Rich in Good Works

Scripture

1 Timothy 6:17–19 (ESV)

Reflection

The instruction to the rich does not open with an amount. It opens with posture. Not haughty. Not setting hopes on the uncertainty of riches. Those two belong together more than they appear to.

Haughtiness grows naturally out of believing your resources are both earned and secure. A leader who treats the money as proof of judgment will treat people with less of it as people with worse judgment, and will defend that position hard when something threatens it.

Who richly provides us with everything to enjoy sits in the same passage. Nothing here treats resources as dirty or enjoyment as suspect. The caution is about where hope gets placed, not about whether a leader is permitted to have anything.

Then the practice. Do good, be rich in good works, be generous and ready to share. Ready is the word that catches a leader. Generosity that requires a long internal negotiation every time it comes up is not readiness. Stewardship builds the habit in advance so the answer is already available when the moment arrives.

Storing up treasure as a good foundation for the future reframes the whole arrangement. Resources spent on people are not gone. They have been moved into something that cannot be taken away, which is a better description of security than any balance a leader can sit on and guard.

Practical Application

• Check your posture toward people with fewer resources than you, and be honest about what you find.
• Make one generous decision quickly, without the usual internal negotiation.
• Name what you are actually resting your hope on, as opposed to what you would say you rest it on.

Takeaways

• Haughtiness and misplaced hope grow from the same belief, that resources are both earned and secure.
• Readiness is the test of generosity, because generosity that needs a negotiation every time is not ready.

Closing Thought

Resources spent on people are not gone. They have been moved.