But I think you can. In this age of abject hunger and and obscene wealth existing simultaneously, (the top 1% owning as much as the whole of the rest of the world put together) I think you need to be a pretty ruthless son of a female dog to retain, say, a net worth in excess of $1,000,000, while others are so poor they cannot feed themselves or their families.
The media promotes the sensational and it paints an incorrect picture of people, society, and the world. It is easy to develop the perspective you seem to have because of the apparent large percentage of people who are both wealthy and self-focused. It is also because of people accepting their imagination and deductions as facts because they make sense to them. How many people do you know personally that make in excess of $1 mil?
However, these things are beside the point. God judges a person's heart and humans are not able to do so, so we like to fill in the blanks. But God said not to when he commanded in multiple places to not judge one another. For every person on earth that is wealthy by your standard, there are 5 people who are significantly poorer than you. What you say about wealthy people is the same as what the very poor could say about you. Why aren't you choosing to live on $15,000 (or whatever) per year and giving the rest to the poor? (Living in a cardboard box, a good winter coat, and enough food to eat makes a person better off than 900 million people on earth.) It only takes a few hundred dollars to pay for food for a person in abject poverty for a year. Someone with a $35,000 / year salary could be stopping starvation for 50-200 people. It takes even less to provide educational books for those 50 people, some of them highly motivated to work their way out of poverty. And even less than that to provide them with Bibles.
If God 'gives' us wealth, then, to be sure, He intends for us to use it with loving kindness to succour those He has not so endowed. But I think this idea of God giving us wealth a mistaken one. God does not give us wealth, the world does. God gives us talents. If we choose to use those talents to amass wealth for our own, then we have mistaken His purpose, which is not to massage our comfort and complacency, but for us each to serve each other (and, by implication, Him) justly and fairly, righteously and well.
Best wishes, Strivax.
"Intent" is not something we can know about individual people. More obvious is that we cannot know the ways they've been damaged in their lives and why they do things. It can be more difficult for a wealthy person to give 5% of their income to the poor than it is for someone poorer to give 20% of their income. God looks at the heart and all other things being equal would receive greater heavenly reward than the other.
You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. (John 8:15, 1984 NIV)
But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. (1 Timothy 6:8, 1984 NIV) It's a short list and does not include "see other people behaving the way we think they should."
for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing, (Philippians 2:13-14, 1984 NIV) God is working in wealthy Christians to do what he wants. Why would anyone be more concerned about someone else's money than their eternal souls. A godly heart will be focused on helping save a wealthy person, not distributing their wealth, which God has not give anyone the authority to do. What right does anyone have to complain?
For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? (1 Corinthians 4:7, 1984 NIV) It is clear in Scripture that each of us is to be thankful for what one has. A person with this kind of heart will praise God for the wealth he gives other people.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Matthew 7:1-2, 1984 NIV)
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? (Matthew 7:3-4, 1984 NIV) Jesus does not say this about people who have poor judgment; he is saying this about everyone who judges another.
Each of us is just as spiritually guilty of abusing our wealth as any "wealthy" person (because we have all sinned):
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. (James 2:10, 1984 NIV)
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. ... So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? (Romans 2:1,3, 1984 NIV)
God will judge you for your wealth the same way you judge someone who is "wealthy." What kind of eternal judgment would you like to receive?
