I have a friend who observes my adult daughters, my sons-in-law, and my grandchildren (two of them now married) and tells me, “You are a rich man.” He’s absolutely right. I value that kind of wealth far more than financial riches.
By telling us to be rich in good deeds, God is likewise encouraging us to redefine our view of riches: “Command them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share” (1 Timothy 6:18).
Being rich as the world defines it is merely an illusion. We fail to recognize true and lasting riches as compared to false and fleeting ones. Someone can have great earthly riches, as the rich fool did or as Ebenezer Scrooge did, and have a profoundly impoverished soul. And someone can have almost no earthly riches, like the poor widow and countless others, and have a vibrant, thriving soul.
When we give, we don’t surrender riches. Rather, we trade one kind of riches for another. The first kind we can’t take with us when we die. According to Jesus, the second kind of riches will go before us and await us in Heaven after we die (Matthew 6:19-20).
If I take Jesus seriously and choose a smaller house and less expensive cars here on Earth so I can invest the savings in God’s Kingdom, my Lord will give me eternal treasures in Heaven that, in retrospect, will make a big house and nice cars seem utterly trivial.
But why not believe Jesus now rather than wait until Heaven—when it will be too late to reverse our choices—to believe what He said was true all along? We might ask ourselves, Why settle for an expensive necklace or a deluxe entertainment system now when by giving away the money we could contribute to an imperishable treasure in eternity?
God has given us the gifts, opportunities, and resources we need to be rich in good deeds. We were “created in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:10)—not to do random or insignificant good works, but to do works prepared for us from eternity past. But God doesn’t only prepare works for us to do; He also continually prepares us to do those works. What a thrilling concept!
Years ago, when I was still a pastor, Nanci and I opened our home to Diane, a pregnant teenager who had previously had an abortion. While she lived with us, she gave birth and placed her baby for adoption. There were many tough times for Diane and for us, including late nights when I drove through town trying to find her. We had a two-year-old daughter at the time, and our second daughter was born shortly after Diane delivered, so our own stresses were multiplied.
But we had the joy of seeing Diane come to Christ and later become a terrific wife and mother. Over the years she has also had a powerful ministry to others. Nanci and I remained close to her, and we regularly reaped a harvest of joy that vastly outweighed the initial trials.
Diane once told me, “Abortion filled me with grief and regret. But when I think of the child I placed for adoption, I’m filled with joy, because I know he’s being raised by a wonderful family that wanted him.” We had the privilege of being with Diane when she was joyfully reunited with the son she surrendered for adoption thirty-three years earlier.
I recall one evening, when Nanci was sick with cancer, that Diane drove nearly an hour to bring us dinner, nearly forty years after she lived with us. The meal was great, but the real payoff, both now and forever, is in our precious relationship, which will outlive this world and be our treasure in the next.
Does doing good and ministering to others involve sacrifice? Absolutely. Often we see payoffs in this life, though sometimes it takes a while. But even when we don’t see the return on our investments now, Jesus promised we will see them in the next life, when He will make sure we “will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14, NIV).
