The cost of Money

Does God care about our financial success? Joel Osteen seems to think so based on how much he talks about it, but scripture seems to paint a picture of a God that warns that too much focus on money can lead it to being our master, instead of Him.

Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

God is a little bigger and better perspective for us than to prioritize how nice our stuff is during our few decades on earth. And don’t think that this warning applies only to the rich, far from it! For every one person who loses their soul to serving wealth and achieving it, there are five poor fools who pursue wealth in this life and never even get it! That is the biggest loser, and how sad is the person who gives up his reward in the next life and doesn’t even get the shiny trinkets in this one! The pursuit of wealth is what is wrong, the service to it is what damns us, not “achieving it” or having it. 

In a positive sense, money is a tool. It is a neutral object, but it is heavy and powerful, and if it starts rolling in the wrong direction it can crush a believer (and it always starts rolling in the wrong direction if you aren’t submitted to the Master).  It can easily become the end goal, instead of a (in most cases non-necessary) tool for kingdom work. Does reaching the nations with the Gospel take some money? Generally, but harder to find than the money is the people committed to go, and senders willing to pray consistently. Does it cost money to pray? No. Does it cost money to hold a church service, and teach and worship? Only in the America does this somehow cost a lot of money, in truth, it does not. 

This is one of the clearest ways we are separated from the world. We are fundamentally different in our pursuits in that we only have one pursuit, one master. The world has many pursuits, all revolving around the insatiable beast of self, which is a self-destructing virus that is fatal to their soul. This is why money becomes a master to them and rules over them. They seek all that money can buy (ease, stuff, time off work and retirement, status, power, fame, etc). This is why the love of money is the root of many forms of evil, it is not evil itself, but sprouts all forms of pride and greed. Jesus refers to this as “every kind of greed” in Luke 12:15. Money can master you in a million different ways.

But what of us? We are called to Seek first the kingdom, and the basic necessities of life will be added to us (Matthew 6:33). We left this country for a better one (Hebrews 11:13-16), and like Moses, we consider the reproach of Christ greater wealth (Hebrews 11:26) than what we can get here in Egypt.