We need to be Delivered from the Love of Money so that we may Worship God and Serve Him

As believers in Christ we should worship God and not money, and we need to be delivered from the love of money, for it is a root of all evils; when we deal with money in an absolute way, God has a way to use us for His purpose. Amen!

How we thank and praise the Lord for saving us from the world, sin, and death, and for daily saving us in His life.

However, in our experience we all realize that we need even more saving; we need to be saved much more, even more and more, from so many things that hinder us and usurp us.

One of these matters, which occupies a big part of our being and draws our attention very much is mammon, the love of money.

When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was very strong concerning the matter of following Him; today many Christians are quite shallow when they speak of following the Lord, but the Lord requires absoluteness in following Him.

If we want to follow the Lord and be His disciple, if we want to inherit eternal life and be saved, we need to sell all we have and follow Him.

We need to be saved from the low of money, delivered from mammon, and follow the Lord. And when He comes into us, when He enters our house, salvation comes in, and this salvation includes salvation from mammon.

However, if we do not remain in this process of continually being saved from money and from the usurpation of mammon, it will be easy for us to be usurped by mammon.

Satan doesn’t come to us directly to overpower us and subdue us; he uses mammon to usurp us, and he makes us think that we need money, we need this and that, so we pursue after wealth and money and riches.

Even though we may not have many things outwardly, but inwardly our thinking is still according to Satan’s way of gaining something, having something more, and coveting to have this or that. Oh, Lord Jesus!

May the Lord have a way to expose mammon and its grip on us; may He cause us to realize our desperate need to be delivered from the usurpation of mammon, and may we cooperate with the Lord in our daily living by pursuing Him and loving Him much more!

When we love the Lord, our system of value is changed, and mammon no longer becomes something that usurps us but rather, we give all we have to Him, and we gladly pay the price of all things on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Being those who Worship God and who are Delivered from the love of Money, which is Covetousness, Idolatry

The universe is full of wonderful things created by God, and if we look around us at God’s creation, we are amazed to see all the wonderful plants, animals, and things that God made for us.

However, we have to admit that, in the world today, everything is reduced to money; if one has money, he has many things, but if one doesn’t have money, cannot have many things.

Satan seems to have reduced all things to money, for all things can be bought with money.

Money is not created from God; money comes from Caesar, who is a type of Satan.

When others asked Christ if they should pay tribute money, He asked them to show Him a denarius; He did not take any money from His pocket to show it to them, but they did.

The Lord was not subject to money, He did not serve mammon, neither was He usurped by Satan to love money.

His response was very wise, Render then the things that are Caesar’s to Caesar (Matt. 22:21).

We need to pay tribute to the government according to the governmental regulations in our country, but we need to render to God what is God’s.

We are God’s – we belong to God, we live to Him, and He is everything to us; therefore, we need to give all we have to God.

Yes, we do need to pay our taxes as the law says, but even more, we need to be delivered from the love of money and render God all that we are and have! Amen!

In the world today you need to have money if you want to buy food, shelter, wood, stone, or anything like that; mammon becomes the power, the center of man’s worship.

Man unwittingly worship mammon for he thinks that he needs money to get this and that.

The controversy in the universe is whether man worships God or mammon; on one side there’s the worship of God, and on the other side, there’s the worship of mammon.

Mammon seems to be the only thing that withstands God because mammon can unify all things. For us to desire money is to covet, and covetousness is the root of all evils (1 Tim. 6:10).

Covetousness is the same as idolatry. We may not agree with having an idol in our home, but how about our money? How about mammon?

Riches are an idol; money is necessary for our human living and existence, but covetousness, coveting money and desiring riches, this is idolatry. We need the Lord’s shining on this matter in our being and in our daily living.

We may say that we love the Lord and His word, but in our daily living, do we worry about money, do we desire to have more money, do we work harder to get more wealth and riches?

Are we those who worship God and who are delivered from the love of money, which is idolatry?

We may say that those who are in India have so many idols, and those who are in China worship an idol in Buddhism, but what about mammon?

After we are saved, we need to deal with money, for mammon is an idol that is dear to our heart.

Whether we are in Eastern or Western Europe, whether we live in Africa or in America, and whether we are in Asia or in Australia, mammon is the most common object of worship.

As believers in Christ, we need to be freed from the love of money, which is covetousness and worship God, not mammon.

The love of money is covetousness, idolatry; we need to be saved from this and cling to God, love God, and worship God only.

Lord Jesus, we love You. We forsake any idols, anything that demands our worship apart from You. We want to be those who worship God and who are delivered from the love of money. Amen, Lord, deliver us from covetousness – save us from coveting mammon. We want to remove any idols from our heart and serve and worship only You, our living and true God. We give ourselves to You, dear Lord, for You alone we worship and love. We are not our own: we belong to You, we give all we are and have to You, and we seek You. May the matter of loving money and pursuing wealth be settled in our being. May we follow You absolutely.

Fervently Loving the Lord and Serving Him, and being Delivered from Loving Money, which is a Root of all Evil

Sometimes, the reason behind our being cold toward the Lord is that we try to serve two masters – we try to serve God and mammon.

We can’t serve God and at the same time serve mammon; these two lords are completely opposite one to another, and their commands and demands are very different.

No matter how much believers try to pull things together and compartmentalize, you can only love God and hate mammon, or you serve mammon and are cold toward God. Oh, Lord Jesus!

This is why the Lord told Laodicea that He will spew her out of His mouth if they don’t repent, for they were lukewarm.

Acting ambivalently will put us in great jeopardy. As believers in Christ, we need to fervently love the Lord and serve Him, worship God, and be delivered from the love of money.

1 Tim. 6:9-11 clearly warns us that those who intend to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge men into destruction and ruin.

Why? It is because the love of money is a root of all evils, because of which some, aspiring after money, have been led astray from the faith and pierced themselves through with many pains. Oh Lord!

But we as men of God, need to flee these things, and we need to give ourselves to just love the Lord!

God does want us to be rich, but the riches He wants to give us are in the spiritual realm, and there’s nowhere in the New Testament that we are encouraged to seek wealth, desire riches, or make more money, as if we do this “for the Lord”.

There’s no such thing as accumulating riches on earth while setting our heart on heaven; we can either serve God and fervently love Him, or we serve money.

We need to have the attitude that, if we have food and covering, if the Lord has met our needs, we should be content; we should not desire to have more things, more riches.

Those who intend to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish and harmful desires will overtake them.

Especially as we serve the Lord in the church life, we should never make godliness a means of gain; we should never “monetize our service to God”.

We can never be so fallen as to follow money in our speaking and in our work; if we want to gain more money, we are through with serving God.

In our serving God we need to fervently love Him and be completely free from the influence of money.

May we receive the leading to have a part in the Lord’s present move, live in the church life, and preach the gospel of the kingdom to hasten the Lord’s return, and may we never go with the tide of this age.

Others around us may seek to have a career, to advance in their company and get better pay, make more money, and raise their standard of living.

They may want a bigger house and better care, with better conditions of living for their family.

We shouldn’t condemn this because man should progress, but we believers in Christ need to take God as our source; we need to seek Him first, love Him fervently and serve Him, and we shouldn’t seek what others seek.

We Christians are different from people in general; we are the true welfare of our society and country, for we’re the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Our aim in doing anything is to serve God, shine Him forth, and express Him; as it relates to money and riches, our heart is not to gain more of these but rather, to live to the Lord and serve Him with fervent love.

May we be saved from craving for more riches or wealth and may we be delivered from longing to have more money; such desires and craving will cause us to wander away from the faith, from the contents of God’s New Testament economy.

May we be before the Lord in this matter, giving Him the first place and telling Him,

Dear Lord Jesus, You are our real riches, our real wealth, and our real treasure. We desire nothing here on earth besides You. Cause our heart to be pure in seeking You and in serving You. Save us from desiring to gain more wealth or riches. Save us and deliver us from the love of money, which is a root of all evil. Keep our heart turned toward You, dear Lord, loving You and seeking You. We choose to worship You and serve You, and we reject the usurpation of mammon. May You have a way to be testified through us for Your glory, and may Your testimony through us be pure and shining!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, and portions from, The Resumption of Watchman Nee’s Ministry, vol. 2, ch. 54, pp. 395-399, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Material offerings and the Lord’s Move Today, week 1, entitled, Principles of Material Offerings (1).
• Further reading on this topic: see Elders’ Training, Book 06: The Crucial Points of Truth in Paul’s Epistles, Chapter 9 (by W. Lee); Being Up to Date for the Rebuilding of the Temple, Chapter 4 (by W. Lee); The Character of the Lord’s Worker, Chapter 9 (by W. Nee); Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 05: The Christian (3), Chapter 4;
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Dear Lord, Thou art so much to us, / Thou art our all in all; / What Thou art fully meets our needs, / Though they be great or small. / Our hearts appreciate what Thou art, / Our spirits worship Thee; / Our grateful praise to Thee we give / As we Thy riches see. (Hymns #193)
  – Draw and win and fill completely, / Till the cup o’erflow the brim; / What have we to do with idols / Who have companied with Him? / Captivated by His beauty, / Worthy tribute haste to bring; / Let His peerless worth constrain thee, / Crown Him now unrivaled King. (Hymns #437)
  – When such as we the King can choose, / To share with Him His throne, / ’Tis passing strange that we refuse / To be our Lord’s alone. / O never speak of sacrifice! / A privilege untold / Is to be His at any price, / In Calv’ry’s hosts enrolled. (Hymns #473)