Gospel of Wealth or Poverty? Income Inequality in the New Testament

Income inequality is a dominant theme in New Testament Bible verses.  The Gospel of Wealth or Poverty? How Do Bible Verses about Jesus, Wealth, Poverty, and Heaven Affect Your Income? connects your financial status and your biblical beliefs. The question mark in the title challenges an either/or choice between wealth or poverty based on Bible verses.

Wealth and poverty are significant themes in the Bible. If you focus on isolated Bible verses, you can claim that God wants you to be poor. You can also claim that God wants you to rich. But neither argument can be justified if you go beyond the verses and read whole stories set in their original social, economic, political, and religious contexts.

The income inequality scales represent the unjust imbalance between wealth and poverty. Significant portions of the Bible focus on economic injustices inflicted by the rich rulers against the poor. The focus on income inequality is particularly evident in the New Testament Gospel stories of Jesus about the salvation of oppressed people from the economic injustices of the ruling class.

Gospel of Wealth or Poverty? goes beyond an either/or approach to consider eight familiar statements by Jesus.  These familiar Bible verses consider topics such as money, wealth, poverty, and heaven. They are often misquoted and misunderstood.

Beliefs about wealth and poverty based on separate Bible verses lead to contradictory claims about “what the Bible says about money.”

1. “God and Mammon” in the Beatitudes, the Gospel of Matthew
2. “Bread and debts” in the Lord’s Prayer, the Beatitudes, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
3. “Blessed are the poor” in the Beatitudes, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
4. “Taxes to Caesar,” the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke
5. “The money changers in the temple,” the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
6. “Honoring your father and your mother,” in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark
7. “The poor widow,” in the Gospels of Mark and Luke
8. “The rich young man,” in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke

Gospel of Wealth or Poverty? goes beyond either/or. to see Jesus as a hero on a hero’s journey about economic injustice caused by income inequality.

Heroism responds to a threat. The New Testament gospels are whole stories about a hero who confronted income inequality at its source of power. They are not constraining rulebooks but liberating stories. Don’t let misunderstood Bible verses about “what Jesus said about money” keep you struggling with guilt and fear about money. Get your copy of Gospel of Wealth or Poverty? now to find out how you can become your own money hero.