Ecclesiastes Is Not Telling You to Get Rich

Recognize this passage?

'I have observed that this also is wisdom under the sun, and it is significant to me: There was a small city with few men in it. A great king came against it, surrounded it, and built large siege works against it. Now a poor wise man was found in the city, and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man. And I said, “Wisdom is better than strength, but the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heeded.”'

Ecclesiastes 9:13-16

The lot of us will read this passage and conclude, “People listen to the rich, so I must become rich.”

This article is part 1 of an ongoing series on Christians and Money. To see the rest, see Christians and money series

You can't be further from the truth.

A poor man saved a city through wisdom, yet he was forgotten because he was poor. Solomon was exposing society’s bias, not giving you a strategy for gaining respect.

Yet some people read that passage and decide, “I will become rich so nobody can ignore me again.” Beneath that ambition may be wounded pride, childhood trauma, fear of insignificance, or a desperate need for validation.

But Christians are not called to pursue money. We are called to pursue God and His will.

Where money is necessary to fulfil that will, work honestly and diligently to obtain it. Receive wealth if it comes. Use it faithfully. But do not lose yourself in the pursuit of it, imagining that once you reach some great financial height, you will finally begin to do good.

If you cannot do good with the little you have now, wealth will not suddenly make you generous, faithful, or righteous. It will likely magnify what is already within you.

Rather than rejecting society’s corrupt standard, you are simply submitting to it: becoming rich so the same world that ignores the poor - of whom you were once a part of - will finally recognise you.

Have we forgotten that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

Money itself is not enmity with God. But your reason for desiring it can place you in opposition to Him.

The point is not to demonise wealth. It is to examine your desires repeatedly. Pursue God’s will, not money. If wealth serves that will, use it. But never make wealth the destination and postpone obedience, generosity, or goodness until you arrive.