Calibrated wealth preferences. May 21st, 2025. Introduction. We saw in our last installment on wealth

that such resources can be a blessing from God, and that affluence is something that represents

the goodness of God to us. But like all things that God gives, we can love and pursue it wrongly.

When we do this, it is because we've gotten our priorities out of whack.

Wealth has become more important than it ought to be,

coming to outrank things that by all rights should outrank it.

Wealth is by no means the highest blessing which God can bestow on us.

As Christians set our priorities

for business and for the task of making money, a number of things should be placed ahead of profit

in our hearts and minds. The basic teaching in this line that we gather from Proverbs is that it is far better

to be poor and wise than it is to be rich and stupid. But as we consider this, we have to remember that there are two

other options that are logically available. It is also possible to be poor and stupid or rich and

wise. And of course, out of the four options, the best one, as we have already seen, is to be wealthy

and wise. But then the wisdom of Solomon tests us. It is only possible to be wealthy and wise if such a person

would rather be poor and wise than rich and stupid. Priorities. By what standard? We all know what is

meant when that cliche about priorities is rolled out. Setting priorities means more quality time with

the kids, for example. But too often we just invoke the phrase as though it were a

mantra, and the content of what our priorities ought to be is just assumed, which means that they

were picked up from the surrounding culture. And the thing about assumptions picked up this way is that

they're coy. They don't like to make themselves visible. But by what standard must we set our

priorities when it comes to questions of

wealth? The Bible tells us, what is better than wealth? What should we rather have than great

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