Consider this powerful passage about the dangers of worshiping money and focusing on getting rich. Especially notice the terms in bold.
1 Timothy 6:6-10 But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
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. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
That is a lot of warnings! It isn’t bad to have money, but craving it and making it your god is a profoundly bad idea.
Here’s a better idea:
Matthew 6:19-21 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
I don’t know exactly what it will look like when we find out what we’ve “stored up” in Heaven, but I know that Jesus isn’t a tricky bait-and-switch person. That isn’t marketing spin on his part. We will not be disappointed by what we devoted to the kingdom.
Thank you for this Neil! I know we exhausted our conversation about false teachers. This is a great segway into false ‘gods’.
Timothy is rapidly becoming a favorite book–you keep sending me there
Hi Mizclark,
Yes, those are terrific books!
Very good examples Neil.
Thanks 4 the reminder about not making $ a God:)
I wonder how much freer with our money we would be if we were certain that our churches would bail us out when tough times came.
If you lost your job, would your church give you money for food, bills, and the like?
There’s a fine line between wealth aquisition and wealth worship. Having read more than a few books on people who are financially successful, I have found that upon figuring out how to achieve wealth (as there are more than one way to skin that cat), they each (that is, those about whom I’ve read) found that it didn’t require any criminal or unethical means. Most of them found success in doing something that benefits lots of people, that is, they invented or re-invented something and provided it for more people at a lesser cost (think Henry Ford or Bill Gates). Upon achieving great wealth, they gave tons to causes of all kinds. Let’s review at this point:
-Creating wealth by serving more people
-Helping more through donations, and
-Employing people
Not a bad thing. Whenever I see a discussion on the hazards of wealth creation, I have to point out that in my personal research of wealthy people, I find that not only are they reaching their goals ethically, but most don’t understand why anyone would do it unethically when it isn’t necessary.
As far as “worshipping” money, focus is required as it is in being successful at anything, but that doesn’t imply worship. In fact, I don’t believe that even those whose focus is strict would automatically resist or deny a plea for financial help should one arise.
Wealthy people can not only donate time, but tons of dough. And wealthy people command attention, so they can influence others.
I think wealthy people may have additional temptations, but mostly I think it’s perceptions that we less than wealthy people imagine. Never having met a really wealthy person, I’d have to say that the only greedy people I’ve met, the only people I’ve met who worship the dollar, are regular people.
I have a friend who, while really a nice and generous guy, has a strange attitude about money. He once was in need of body work on the rear end of his car. I directed him to my bro-in-law, who does body work, for an estimate. He got the estimate but it would be two weeks before the work could be done. In that time, a kid bumped into him, hitting the same area that was already damaged. Knowing what it would cost to fix the damage, my friend thought it was windfall time and that he could get a second check from the kid. He was waiting a day or so so he could use the written estimate for the original damage to get the kid to pay him a second time (no additional damage was done by the kid—he didn’t hit my friend’s car that hard).
I told my friend that he was stealing from the kid and should not call the kid back. He didn’t see it at first, but I got him to understand that if, by his own account, the kid didn’t produce any further damage, that he couldn’t ethically demand any compensation. He had to think about it for a while and finally decided that my point was sound and he never called the kid back.
Of course there are countless stories of average people being greedy or lowering their standards for money. Getting back too much change and saying nothing. Knowing a product has the wrong price tag on it and saying nothing. And then there’s tax time….
I think the Biblical warnings about wealth are sound. But I still think everyone should do all they can to become as wealthy as possible. It makes one self-sufficient, and less likely to be a burden on others. It enables one to do more for more people. And it is said that for every person that becomes a millionare, one hundred jobs are created. I don’t know if that’s still true or if it ever was, but I think it quite likely. The more people who achieve financial success, the more it lifts up everyone else. One needn’t sacrifice one’s devotion to God to become rich. One glorifies God by becoming rich in a Christian manner.
Excellent points, Marshall. Business owners provide much more for society than welfare programs.
We have become too focused on providing fish, instead of maybe providing a rod and some line!
mizclark,
Eggsackley!!!