Dear reader, I am pleased to present you with another study related to a question of great interest that many people who confuse holiness with poverty to serve God ask.

You may ask: Do people have to be poor to be holy?

It has been taught for many years that holiness and poverty go together. The apostle Paul says: "I know how to live humbly and I know how to have abundance." Then he added: "I can do everything in Christ that strengthens me" (Phil 4: 12-13).

You can be as sacred when your financial situation is comfortable as when you are poor. It may be easier to cry out to God when you need it. But if Christians sanctify God in their hearts beyond material concerns, they must be able to live above the circumstances surrounding them, whether they are prosperity or poverty.

Poverty is a curse, not a blessing. It certainly is not synonymous with justice.
Sometimes it is the product of the horrors of war, of an unjust government or with little foresight; sometimes it is the result of the oppression of the ambitious and selfish, or of human disobedience to the divine commandments, or of ignoring the principles that enclose God's blessings. Sometimes temporary poverty is the result of a satanic attack or series and an inexplicable calamity. Whatever their cause, poverty and holiness are not equivalent.

Some voluntarily make a vow of poverty to surrender completely to God. In such a situation, poverty becomes a blessing for these people, because they have renounced all their material goods to serve the Lord. However, simple poverty is not a sign of holiness. Of course, the same can be said of wealth. The saints are those who are happy where God has placed them, and serve the Lord with all their heart, regardless of the material circumstances surrounding them (1 Tim. 6: 6, 17-19).