Wealth

In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.  The crown of the wise is their wealth, but the folly of fools brings folly.  (Proverbs 14:23-24)

1.  Toil is lifted up as a good thing.  Work is a good thing.  As a result of the Fall, toil is now very hard sometimes.  However, in toil there is profit, there is gain.

2.  Mere talk leads only to poverty.  This is not lifted up as a good thing.  We do not need to be people full of hot air.  We need to find our duty and spend more time doing it than talking about doing it. 

3.  Wealth is put forth here, not necessarily as a promise or an ultimate goal, but as a natural consequence of a wise life.  Wisdom does not squander.  There is no special glory in being reckless with your possessions.

4.  The folly of fools is contrasted with wisdom.  There is a vicious circle here.  The folly of fools leads to more folly.  This is like the man who acts like a kid and won't grow up and wastes his life on stupid things.  The things of responsibility, duty, honor, becoming godly are simply not on his plate.  They are pushed out by his cycle of folly.

5.  In Proverbs there is much about wealth and wisdom.  Having wealth is not condemned as a negative thing.  There are numerous warnings in the rest of the Bible about the deceitfulness of riches, but if we read the whole Bible, it has to be tempered with these sorts of passages as wealth.  Money makes a poor god, but it may be a good tool in the hands of someone who has been made generous by the generous love of God.

6.  Reading and listening to John Piper and David Platt and others like them is convicting.  It has made me not care so much about money.  But I also think that in placing myself in their stream of thought, I have romanticized poverty (relatively speaking) to some degree and the laziness of my heart has given a resounding but covert amen.  I do not need to make money my God, but I also ought to serve the Lord with excellence because he is God.  I do not want to do crap.  He is not glorified by that.  Laziness is a sin, just like the rest, and Jesus died for my laziness.  I think that laziness characterized a lot of my time at Georgia Tech, and I needed someone to smack me out of it.  Therefore, take this post as a loud and clear indictment of your laziness, whatever form it takes.  Stop it!  My laziness took the form of skipping class to read books on theology.  How ironically idiotic.  Whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord to the best of your ability. 

7.  I have heard the phrase "work hard, play hard" as a sort of theme for college students, certainly at Georgia Tech.  I think in general that is okay, except that it might be taken to mean something like "work hard and then party hard and get smashed, but you can feel good about yourself because you are living life to the full."  Umm... anyway.  I certainly think we ought to work hard.  But we also ought to Sabbath hard.  Rest hard.  God has woven regular rest into the pattern for how he wants us to operate.  If we do not, we do not honor him, and we begin to break down.  He designed us, he purposes our good, and he has told us to honor the Sabbath by resting. 

8.  There is a rest coming.  We are not home.  Tears and death and pain will not always accompany us.  It is gloriously good to know that we are not laboring in vain, but that we are storing up treasures in heaven, and we will finally hear the greatest words we could want: "Well done, my good and faithful servant."