In my younger days, a career in banking was regarded as a very worthwhile occupation and the local bank manager was held in great esteem. Now bankers occupy the very lowest rungs on the ladder of respectability, perhaps even lower than journalists, politicians and estate agents.

The bankers are largely responsible for the current financial crisis, having irresponsibly engaged in high risk ventures in order to gain for themselves large, indeed obscenely excessive, bonuses over and above their substantial salaries. Loans were made without appropriate safeguards and then profitably sold on to other financial institutions who naively bought them without, it seems, even checking what they were. The whole process escalated until borrowers began to default on their repayments at which point the whole financial system went into meltdown.

Who is going to suffer for all this? Certainly not the top bankers, for we learn that banks are going to pay bonuses not only as before but in certain cases at even higher rates. It has just been announced that one major financial institution is to pay bonuses amounting to an average of $500,000 for each employee.

The underlying problem is, of course, greed. As the Apostle Paul wrote to his adopted son Timothy:

9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
1 Timothy 6:9,10 (NIV)

Wise words on this subject are to be found in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes , written by King Solomon, one of the richest men who ever lived. In the first chapter he explains how he used his wealth in order to try to buy happiness, mostly by acquiring material things, but to no avail. Later in the book he writes:

Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.
Ecclesiastes 5:10 (NIV)

He also was aware of the futility of acquiring material possessions:

As goods increase,
so do those who consume them.
And what benefit are they to the owner
except to feast his eyes on them?
Ecclesiastes 5:11 (NIV)

After all, we can only eat so much, only drive one car at once, and wear one suit or dress. Those who are wealthy often do turn their wealth into something simply ‘to feast their eyes on’: a Picasso or a Rembrandt to hang on their wall and impress visitors.

Solomon also understood a common danger of wealth; the situation that arises when Lottery or Pools winners acquire a fortune and, for example, the son of the family is killed in his new Ferrari. Often family happiness is ruined; marriages break down and, ultimately, those involved often say that they wished their windfall had not occurred.

Materialism is not a guarantee of happiness. This is endorsed by the Lord Jesus:

Then he [Jesus] said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Luke 12:15 (NIV)

He followed this statement with a parable that is pertinent to the present crisis: the Parable of the Rich Fool. In this parable a man who is already well off has unexpected bumper crops and, pulling down his inadequate barns, erects even bigger ones in which to store his wealth. Feeling that his future is now secure he says to himself:

"You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."
Luke 12:19 (NIV)

This was not, however, to be - for that night he died! So, says Jesus:

"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God." Luke 12:21(NIV)

The Lord Jesus also said:

19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal."
20 "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal." Matthew 6:19, 20 (NIV)

Banks may collapse and fortunes may be lost but if we lay up “heavenly treasure” it is always secure.

The Lord Jesus was rarely angry but he did resent the way in which people were using the outer court of God’s temple in Jerusalem for trading. Not only did he clear out the livestock being offered for sale but he overturned the tables of the money changers. These men exchanged everyday currency for other coins that alone were acceptable for payments made in the Temple precincts. Of course, they applied a large commission in making these transactions. No wonder then that Jesus said:

"Is it not written:

"My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers."
Mark 11:17 (NIV)

The spiritual wealth was being replaced by material wealth. It is interesting that the word for “table” in the original Greek of the Gospel accounts of Jesus overturning the tables of the money changers is exactly the same word used in Greece today for a bank!

We may sum up the Christian perspective by another quotation from Paul in his first letter to Timothy:

“… godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Timothy 6:6 (NIV)