Psalms 37:16; 49:16–17; 73:3
A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.
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Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;
For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.
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For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Adam and Eve were told when they left the Garden of Eden that they would be required to earn their living by the sweat of their brow. We have all been sweating ever since, some with more success than others. The history of humankind down through the ages has been the history of men and women striving to acquire enough goods of this world to sustain their lives and protect their children.
If a question were asked of the average man or woman on the street, “What causes you the most stress in your life?” it is entirely possible that he or she would answer, “Finances—how to acquire them, how to use them, how to save them, and in some cases how not to let them destroy us.”
We all yearn for the day when there are no poor among us, when every man, woman, and child will have sufficient economic and temporal blessings to meet their needs. That is a worthy community goal to strive for. It is one of the principal Zion-like characteristics of perfect societal living. We may not achieve that standard until the great millennial day under Christ’s personal rule, but we can strive for it.
In the meantime, we should do everything we can to reduce the stress that finances impose on our lives. We should prepare ourselves for provident living the best way we can, with all the education and training we can get to facilitate that. In the process we need to curb our appetites, not to spend more than we make, not to want more than we need, and not to think we need more than we really do. It is a cliché—but true nevertheless—to note how little of this world’s goods people need to be happy and, conversely, how many unhappy people have a great deal of this world’s goods. Again, that is not to be cavalier toward those who are truly poor—true poverty may do more to destroy the human spirit than any other condition except sin itself. And how doubly tragic if the circumstances of poverty lead to sin. Money for its own sake—more and more of this and more and more of that—has since the beginning of time proven to be not only insufficient for happiness but sometimes a countering force against it.
Strive to live within your means. No one can keep up with the Joneses because the Joneses are going to refinance. Be modest, save regularly, pay tithes and offerings, help the poor. Live with the peace that comes from the righteous use of money.
Jacob in the Book of Mormon said we would have riches if we sought to do wisely with them. “Think of your brethren like unto yourselves,” he said, “and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you. But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God. And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.”104 For most of us, those riches won’t be excessive. Some days it will seem they are hardly even sufficient. But if we live in righteousness, they will be. “A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.”
One other related thought: Perhaps there is nothing more ironic than that otherwise intelligent, honest people would envy what foolish people have or would yearn for that which has been acquired by wicked means. Name two categories of people we would least like to be associated with or compared to and surely “the foolish” and “the wicked” would be at the top of the list. Why do we then spend time, money, or emotion envying what is not admirable or trying to become like people with whom we don’t really want to associate? Jesus said, “By their fruits ye shall know them.”105 Does it not follow that foolish possessions reveal foolish people or, worse yet, that evil practices reveal wicked people and sinister motives? Alexander Pope wrote that “to err is human,”106 and that is probably so, but surely to want what is in error, to envy it and long for it and lust after it, is inhuman—or at least unworthy.
But more serious here than what is envied is envy itself. One of the cardinal commandments marking the Judeo-Christian world for four millennia has been “Thou shalt not covet.”107 In some ways it seems the saddest, the most pathetic, of all the Ten Commandments. That is because envy is usually not about what we lack but rather is an anger (or at the very least a resentment) about what someone else has. In short, it is truly petty—a way of thinking directed not at all toward building up ourselves but toward tearing someone else down. We can avoid a lot of sorrow and disappointment if we learn to envy less, enjoy what we do have more, and give to those who truly need it.
Notes
^106. Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Criticism,” part II (1709).