The Need for Comfort

“One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.” – Proverbs 13:7 Yesterday, I mentioned that there’s nothing inherently wrong with wealth—however, we should be careful not to let our comforts dull our sense of purpose. Many early Christians were wealthy. John Mark, Lydia, and even the Apostle Paul showed signs that they were well-off. Most Pharisees were affluent or wealthy, and Paul was a Pharisee. Paul traveled frequently, which would have been costly. So, wealth itself isn’t the problem, but craving comfort is. Seneca, one of my favorite philosophers, was born the same year as Jesus and was among the wealthiest men of his time; yet, he wrote extensively on the virtues of poverty. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb noted, Seneca praised poverty from the comfort of his many villas. However, Seneca understood the importance of not being dependent on comfort.