Should Christians be poor?

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

What the Lord Jesus is concerned about here is the spirit, it is the poverty of the spirit.

We do not realise how poor we are in spirit, until we come fact to face with God. When we come face to face with the Holy God, we see our sinful nature, which breaks our hearts.

Poor in spirit is a complete absence of pride, a complete absence of self-reliance. It means a conciousness that we are nothing in the presence of God. That we are sinners, unable to save our selves, we totally rely on God to even breath. You cannot truly look at Him without feeling your absolute powerty and emptiness.

It is the total opposite of what the world teaches; express yourself, believe in yourself, realise your powers, you are strong and independent, with a good heart. Person who thinks like that never met God. Remember Simon Peter for exaple when He met Jesus 'depart for me, for I am a sinful man' or Isaiah when he met God, Isaiah thought he was going to die.

Being financially poor or wealthy does not bring you and advantage or disadvantage. We all rebelled against God, we are all in need of a Saviour.

Please look at the Sermon on the Mount and the beatitutes to understand this more.

If Rome had to learn to be poor to be Christian, today it would be part of Turkey. Like Constantinople/Istanbul.
They would have to convert to Islam, or possibly die, their sons castrated and made into soldiers and their girls sold into slavery.

The answer is not to be poor, rich or even live in moderation. Every heart is different, if you can, you best obtain riches according to how much you can hold and be your best at compassion and other Christ like traits. Look at the mistakes of John G Lake.

Ivan Hlavanda said:

Being financially poor or wealthy does not bring you and advantage or disadvantage.

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I would rather associate with the poor. They are rich in love and other things.

"Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?" James 2:5

Ivan Hlavanda said:

Being financially poor or wealthy does not bring you and advantage or disadvantage. We all rebelled against God, we are all in need of a Saviour.

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Yeah, but there is a lot of security in poverty because people in poverty are more likely to cling to God than the rich people.

Alice Cooper is rich and has a great conversion testimony. It wasn't always like that for him.

Diamond7 said:

I would rather associate with the poor. They are rich in love and other things.

"Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?" James 2:5

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I agree with this. Poor people are ore trustworthy than rich people are.

Ask me how I know. I was a Mechanical Contractor for 22 years (above board!) so I worked for the rich and the poor. I lost more money to affluent people than I did any poor person.

Old old black man, dirt poor. I could tell as soon as I waked in. I gave him as much of a break as I could but it was still $732 because he needed a lot of work done and it took a long time. When I was finished and gave him the bill, I didn't know if he would ask to make payments to me or not. But he took the bill and said wait here, I'll be right back. He went to 3 different rooms in his house and brought out a lockbox from one room, a cardboard box from another room and a sock (!!) from the third room! I was impressed. He counted out my money and said thanks for getting his gas back on for him. He paid cash, on the spot.

How come the Dentist with a ine house and cars n the drive wont ay me a lousy $160!
Dentists, Lawyers, doctors, all those professional types like to dodge payments. They're easy to get ahold of when they need you and can't be found when they owe you!

Realators are bad too. I got real good at filing Machanics Leins! They work great!

Divide said:

Dentists, Lawyers, doctors, all those professional types like to dodge payments.

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Because people overcharge them. My dad was a doctor and he would ask me to hire people because the price they quoted me was half of what they want from the "rich" people. His favorite story was about the TV repair man who wanted to charge him $10 to fix the TV. At the time he was charging $5 so he raised his rates to $10 so he could afford what people wanted to charge him.

Actually, the Bible talks about an even scale and charging everyone the same amount. I use to work really cheap, so it upsets me now when people want insane amounts of money to fix or repair. They make the same claim. Their truck cost them $50 or $60,000 so that money has to come from somewhere. Back in the day my pickup was $8,000 and a lot less fancy than what they want to drive now.

tonychanyt said:

Not all believers were poor financially. Abraham, Issac, Jacob, David, Solomon, etc. were all wealthy people. In fact, God prospered them.

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Please point out which one of those lived on earth after Jesus was crucified, dead and buried.

Divide said:

Yeah, but there is a lot of security in poverty because people in poverty are more likely to cling to God than the rich people.

Alice Cooper is rich and has a great conversion testimony. It wasn't always like that for him.

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For more understanding, how many poor people in sodom and gomorrah were saved ? How many rich ?
In the days of Noah (I think Jesus says today is like those days, right?) ,
how many of the world's poor were saved from the flood ? How many rich ?
When the tower in Siloam fell and killed people, how many were rich, how many were poor ?
Jesus said directly, unchanged today "did they die because of their sin? No, I tell you, but unless every one, each one of you (listeners) turns to the Creator and gives up opposing Him, you will all/each/ likewise die" ... rich or poor,
with further instructions to them all throughout the New Testament God's Own Word .... who can hear ? who can see ?
...
God spoke to &Vincent& &&Furnier&7 (according to an online report so to speak) , "Apr 19, 2022Cooper said he once contemplated changing his name after he came to faith in Christ, but his pastor advised him not to. "

but Vince decided to listen to a man?instead? ....

Diamond7 said:

Because people overcharge them. My dad was a doctor and he would ask me to hire people because the price they quoted me was half of what they want from the "rich" people. His favorite story was about the TV repair man who wanted to charge him $10 to fix the TV. At the time he was charging $5 so he raised his rates to $10 so he could afford what people wanted to charge him.

Actually, the Bible talks about an even scale and charging everyone the same amount. I use to work really cheap, so it upsets me now when people want insane amounts of money to fix or repair. They make the same claim. Their truck cost them $50 or $60,000 so that money has to come from somewhere. Back in the day my pickup was $8,000 and a lot less fancy than what they want to drive now.

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It's not how many cars do they have but how many cars the garage will hold. Lol! I've done that for companies before. They told me seriously, charge them more. When I went out on my own I didn't do it that way. I had fairly high prices and did not jack it up on rich people. Rather what did do to rich people was give them no discounts.

The poor people need a discount many times and this is someting I well aware of.

When I walked in that old lady's house and she had a B&W television, she got no service call charge. It's already going to be expensive repair because.....the Supply Houses have gone through the roof! Remember you used to be able to get a new water heater installed for #350 total? I do. Thats because the water heaters were $150 so I made good money on water heaters. But now they cost more like 450 to 500 bucks just for the unit.

So while some do overcharge, not all of them are out to rake you over the coals. They have family too and are trying to keep up.

Realtors are very bad at it. They go from company to company running up bills and then wont pay and switch companies next time. They always want a big discount with the promise of lots more work from them! I got wise to that real fast. No mamm, this job is full price and if everything is ok with the payment then we can make a deal to service all of your furnaces and air conditioners in your 87 properties at a huge dicount...and make it contract form. It never gets that far though, they whine and run. I go have lunch, lol.

Diamond7 said:

I would rather associate with the poor. They are rich in love and other things.

"Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?" James 2:5

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Unless you have the Holy Spirit in you, you will not produce the love God requires, the love that loves despite of, the love that loves unconditionally, the love that love those who hate you.

The poor of this world are His chosen, not merely for their poverty, but poor in spirit, recognising their sinful nature, needing a Saviour. They are poor in the eyes of the World because faithful people, Christians look weak to the World.

Abraham, King David, King Solomon, Job, all men of faith and materialistically rich. All need the same grace.