In Matthew 6:24(NLT), Jesus Christ informs us, “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” He taught this over two thousand years ago, but this truth has increased exponentially in relevancy. During biblical times, the chasm between the haves and the have nots was huge. There was nothing like the modern conveniences that we have today, so being poor was more perilous than any of us can imagine. Being rich granted a type of prominence that was enjoyed by a small minority, and like today, many people felt that the only way out of the struggle was to become wealthy somehow. So, money and wealth were worshipped, and in today’s society, on that issue not much has changed.

An unhealthy infatuation with money is not something to be taken lightly. It suggests a lack of spiritual knowledge and understanding about God’s sovereignty and nature, as well as a lack of understanding about who God has created us to be. An unhealthy love of money is a heart issue. This means that it is an internal problem that will impact everything we do and every relationship we have. Most importantly, an unhealthy love of money will injure our relationship with God.

In 1Samuel 16:7(NLT), God told His prophet, Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The LORD doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” God looks at what is in a person’s heart, and He is the only One who can truly know our hearts. He knows us infinitely better than we know ourselves. He knows what we’re going to do, think, feel and say before we do, think, feel and say it. Nothing about us surprises Him, but we most definitely can and do surprise ourselves. We can be capable of the greatest compassion and the darkest evil. Jeremiah 17:9(NLT) states, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”

Given a particular set of circumstances, we can go very low in our behaviors and attitudes. God sees it all, and He is always rooting for us to make better choices. He wants us to wake up and recognize who we are in Christ. God created us to be a part of His family through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. As sons and daughters of God, Christ commands us to place all our faith in our Heavenly Father. We cannot place all our faith in God and in money at the same time. We must choose to serve one or the other.

Galatians 3:24 tells us that our faith is what makes us right with God, but many people have chosen to worship their pocketbooks and wallets. They believe in what money can do more than they believe in God. This is a very dangerous road to travel, because the consequences can impact us for an eternity. We would do well to remember that the pleasures of having wealth and loving money are short-lived, and the cost of putting this before our relationship with God is an eternity of torment and darkness.

The riches of this world are temporary. They are here today and gone tomorrow. This is one of the reasons that Jesus Christ commands us in Matthew 6:19-21(NLT), “19 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”  To store up treasures in heaven is to focus our hearts and minds on the treasures that matter to God, treasures like living through the righteousness we have received through Christ, and the love, kindness, and compassion we have towards others. A heart that is motivated by these things is a treasure more precious than anything the world can offer.

1John 2:15(NLT) warns, “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.” This verse schools us on the importance of guarding our hearts and minds against the wrong attitude and desires that the world creates. It makes it clear that it’s not about how much worldly treasure we possess, but it’s about the danger regarding how much worldly treasures possess us.

Life is more about giving than receiving. Acts 20:35(NLT) states, “You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.” The world’s way is to be anxious about things and worried about what we consider to be problems. Jesus Christ teaches in Matthew 6:27-29, 31-33(NLT), “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? 28 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” Our responsibility is to focus on God and to grow in Christ. When this is our focus, our Heavenly Father will take care of everything else.

He has given us the unfathomably tremendous blessing to live within this extraordinary planet, and to enjoy the bounty of God’s blessings every day. Our purpose for being here is to share the light of Christ with the world, and to demonstrate the perfect love of God. We must always remember that we are in the world but not of the world, and Romans 12:2 affirms that we should not be conformed to its traditions, cultures, or customs. Our privilege and responsibility are to continue to submit to God humbly and allow Him to transform us from the inside out. When we do this, our souls will be rich, and our spirits will be light and full of God’s love. This is very important to our Heavenly Father, and if living an eternity with Him is our goal, it should be incredibly important to us as well.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. 

“The Cost of An Unhealthy Love of Money”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.