Early Christian Beliefs About Wealth

Clement of Alexandria, Who Is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved? Direct teaching

Failing to understand these things in their proper sense, the man of much wealth and observance of the law — and not understanding how the same person can be both poor and rich, can have wealth and not have it, can use the world and not use it — went away gloomy and downcast. He left behind the rank of life that he was able only to desire but not also to attain, having made what was difficult impossible to himself. For it was difficult that the soul not be drawn around and dazzled by the luxuries that come with obvious wealth and by their flowery enchantments. Yet it was not impossible, even amid these things, to lay hold of salvation, if one should transfer himself from sensible wealth to the wealth grasped by the mind and taught by God, and learn to use indifferent things well and properly, and so press on toward eternal life. The disciples too, at first, themselves became thoroughly afraid and astounded when they heard this. Why, indeed? Was it because they too had acquired much wealth? But they had long ago left even those very nets and hooks and serviceable little boats, which were their only possessions. What, then, did they fear when they say, "Who can be saved?" They listen

Cyprian, Treatises Direct teaching

...r wealth, when really they are possessed by it. They are slaves to profit, not masters of their own money, but rather slaves of their money. The apostle points to these times and these people when he says, "But they that will be rich fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the root of all evils is the love of money, which some have desired, and in doing so they have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." 1 Timothy 6:9. But with what rewards does the Lord invite us to despise worldly wealth? With what repayment does He make up for the small and trifling losses of this present time? He says, "There is no man that leaves house, or land, or parents, or brothers, or wife, or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive sevenfold even in this time, and in the world to come everlasting life." Mark 10:29. If we know these things, and have learned them from the truth of the Lord who promises them, then loss of this kind is not only not to be feared, but even to be desired. As the Lord Himself again announces and warns us, "Blessed are you when m

Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Direct teaching

Listen, he said: The rich man has much wealth, but is poor in matters relating to the Lord, because he is distracted about his riches;

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching

...against one another. The things that are good for the soul are bad for the body. These are avoiding riches, refusing pleasures, and looking down on pain and death. In the same way, the things that are good for the body are bad for the soul. These are desire and lust, by which riches are sought, and the enjoyment of various pleasures, by which the soul is weakened and destroyed. Therefore, it is necessary for the just and wise man to be involved in all evils, since courage overcomes evils; but the unjust man is involved in riches, honors, and power. For these goods belong to the body and are earthly; and these people also live an earthly life. Nor are they able to reach immortality, because they have given themselves over to pleasures, which are the enemies of virtue. Therefore this temporary life ought to be subject to that eternal life, just as the body is subject to the soul. Whoever, then, chooses the life of the soul must despise the life of the body. In no other way will he be able to strive for what is highest, unless he has despised the things that are lowest. But he who has embraced the life of the body and has turned his desires downward to the earth is unable to reach

Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Direct teaching

And this is a great work, and acceptable before God, because he understands the object of his wealth, and has given to the poor of the gifts of the Lord, and rightly discharged his service to Him.

Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Direct teaching

...his centurion. But someone may now argue with us like this: "Then it is not a good thing to give up riches." Well, I reply that it is a good thing for those who are able to do it. But at the same time, to use riches for works of righteousness and mercy is as acceptable as if one were to give up everything at once. Again, as to the claim that the Sabbath has been abolished, we deny that He plainly abolished it, for He Himself was also Lord of the Sabbath. And the law's relation to the Sabbath was like the servant who has charge of the bridegroom's chamber. He prepares it carefully and does not allow it to be disturbed or touched by any stranger, but keeps it whole until the bridegroom arrives. Then, when he has come, it may be used as he pleases, or as it is granted to those whom he has invited to enter with him. And the Lord Jesus Christ Himself testified to what we say when He said with His heavenly voice, "Can you make the children of the bride-chamber fast so long as the bridegroom is with them?" Again, He did not actually reject circumcision. Rather, we should say that He took into Himself, and in our place, the reason for circumcision. He relieved us by what He Himself endu

Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Direct teaching

And the rich man, in like manner, unhesitatingly bestows upon the poor man the riches which he received from the Lord.

Peter of Alexandria, Canonical Epistle Supporting witness

...their money rather than their souls. In this way, they showed that they wanted to serve God and not mammon, that is, riches. He also brings forward the words of Scripture and the example found in the Acts of the Apostles, of the blessed apostle Paul and others. Now, when it is said that they "have been undisturbed by all evil," this should be understood in one of two ways. Either it means that they were left undisturbed as far as denying the faith is concerned, since denial of the faith is what brings in every evil. Or he means the sufferings of persecutions.

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

...refore minister with a kind mind, not murmuring or rebelling, for you do not do it for man, but for God, and you shall receive from Him the reward of your ministry in the day of your visitation. It is your duty, you who are deacons, to visit all those who need visitation. And tell your bishop about all those who are in affliction, for you ought to be like his soul and senses, active and attentive in all things to him as to your bishop, and father and master.

Luke 12:33 Direct teaching

Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys.

Matthew 6:20 Direct teaching

but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Matthew 6:19 Direct teaching

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

Matthew 6:21 Supporting witness

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Cyprian, Treatises Direct teaching

...vote ourselves to giving alms, and not depend on earthly possessions, but instead store up heavenly treasures. He says, "Sell your goods, and give alms." Luke 12:33 And again: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in nor steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21 And when He wished to describe a man as perfect and complete through keeping the law, He said, "If you will be perfect, go and sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me." Matthew 19:21 Moreover, in another place He says that a merchant of heavenly grace, and one who gains eternal salvation, ought to buy the precious pearl—that is, eternal life—at the price of Christ's blood, using his inheritance, and giving up all his wealth for it. He says: "The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls. And when he found one precious pearl, he went away and sold all that he had, and bought it." Matthew 13:45-46

Cyprian, Treatises Direct teaching

10. You say that you are wealthy and rich. But it is not fitting for a virgin to boast of her riches, since Holy Scripture says, "What has pride profited us? Or what benefit has the boasting of riches brought us? And all these things have passed away like a shadow." Wisdom 5:8 The apostle also warns us again and says, "Those who buy should live as though they did not buy, and those who possess as though they did not possess, and those who use this world as though they did not use it. For the form of this world is passing away." 1 Corinthians 7:30-31 Peter also, to whom the Lord entrusted His sheep to be fed and guarded, on whom He placed and founded the Church, says that he has no silver or gold. But he does say that he is rich in the grace of Christ, and wealthy in his faith and virtue. By these he did many great works with miraculous power. By these he abounded in spiritual blessings for the grace of glory. These riches, this wealth, she cannot have if she would rather be rich for this world than for Christ.

Tatian, The Diatessaron Direct teaching

...ssions and give alms. Make for yourselves purses that do not grow old. Matthew 6:19 Do not store up treasure on earth, where moth and worm destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. Matthew 6:20 But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where moth and worm do not destroy, and thieves do not break in or steal. Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:22 The lamp of the body is the eye. If, then, your eye is sound, your whole body also will be full of light. Matthew 6:23 But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be dark. And if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is your darkness! Luke 11:35 Be careful that the light in you is not darkness. Luke 11:36 Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, having no dark part, it will all be full of light, as when a lamp gives you light with its flame.

Justin Martyr, The First Apology Direct teaching

...eceive, what new thing are you doing? Even the tax collectors do this. Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where robbers break in; but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for it? Lay up treasure, therefore, in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt.” And, “Be kind and merciful, as your Father is kind and merciful, and makes His sun rise on sinners, the righteous, and the wicked. Do not worry about what you shall eat, or what you shall wear: are you not better than the birds and the beasts? And God feeds them. Therefore, do not worry about what you shall eat, or what you shall wear; for your heavenly Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be added to you. For where your treasure is, there also is the mind of a man.” And, “Do not do these things to be seen by others; otherwise, you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”

Methodius, From the Discourse on the Resurrection Supporting witness

...at is not made with hands. As the Lord also showed when He said, “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when you fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations,” Luke 16:9. For what the Lord there called habitations, the apostle here calls clothing. And what He there calls friends of unrighteousness, the apostle here calls houses dissolved. So then, when the days of our present life come to an end, those good deeds of kindness that we have attained in this unrighteous life, and in this world which lies in wickedness, 1 John 5:19, will receive our souls. So when this perishable life is dissolved, we shall have the habitation that comes before the resurrection. That is, our souls shall be with God until we receive the new house that is prepared for us and will never fall. Therefore we also groan, not because we wish to be unclothed, as to the body, but to be clothed upon, 2 Corinthians 5:4, by it in the other life. For the house in heaven, with which we desire to be clothed, is immortality. When we are clothed with it, every weakness and mortality will be completely swallowed up in it, consumed by endless life. “For we walk by faith, not by si

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

Lay up to yourself heavenly treasure, which neither the moth nor thieves can destroy.

Didache, Connection to Matthew 6:20 Supporting witness

"Lay up to thyself heavenly treasure, which neither the moth nor thieves can destroy."

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Direct teaching

...Similarly, the saying "You cannot serve two masters" is explained by Him: "You cannot serve God and mammon," recognizing God as God but mentioning mammon as something that exists. He does not call mammon Lord when He says, "You cannot serve two masters," but He teaches His disciples, who serve God, not to be subject to mammon, nor to be ruled by it. For He says, "He that commits sin is the slave of sin." Since He calls those who serve sin "the slaves of sin" but does not call sin itself God, He also calls those who serve mammon "the slaves of mammon," not calling mammon God. For mammon, in the Jewish language, also used by the Samaritans, means a covetous person who wants more than they should have. In Hebrew, with the addition of a syllable, it is called Mamuel and means insatiable. Therefore, by both meanings, we cannot serve God and mammon.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Direct teaching

In like manner also, that [text] which says, “Ye cannot serve two masters,” He does Himself interpret, saying, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon;” acknowledging God indeed as God, but mentioning mammon, a thing having also an existence.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Supporting witness

He does not call mammon Lord when He says, “Ye cannot serve two masters;” but He teaches His disciples who serve God, not to be subject to mammon, nor to be ruled by it.

Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness

for no man can serve two masters, and we cannot serve God and mammon, whether this name be applied to one or more.

Tertullian, Against Marcion Supporting witness

You cannot indeed serve God — Him, of course whom they seemed to serve — and mammon to whom they preferred to devote themselves.

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching

For, no one can serve two masters, Matthew 6:24 according to the Lord's admonition.

Clement of Rome, Second Epistle (attributed) Supporting witness

Now the Lord says, “No servant can serve two masters.” If we want to serve both God and mammon, it will do us no good. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? This world and the next are two enemies. The one urges adultery and corruption, greed and deceit. The other says farewell to these things. Therefore, we cannot be friends of both. By giving up the one, we must make sure of the other. Let us consider it better to hate the things that are present, since they are small, temporary, and corruptible, and to love the things that are to come, since they are good and incorruptible. For if we do the will of Christ, we will find rest. Otherwise, nothing will deliver us from eternal punishment if we disobey His commandments. For Scripture also says in Ezekiel, “If Noah, Job, and Daniel should rise up, they would not deliver their children in captivity.” Now if men so exceptionally righteous cannot, by their righteousness, deliver their children, how can we hope to enter the royal residence of God unless we keep our baptism holy and undefiled? And who will be our advocate unless we are found to have works of holiness and righteousness?

Tertullian, Against Marcion Supporting witness

...rable to the Creator's interests. Then, on the admission just mentioned, since the woe aimed at the rich belongs to the Creator, it follows that it is not Christ, but the Creator, who is angry with the rich, while Christ approves the motives of the rich. I mean their pride, their pomp, their love of the world, and their contempt of God, because of which they deserve the Creator's woe. But how can it be that the condemnation of the rich does not come from the same God who just before expressed approval of the poor? Nobody but the same one condemns the opposite of what he has approved. Therefore, if the woe pronounced against the rich is assigned to the Creator, then the promise of blessing on the poor must also be claimed for Him. And thus the entire work of the Creator is attributed to Christ. But if the blessing of the poor is assigned to Marcion's god, then the curse of the rich must also be assigned to him. In that case, he will become the Creator's equal, both good and judicial. Then there will be no room left for that distinction by which two gods are made. And when this distinction is removed, the truth remains, which declares that the Creator is the one and only God. Ther

Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness

or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other, and further, You cannot serve God and mammon.

Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Supporting witness

...l and rotten. Therefore, this illustration is for the servants of God, for the poor man and for the rich." I said, "How so, sir? Explain it to me." He said, "Listen. The rich man has much wealth, but he is poor in matters relating to the Lord, because he is distracted by his riches. He offers very few confessions and intercessions to the Lord, and those that he does offer are small and weak, and have no power above. But when the rich man refreshes the poor and helps him in his needs, believing that what he does for the poor man will receive its reward from God, because the poor man is rich in intercession and confession, and his intercession has great power with God, then the rich man helps the poor in all things without hesitation. And the poor man, being helped by the rich, intercedes for him, giving thanks to God for the one who gives him gifts. And he continues to care zealously for the poor man, so that his needs may always be supplied. For he knows that the intercession of the poor man is acceptable to God and has influence with Him. So both of them accomplish their work. The poor man makes intercession, a work in which he is rich, which he received from the Lord, and with

Clement of Alexandria, Who Is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved? Supporting witness

The man, then, who is truly and rightly rich is the one who is rich in virtues and able to use every fortune devoutly and faithfully, while the false rich man is the one who is rich according to the flesh and has shifted his life into outward possession — the kind that passes away and decays and now belongs to one and now to another, and in the end to no one whatever. Again, in the same way, there is also a genuine poor man and another spurious one, poor in name only. The one is poor according to spirit — that is, in what is his own; the other is poor according to the world — that is, in what is foreign to him. To the man not poor according to the world but rich in passions, the one not poor according to spirit but rich according to God says: "Stand off from the foreign possessions present in your soul, so that, becoming pure in heart, you may see God" — which by another voice is to enter into the kingdom of the heavens. "And how shall you stand off from them? By selling." What then? Will you receive money in place of possessions, making an exchange of wealth for wealth, by turning your visible substance into silver? By no means. Rather, in place of what was formerly within the sou

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness

He that has this wealth shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Origen, Commentary on Matthew Supporting witness

...t the Lord is the Spirit." 2 Corinthians 3:16-17 And he who is truly a householder is both free and rich. He is rich because, from the office of the scribe, he has been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven in every word of the Old Testament and in all knowledge concerning the new teaching of Christ Jesus. And he has these riches stored up in his own treasure-house, in heaven, where he stores his treasure as one who has been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven, "where neither moth consumes, nor thieves break through." Matthew 6:20 And about the man who, as we have said, stores up treasure in heaven, we may truly say that not even one moth of the passions can touch his spiritual and heavenly possessions. "A moth of the passions," I said, taking the thought from Proverbs, where it is written, "As a worm in wood, so pain wounds the heart of man." Proverbs 25:20 For pain is a worm and a moth, which wounds the heart that does not have its treasures in heaven and in spiritual things. For if a man has his treasure in these, for "where the treasure is, there will the heart be also," Matthew 6:21 then he has his heart in heaven, and because of this he says, "Though an army should

Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness

...says, "If you will be perfect, go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me." Matthew 19:21 If rich people did this, they would not perish because of their riches. If they stored up treasure in heaven, they would not now have an enemy and attacker in their own household. Their heart and mind and feeling would be in heaven, if their treasure were in heaven. Nor could the world overcome a man who had nothing in the world by which he could be overcome. He would follow the Lord, loosened and free, as the apostles did, and as many did in the time of the apostles, many who gave up both their possessions and their relatives, and clung to Christ with undivided bonds.

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness

...fore these alone are rich. For righteousness is true riches, and the Word is more valuable than all treasure, not coming from cattle and fields, but given by God—riches that cannot be taken away. The soul alone is its treasure. It is the best possession for its possessor, making a man truly blessed. For he whose part it is to desire nothing that is not in our power, and to obtain by asking from God what he rightly desires, does he not possess much, yes, all, having God as his everlasting treasure? To him that asks, it is said, shall be given, and to him that knocks it shall be opened, Matthew 7:7-8. If God denies nothing, all things belong to the godly.

Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Supporting witness

Blessed are they who have riches, and who understand that they are from the Lord.