( The photos are of contemporary Chinese cities and infrastructure. )
What values lead to creating such a complex and technologically advanced environment? Implied by roads and high-rise residences, what kind of economy creates a massive amount of relatively wealthy people?
I am not going to answer those questions, but I am going to answer with what doesn't.
What doesn't create these scenes is the shaming of wealth and the shaming of material things. I am not villifying an individualistic pursuit of a simple life, but on a mass scale and baked into policy decision-making this is toxic and leads to a society that correctly can be called simpletons and will be servants for a more enterprising society.
If we look a bit wider at the philosophy Jesus preaches I think we'll see he favored the poor, and he preached the dangers of seeking wealth. This is his overwhelming message in the gospels.
…but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the Word, and it proves unfruitful.
Mark 4: 19 17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and mother’.” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Mark 10: 17-22 (similar story in Matthew 19: 16-22) “Give to anyone who asks of you…” Matthew 5: 42 19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 24 …You cannot serve God and money. Matthew 6: 19-21, 24 17 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 18 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Matthew 19: 23-24 Mary’s Song of Praise (The Magnificat): 51 He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. Luke 1: 51-53 27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. 29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5: 27-32 “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors… But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind…” Luke 14: 12-13 __________ “You cannot serve God and money.” Luke 16: 13 __________ 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 1 John 2: 15-16
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