James H. Cagle
“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8: 9 KJV).
A poor man made me rich. He gave me all He had and made me rich. He had no money but He gave me riches money can’t buy. These riches do not lose their value but instead increase in value through the years. These riches are eternal life, and the knowledge of God, and His love, grace, and fellowship. These riches dwell in my inner man, and if my heart had embraced the riches of the world instead, I could not have received these riches from God, and I would still be a poor man.
Jesus said, “For ye have the poor with you always.” We will never put an end to poverty. The reasons for this are many. But there is one reason for being poor that is most acceptable. Poverty is an acceptable choice when poverty is a choice whereby we free ourselves from the things of this world that we may serve the Lord and live the heavenly life. Those who are poor from choice, who have been lifted into such an understanding of divine things that they see things in the cloudless light of eternity and God, and are so flooded with God Himself that earthly riches are a positive hindrance to them, are triumphantly poor.
Jesus chose poverty for His earthly estate because it would put Him in sympathy with those in the lowest estate and because wealth would have been a nuisance and a hindrance to His heavenly life and His service to the Father. Wealth would have been a stumbling block that was always in His way. Jesus fulfilled God’s will with mere pocket-change.
For this same reason the prophets of old and the apostles, and Christians through the ages have resigned themselves to poverty. They have the mind of Christ which is opposite in everything including poverty to the mind of the world. For the soul that has the mind of Christ, poverty is chosen over wealth, that they might be rich in the things of God.
The Bride of Christ is poor materially speaking but immensely rich spiritually speaking. —“Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith?” (James 2: 5).
