Religion, power and money. how to live as christians

how to handle religion, money and power

1. Religion, power and money Ecclessiastes 5:1-15

2. Ecclesiastes has been speaking in the first person, sharing general principles of ethics. Now he moves on to admonitions, addressed in the second person singular to an indefinite audience. The admonitions that follow may apply to his pupil, to his son, or to all of us . Ecclesiastes' tone has changed. He utters ten imperative phrases:

3. "Walk prudently" (literally, keep your feet!) (Ecclesiastes 5 : 1); draw near to hear" (5 :1); " do not be rash with your mouth“ ( 5:2) ; " let not your heart utter anything hastily" (5 :2) ; " let your words be few" (5:2 ); " do not delay to pay" (5:4); " do not let your mouth . . . sin" ( 5:6); do not say (5:6 ); " fear God" (5:7); " do not marvel " (5:8).

4. It is not enough for us to know what is right; we have to live right . Before the time of Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Michel Foucault, Ecclesiastes took under his scrutiny the three driving forces of life-religion, power, and money-and warned us against them.

5. The Vanity of Religion Ecclesiastes opens his exhortation with the deception of religion. The first imperative is a technical religious term, "Keep!" ( shamor ), which is normally used in relation to the commandments (Deuteronomy 6: 17; 1 1 :22; 27:1). This is the verb connected to the Sabbath commandment ( Deuteronomy 5 : 1 2).