The demons of greed, lust, and pride can be exorcised, but let me warn you that the exorcisms will not come easily or quickly.* Hasty exorcisms almost always drive out angels as well as demons. And once the demons are gone, we had better be clear about what is to fill the vacancy, for empty spaces never remain empty for long (Matt. 12:43-45).
These two divergent streams of teaching are certainly paradoxical, and sometimes they seem downright contradictory. This should not surprise us. God so superintended the writing of the Scriptures that they accurately reflect the real world in which we live, and most of us are so well acquainted with paradox and perplexity in our own experience that we understand. Only the arrogant and the dogmatic find paradox hard to accept.
As long as we think of money in impersonal terms alone, no moral problems exist aside from the proper use of it. But when we begin to take seriously the biblical perspective that money is animated and energized by “powers,” then our relationship to money is filled with moral consequence.
Treating money as impersonal — compartmentalizing it as a neutral resource to be “stewarded” wisely — feels responsible but misses the biblical claim that money carries inherent power. The stewardship framing keeps things at arm’s length; recognizing money as animated by powers demands a posture closer to humility and even helplessness, taking its influence more seriously in the present rather than managing it from a distance. spiritSecond, by a conscious act of the will, let us stop denying our wealth. Let us look at the large picture. Rather than comparing ourselves to others like ourselves, so that we can always claim comparative poverty, let us become world citizens, looking at ourselves in relation to all humanity
Others of us grew up in an era of affluence and are keenly aware of the spiritual dangers of too much; the notions of conserving and being frugal feel like vices rather than virtues. It is only as we come to terms with these and the many other feelings that have shaped our understanding of money that we can act upon the biblical call to faithfulness. Sixth, let us experience the meaning of inner renunciation. Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac. And I can well imagine that by the time he came down from the mountain, the words my and mine had forever changed their meaning for him. The apostle Paul speaks of “having nothing, and yet possessing everything” (2 Cor. 6:10). As we enter the school of inner renunciation we come into that state in which nothing belongs to us and yet everything is available to us