Are We Pauper Princes?

Like squirrels, we stock away our wealth in investment funds, hoping for the day when the miracle of compound interest and savvy financial management will finance our sunset years. While there is wisdom in this, many Americans have gone a step too far. Their focus is entirely on fulfilling personal goals and desires. Chances are that many of the items on their bucket list would be absent from God’s bucket list for their lives.

Imagine for a moment what God’s bucket list for our lives might include. Most likely, a Florida winter home, a boat, luxury cars, and world tours would not make the list. Certainly, these were not on Jesus’ personal bucket list when He was setting an example for us to model our lives after. Instead, Jesus willingly forsook many earthly pleasures in order to reach a maximum number of people with God’s truth. Matthew 8:19–20 recounts, “A scribe approached Him and said, ‘Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go!’ Jesus told him, ‘Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.’”

Jesus’ focus was on people and on those things that are eternal in nature. He taught in Matthew 6:19–20, “Don’t collect for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal.” Jesus had a kingdom perspective. He recognized the fleeting nature of earthly wealth, and He challenged us to use it to invest into God’s heavenly kingdom which is eternal. In Luke 12:33, Jesus urged, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Make money-bags for yourselves that won’t grow old, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.” Likewise, Matthew 13:44–46 says, “‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had, and bought it.’”

Missionary and martyr, Jim Elliot, once said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”^[1] Our chief investment should be in God’s heavenly kingdom—even if it requires all that we have. It should be our foremost retirement plan. After all, there can be no greater return on investment than to be a pauper in the eyes of the world for a fleeting moment in order to secure the office of ruler in eternity. Jesus promises in Revelation 2:26–27, “The one who is victorious and keeps My works to the end: I will give him authority over the nations—and he will shepherd them with an iron scepter; he will shatter them like pottery—just as I have received this from My Father” (emphasis removed).

Financial investment funds can be precarious. Many people lost half their wealth in the financial crisis of 2008. Our hope cannot rest in such funds. Instead, we must place our hope in the secure and eternal promises of the kingdom of God. Whether we leave this world and enter the kingdom as a pauper or a king should matter little if we have steadily invested into this eternal future. Such a perspective can provide great comfort and security in an unstable economy.

This article is excerpted from the paper “Seeking Refuge in a Precarious Economy.”