You hear nearly daily of this celebrity or that celebrity saying that they know what is best for the rest of humanity. Why? Because they are rich.
This is what the Bible says about those that have been given wealth in the world:
1 John 3:17 – If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?
Now the first thing that will come from the minds of the read of this post is this:
“But they are showing compassion.”
Now let’s expand this topic to include the full teaching in this letter.
1 John 3:11 – This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous. 13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. 15 Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them. 16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? 18 Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. 19 Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. 20 Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. 22 And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him. 23 And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.
So in the full teaching we see that it is both faith and works that shows we are children of God. So for a celebrity to tell us we must welcome the sick and the poor. However they live in wealth, luxury and leisure. They horde most their wealth and if they do share it they share very little.
Those that are given wealth are not to store up their wealth, especially if they profess to be “Christian.” We should live on enough to be debt free and not to live in excess and luxury. Once we reach this point, yet we are still given the wealth of this world that which exceeds our base needs should be given first to our fellow Christians in need so that they can then live debt free and in comfort. If we still have worldly wealth left that should be given beyond the body of Christ to help those truly in need. For that is what the Bible teaches us to do.
So those that are called celebrities are not something to revere, but to shun and ignore for they are of the world and we are not to befriend the world. For those that do befriend the world are the enemies of God.