Hope and Riches

Hope and Riches
by Pete Berardi

Ephesians 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

I may seem redundant in my theme here from the previous post, but it just goes to show that the message of the Bible is simple. This world has transformed many good things into bad and bad things into good. Love of the world is enmity with God. You cannot serve God and mammon. The verse above in bold is along the same theme. Hope and riches according to the Bible is certainly not the same hope and riches according to the world. Let us examine a worldly point of view of hope and riches.

I would think, based on television shows, people at work and other places, and things that I have read that people hope for mostly worldly things. People hope that they get a raise. They hope for a promotion. Some hope that they marry a rich spouse.

Riches is quite obvious, however there is a spectrum of riches that could be looked at. Money is the obvious one. Material possessions are another form of riches. Some people consider themselves rich when they have a lot of friends. Others consider themselves rich in mind. They pursue a grand education and knowledge. Some people consider fame to be riches. These are all things of the world. I am not necessarily saying that these things are evil. However, most of the time, the pursuit of these worldly things, can take our eyes off the prize. The real prize of Jesus Christ is truly the only goal worth pursuing.

According to the Bible, we are made rich when we are indwelled with the Holy Spirit. This is the riches of his grace. Our hope is the second coming of Christ. We are to be constantly hoping that God will deliver us from this present and evil world. We are to be looking for his glorious appearing. The Bible states that his love is better than gold or silver, in other words better than any worldly riches.

I am stating that maybe we should try to redefine what the term riches are and reevaluate what is worth our hope. Only Jesus.