Putting Money in Its Place

 

Monday, May 10, 2021

But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.  But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.  Fight the good fight for the true faith.  Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses.  1 Timothy 6: 9 - 12

There are four thoughts that are frequently on my mind when it comes to money:

1.    There are many examples of the wrong use of money, all fueled by greed, one of the seven deadly sins.

2.    The Bible, particularly the words of Jesus, and his apostles, condemns greed because of the harm it eventually does to the one who is greedy.

3.    There are a lot less preachers who preach on money than there should be.

4.    There are too many people who get it wrong about why preachers talk about money.

The reason preachers speak about money is because Scripture speaks about life, and everything connected with how we are to conduct our lives.  How we think about and use the resources God puts in our hands is a big part of that.  Granted that the examples of preachers who want to transfer your money from your pockets into theirs are many, but those hucksters are, I’m convinced, still in the minority – by a far margin!  Most preachers, when they speak about money, are concerned with helping us develop strong, spiritually-based habits concerning money which will bless our lives, families, communities and God’s Kingdom.

The backlash against preachers who talk about the use of money is deserved when the motive that spurs the preacher is of greed, like Paul warned Timothy.  But it is radically-lopsided in my experience.  Over the years I have seen some numbers of news cycles focus on some spectacularly greedy public personality.  That’s when the wash of public sentiment becomes disproportionately hostile to the other 99.5% of honest preachers.  And the honest ones wind-up preaching less about the use of our financial resources for fear of driving away the congregation. 

Does that remind you of anything?  It should, because it smells like smoke, right out of the pits of Hell.  That “news cycle syndrome” inciting public outrage, based upon the ludicrous and godless actions of either unbalanced, or just evil persons, destroying the genuine leadership of those acting with good motives, and honest effort, is the Enemy’s method of destroying God’s people from using resources for Kingdom purposes. 

Unfortunately sometimes it works, and primarily because of watered-down preaching that never gets to the heart of the right use of money, or (so-called) saints, who are too stunted in their spiritual growth to recognize the news cycle for it’s ratings-grab, just another yardstick for measuring greed.

For You Today

Money needs to be placed in its rightful place, the hand of generosity, controlled by the Spirit’s guiding.  And God’s people need to remember to encourage their pastors and teachers to teach the Scriptures, helping all of us use God’s resources wisely, and effectively, exhibiting true Biblical stewardship for all the world to see.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©