Episode Details

Money can tell you how much you have, but it makes a terrible answer to the question, “Who am I?”

Wealth is a gift to steward, but it was never meant to become our identity. Yet in a culture that often measures success by income, possessions, and financial security, it’s easy to begin defining ourselves by what we have—or what we lack.

Scripture offers a different perspective. In fact, some of Jesus’ most memorable teachings about wealth reveal what happens when possessions become central to a person's identity.

When Wealth Becomes Your Identity

Have you ever noticed how Scripture describes certain wealthy individuals? There's the rich fool, the rich young ruler, and the rich man who lived in luxury while a poor man named Lazarus suffered outside his gate.

We know what these men possessed. We know how they related to their possessions. But we don't know their names.

Perhaps there's something worth considering in that pattern. These men looked to wealth for something it could never ultimately provide: security, significance, and even identity. And in the stories themselves, their possessions became what they were known for.

Consider the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. Jesus describes a wealthy man dressed in purple and fine linen who feasted lavishly every day. Outside his gate lay a poor man covered with sores, longing for scraps from the rich man's table.

But Jesus introduces these two individuals with a striking contrast: the poor man has a name, Lazarus. The rich man doesn't.

The world may have known the wealthy man's name while overlooking Lazarus entirely. But in Jesus' telling, that distinction is reversed. Lazarus is known by name, while the other man is identified simply by his wealth.

There's something sobering about that. The rich man possessed the outward markers of earthly significance, but those possessions could not establish his standing before God.

Now consider the rich fool in Luke 12.

Jesus tells the story of a wealthy landowner whose farm produces such an abundant harvest that he runs out of room to store it. He decides to tear down his barns, build larger ones, and enjoy the security he believes his wealth provides.

He tells himself, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry" (Luke 12:19). Again, we never learn his name. We know him simply as the rich fool.

His problem wasn't that his farm succeeded or that he possessed an abundance. Scripture doesn't condemn wealth or enjoying God's provision. His problem was that his possessions had become the foundation of his security.

Notice his language: my crops, my barns, my grain, my goods.

His world had become centered on what he possessed. He had accumulated enough to convince himself that his future was secure. But God tells him, "Fool! This night your soul is required of you" (Luke 12:20).

He had plenty of possessions, but they couldn't provide the security he ultimately needed.

Then there's the rich young ruler, whose encounter with Jesus is recorded in Mark 10. 

He approaches Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. But when Jesus exposes how his possessions hold his heart captive, the man walks away sorrowful because of his great wealth.

Once again, we remember someone largely by what he possessed.

These accounts don't suggest that wealth itself is the problem or that those who have much cannot faithfully follow Christ. Rather, they reveal the danger of allowing wealth to occupy a place in our hearts that belongs to God alone.

When wealth becomes our identity, it can diminish our understanding of who we truly are.

An Identity That Cannot Be Lost

Our culture constantly invites us to define ourselves through financial categories.

We're wealthy, middle class, homeowner