consumed with the details of our lives that we grow oblivious to kingdom matters and demand that God act a certain way . . .”[4] And how often do our cares and concerns revolve around what we want now rather than what God has for us? How often do we obsess over what we will eat, what we will drink, what we will wear with little to no thought of seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness? We often do, all of us, which is why Jesus never conceded the man’s request but instead said to them all, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).

Killing Covetousness

Of course, there is nothing wrong with an inheritance or receiving one’s fair share. But so insidious is covetousness, it can hide behind the legitimate, justifying its ongoing presence. Name something that someone else has that you do not have but desire it, and there it is, legitimate or not. The Tenth Commandment is straight forward: “You shall not covet,” which in context includes a list of possibilities concluding with “anything that is your neighbor’s” (Ex. 20:17), teaching us the lusts of the heart are wide-ranging.

Puritan Thomas Watson helpfully defines covetousness as “an insatiable desire of getting the world.” But don’t expect the world to call it sin. Both greed and envy make the list of the historic “seven deadly sins” (along with pride, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth), and yet both greed and envy are baked into, for example, modern marketing. So prevalent is covetousness in our daily lives, masquerading in a myriad of ways, we often don’t see it as sin. Look at what she has on, what’s he driving, where they are going. Don’t you want, need, deserve those too? And why not, if it makes you feel good and helps propel the economy along? (That’s what’s most important, isn’t it?) Afterall, your ever-growing consumption is your contribution to civilization, isn’t it? Isn’t man’s chief end to consume more to support the economy and enjoy all our stuff forever?

We believe it, buy it, even justify it. All the while, Jason Helopoulos says, “Coveting pulls the heart down into the pit of self-seeking and the muck and mire of envy, slander, adultery, pride, dishonor, murder, thievery, and idolatry.”[5] The heart has the capacity, the apostle Paul tells us, of producing “all kinds of covetousness” (Rom. 7:8). It was covetousness that led to the angelic rebellion. It was covetousness that led to man’s Fall. And it is covetousness that keeps us from resting contentedly in God’s provision, whether we call it covetousness or not.

Puritan John Owen famously wrote, “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.”[6] And indeed covetousness can kill, and it will, but it does so in such a subtle, sinister way. It leads us to believe that there is fulfillment, meaning, purpose, peace, even joy, in getting more stuff, especially our neighbor’s. But it is a charade, as Jesus said, “one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).

How then do we go about killing covetousness (before it kills us)? While not an exhaustive list, here are a few considerations: First, we must recognize it for what it is and stop justifying it, which comes by consistently exposing our heart and mind to the Word of God. Second, if life does not consist in what we covet, we must know what life is, or who life is, and trust in him. Jesus Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and true life is through faith in him alone. When tempted, we must return again and again to the Good News of his provision for us and learn to rest in him. Third, we must see ourselves as crucified with Christ, no longer living to ourselves but Christ,[7] who abides in us by his Spirit,[8] and thereby taking “every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). Think on that: It’s impossible to covet, when every thought is captive to Christ. And fourth, we must be rich toward God, which Jesus explains with a parable.  

Glorifying God

What’s another word for an ungrateful, self-centered, self-indulgent rich man? God calls him a “fool.” But if you’d known him you might not have thought him foolish. After all, he was remarkably wealthy, the kind of man people would line up to meet, to ask him the secrets of his success. From the outside looking in, he seemed the model of prudent business practices and an icon of aspiration. But God calls him a fool. Why?

You may recall that a scribe once asked Jesus, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus replied, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” To which Jesus added, “The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:28-31). If these are the greatest two commandments, according to God, where were they in the life of this successful, wealthy man?

Note that it was the man’s land that “produced plentifully” (Luke 12:16), but who gives the land, the sunshine, and the rain? Who grows the crops? The rich man never gave thanks to God but cared only for where he would store more. Nor was his neighbor mentioned, although the civil law required that the edges of crop land be left for the poor.[9] The rich man’s provision for the poor was stored away in his oversized barns. Ungrateful and selfish, the rich man’s self-indulgent confession was telling: “‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry’” (Luke 12:19). It sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? After all, isn’t that what we all want?

So conditioned are we to a culture fixated on ambition, accumulation, and entertainment, we may hear the parable and wonder, what’s the problem? What’s wrong with maximum production? What’s wrong with increasing reserves? When faced with the dilemma of where to store ever-increasing crops, what’s wrong with making a capital investment in additional storage for nondurable assets?[10] I think Phil Ryken gets is right, when he says, “What an indictment this is of our own excess! Many Americans have so much more than we need that we do not even know where to keep it all. Yet we keep thinking of more things that we would like to have. How ironic! How pathetic!”[11] The rich man was ungrateful, selfish, and self-indulgent, and so are we, when our thankless hearts rob God of his tithes, rob our neighbor of his due, and set our pleasure as the chief end of our existence.        

In Jesus’ parable, God calls the man a fool, telling him, “This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:20). He whose retirement plan centered on entertaining himself, found himself six feet under with probably another fool to follow. Solomon says, “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity” (Eccles. 5:10). If you find yourself dissatisfied with life, you may start by looking for ingratitude, selfishness, and self-indulgence, and respond by being rich toward God.  

To be rich toward God is a call away from the poverty of soul this world offers and to the riches that are ours in Christ. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” the apostle Paul reminds us, “that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). To be rich toward God then is first to see that by his grace he has made us rich in Christ. The Christian must never poor mouth or wallow in self-pity, because God has lavished upon us the riches of his grace and given us an inheritance in Christ[12], not to fight over with our brother but to enjoy together forever. Such extravagance makes worldly wealth pale in comparison.

In God’s providence, he has placed us where we are and given us what we have, not so we may gain the whole world or lust over all it has to offer but so we may be wise and faithful stewards of God’s gracious gifts. Let us be a grateful people thankful for all God has given. Let us be a giving people, supporting Christ’s church, giving generously to the advancement of the gospel, and giving from our resources to those less fortunate. And let us be a God-glorifying people, that we may be rich toward God, using all that he has given for his glory alone.

[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version 

(Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).

[2] Deut. 21:17

[3] Luke 19:10

[4] “Jesus Warns against Covetousness,” Tabletalk, Vol. 47, No. 6 (June 2023): 51.

[5] https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/you-shall-not-covet

[6] John Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, Kelly M Kapic and Justin Taylors, Eds., Overcoming Sin & Temptation (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2006).

[7] Rom. 14:7-8

[8] Gal. 2:20

[9] Lev. 23:22; Deut. 24:19-21. For example, Ruth 2:15-16.

[10] Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, Vol. 1 (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2009), 663.

[11] Ibid., 661.

[12] Eph. 1:7-8, 11