Beginning with the Sermon on the Mount, Thornton points out the various ways that we elide or explain away some of Jesus's most radical statements because, well, surely he couldn't actually mean that.
"And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well" (Matt. 5:40).
Huh? In case you missed it, let me tell you straight up that this is terrible financial advice. And on so many levels! Obviously Jesus didn't grow up in America. We love to sue people! It's our national pastime.
.....
And His follow-up was even worse.
"Give to the one who asks you" (Matt. 5:42).
Did He mean everybody? I'd be broke in a week! Why not buy my wife the shirt "I'm with Stupid!," add a big tat to my forehead that confirms it, and stand on the street corner with a stack of $50s until the carnage is complete?
However, based on his bedrock rule that "If my theology disagrees with God, one of us is wrong, and it's not Him," Thornton explores what it means if Jesus really did mean exactly what he said.
The author reaches the conclusion that the reason one cannot love both God and money is that money, when it is "loved," is an idol, something that makes the same promises God does to protect and provide for us. Just as the Israelites performed rites both at the temple and at the high places, to "cover their bets" in case one or the other god didn't respond, we may see money as something that can give us what God declines to. Money is only seen rightly when it is seen as a lesser blessing than the utmost God has for us in his will.
Starting from the position that Jesus really means what he says, Thornton draws out principles and implications from Jesus's teaching about money, parables about wealth and possessions, and interactions with people rich, poor, and in between. This is an invaluable little book that will broaden the reader's perspective on the Christian approach to giving, saving, retirement, and everything else dealing with money.
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