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Heal, Heaven, Homeless, Jesus, Jesus Manifesto, Jesus Sayings, Love, Matthew 6, Miracle, Money, Sick, Treasure, Wealth
The Jesus Manifest continues (Matthew 5-7). This is a critical teaching of Jesus. What should I think about money and wealth? I need to get clear on this. Jesus is!
Who will I serve? It is a stunning question. Jesus now explains that behind the choice between two treasures (where I lay them up) and two visions (where I fix my eyes) there lies the still more basic choice between two masters (whom I am going to serve).
It is a choice between God and mammon, that is between the living Creator himself and any object of our my creation I term ‘money’ (‘mammon’ being the transliteration of an Aramaic word for wealth). For I cannot serve both.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.“ | Matthew 6:19-24
Am I hearing Jesus correctly? Yes, I am. And, Jesus is serious. I can disagree with this saying of Jesus but that seems to be useless. I can refuse to be confronted with such a stark and outright choice, and see no necessity for it. I can blandly assure myself that it is perfectly possible to serve two masters simultaneously, for I can manage it very nicely. Several possible arrangements and adjustments appeal to me. Either I serve God on Sundays and wealth on weekdays, or God with my lips and wealth with me heart, or God in appearance and wealth in reality, or God with half my being and wealth with the other half.
Can I compromise? Nope! It is this popular compromise solution which Jesus declares to be impossible: No one can serve two masters … I cannot serve God and wealth (notice the ‘can’ and the ‘cannot’). Would-be compromisers misunderstand his teaching, for they miss the picture of slave and slave-owner which lies behind his words. This is simply because God is God: ‘I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other.’ To try to share Jesus with other loyalties is to have opted for idolatry.
What is my choice? And when the choice is seen for what it is—a choice between Creator and creature, between the glorious personal God and a miserable thing called money, between worship and idolatry—it seems inconceivable that I could make the wrong choice. For now it is a question not just of comparative durability and comparative benefit, but of comparative worth: the intrinsic worth of the One and the intrinsic worthlessness of the other. Will I choose Jesus or will I choose wealth?
Want to know more? Everything Jesus had to say about the homeless, wealth, prosperity, poverty, riches, the poor, the needy and giving.
Jesus Quotes and God Thoughts 
I will speak for myself as I am wired for more in all I do and have. It’s easy to serve wealth that I do not have and want more gain then I get. If I go fishing and catch a fish, I want another one. If I catch 10 fish, I want another one.
I only get 1 God and can’t have another one. Thankfully God is rewiring me! maybe I’ll take up golfing as lees is better. Thanks for the good post.
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Well said. I am wired that way as well. Jesus is challenging me to change my mind. Not easy some days but we grow.
Be blessed. God is with you.
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Reblogged this on Pastor Michael Moore's Blog and commented:
Or as Joshua stated… “…Choose this day whom you will serve… as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15 – Padre’s paraphrase)
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Many have and do try to serve both God and riches, however, to truly gain one or other requires whole souled devotion. We only have one soul and therefore can only serve one master. 1 Timothy 6:9,10 shows the results of pursuing riches as our master. It says, “But those who are determined to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many senseless and harmful desires that plunge men into destruction and ruin. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of injurious things, and by reaching out for this love some have been led astray from the faith and have stabbed themselves all over with many pains.” The irony is you gain so much more when serving Jehovah a God, although you must sacrifice to do it. Materialism is a trap where’s pursuing the truth of God can set us free from many anxieties of life (Matthew 13:22).
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Very well said. Thanks!
Be blessed.
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