Neither Poverty nor Riches

A Book Review

Craig Blomberg set out several years to write a book that was a biblical theology of money and the resulting product is a fine example of how to do biblical theology. He surveys every important and most every minor passage that relates to money in some way and then draws conclusions based on those observations. I highly recommend reading this book for a balanced view of money. Here is an excerpt from his comments on James 2:14-17.

      So, too, professing Christians today who have surplus income (i.e., a considerable majority of believers in the Western world), who are aware of the desperate human needs locally and globally, not least within the Christian community (a situation almost impossible to be unaware of, given our barrage of media coverage), and who give none of their income, either through church or other Christian organizations, to help the materially desitute of the world, ought to ask themselves whether any claims of faith they might make could stand up before God's bar of judgment. This is not salvation by works any more than the examples of Abraham and Rahab in James 2:20-25, but it is the demonstration of a changed life, a heart begun to be transformed by the indwelling Spirit of God, which thereby produces an outpouring of compassion for those so much less well off than oneself (155).

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