Being Blessed: Wealth, Property, and Theft
Stephen Fowl
The Ambiguous Relationship between Blessing and Possessions. There is generally a blessing at the end of the Eucharist. We don’t get God’s blessing as payment for worshipping him, but because of his generous and overflowing love. God’s blessing in Scripture is often like to material things. But, it is a mistake to assume that the amount of our material things is related to how much we deserve. That is trap the Job’s friends fall into.
Blessing, Possessions, and the Knowledge of God. The giving and receiving of gifts is one of God’s primary eucharistic actions. Realizing that in the right context makes the concept of “our” possessions very problematic.
Blessing, Possessions, and the Shape of Christian Communities: Acts and Ephesians. The NT does not present a single normative patters for dealing with possessions. Two principles stand out.
- The NT has a persistent interesting in Christian communities.
- The ways Christians deal with possessions both shape and are shaped by other aspects of their lives.
Acts 4-6 presents a picture of one way for a Christian community to deal with possessions. But, it requires total and implicit trust of the leadership, something not likely to happen in American culture very often.
Ephesians 4 presets a different picture. Not everything is held in common nor does Paul say that it should. Rather he talks about attitudes that should be avoided and dishonesty (stealing) is one of them This goes back to the trust issue that was necessary in Acts for community.
Conclusion.