Pure commerce is the most evil thing on earth, and it will be fully judged by God as it consummates in Babylon the Great. The commercial mind in us needs to be exposed and removed by the Lord’s shining, and our heart need to love the Lord supremely and without any expectation for something in return.
Today we see even more details on what the Bible speaks concerning loving money and riches. First of all, we cannot serve both God and the riches – we either hate the one and love the other, or we will hold to one and despise the other. We need to set our heart and our entire being on God and love Him, and we need to give in resurrection from what the Lord has prospered us.
The Bible condemns the love of money (Heb. 13:5), which is the root of all kinds of evil things. We cannot love both money and the Lord.
This doesn’t mean that the Bible condemns rich people or that it teaches that we shouldn’t be rich. Some people may be poor and with very little money and yet crave for money and desire money, while some people may be rich and yet they are not under the influence of money and they love the Lord first.
Oh, may the Lord shine on us, expose our love for money, and replace this love with a love for God, that the church life may be filled with many glorious days among the genuine lovers of Christ!
We Cannot Serve God and Money / Riches (Mammon)
The Lord Jesus told us clearly in Luke 16:13,
No household servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Even though the Lord said “you cannot serve” He really means “you cannot love” because whomever we serve, we love. We can’t serve two masters – we cannot love two things at the same time. Mammon stands in opposition to God – this shows that riches, wealth, money, is the opponent of God.
If we focus on riches, if we focus on getting more and more money, if we serve mammon, we are robbed of serving God. The Lord wants us to serve Him, that is, to love Him by giving our whole heart to Him, and cleave to Him by giving our whole being to Him (see Matt. 16:19-21).
If we love the Lord and cleave to Him, we will be released from being occupied and usurped by mammon (Aramaic for wealth, riches) and we will serve the Lord wholly and fully (see Matt. 4:10). God is versus mammon, and loving God is versus loving riches – this is very serious in God’s sight.
Don’t think you’re strong and wealth or riches have no influence on you – ask the Lord to shine on you and expose this in you. For us to serve the Lord and love Him more, we need to overcome the enticing and deceitful mammon of unrighteousness (Luke 16:9, 13; Matt. 13:22).
Giving Money and Material Things in Resurrection
Instead of loving and serving mammon, we need to give money and material things in resurrection (see 1 Cor. 16:1-3, right after Paul spoke of resurrection in 1 Cor. 15, he speaks of giving).
A strong indication that we are under God’s administration in resurrection is that we give money and material things in resurrection (see Acts 2:44-45; 4:32-34; 11:29).
What does it mean to “give in resurrection”? One aspect is giving in such a way that others don’t know about it, only you and the Lord know about it. Some people make a large donation and they make sure that everyone knows about it.
Indeed, if you go to many Anglican churches in the UK you will see inside the church a chapel for a particularly rich family that paid a generous sum of money to the church. They donate money, and their name is mentioned either on a plaque, on the wall, or in a small room built especially for them “in the church”.
Does your left hand know what your right hand is giving (Matt. 6:1-4)? We need to not only not love money and riches, but also give in resurrection by overcoming the possession of material things.
God doesn’t “need our money” – He has everything! What He wants is for us to be saved from the love of money, the love of wealth and riches! May the church life be filled with many glorious days as all the brothers and the sisters love the Lord more than they love money, riches, or material possessions!
Let Your Way of Life be Without the Love of Money
In Hebrews 13:5a we read, Let your way of life be without the love of money. Whatever we love, we set our whole heart on it, we treasure it, and we are possessed by it. Paul warned us in 2 Tim. 3:1-2 that in the last days people will be lovers of money. We need to be those who love the Lord with all of our heart and strength and power and mind (Mark 12:30).
The Bible doesn’t condemn the possession of money, and the Bible doesn’t say that it’s bad to be rich. The Bible is concerned with the love of money, the pursuit of money and riches. Some people may have a lot of money and not be consumed by them, while others don’t have much money but crave for them and think all the time about how to make more money.
May the Lord enlighten our mind in its depth, and may we allow His light to penetrate and shine in our being so that we may see how much love of money circulates in our soul, and how much thought of money and riches and material things we have in us!
Paul tells us in 1 Tim. 6:9-10 that those who intend to be rich and aspire after money have pierced themselves through with many pains. Those who desire to be rich are under the power of mammon, and they are in terrible pains inwardly. We need to hate mammon as much as we hate sin, and we need to give the Lord our first love and best love!
We don’t want to be led away from the faith as some are, as they love and desire money! May we be lovers of God rather than lovers of money! May even our way of life be without the love of money and rather filled with the love of God, the love for the Word of God, and the love for the church!
Lord Jesus, enlighten us in our mind, emotion, and will, that we may see how much love of money and material possessions is in us. Lord, save us from the love of money. Make us those who go through death and resurrection in the matter of having money and material things. We want to give in resurrection according to what You have blessed us with. Increase our giving in secret for Your interest. Lord, rekindle and increase our love for You. We love You, dear Lord Jesus!
References and Further Reading
- This sharing is inspired from brother Ron Kangas’ sharing in this message and portions in, Life-study of Luke (msg. 36), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on Crystallization-Study of Daniel and Zechariah, week 11 (entitled, The Evil and Wickedness of Commerce versus a Divine Sense of Value concerning Christ and the Church).
- Further reading:
# The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 57, pp. 155-164.
# Life-study of Matthew, p. 272.
# 2 Tim. 3:2, footnote 2 (Recovery Version).
# Life-study of 1 Corinthians, pp. 465-466. - Hymns on this topic:
# O my Love, You’ve blinded me towards all things. / O my Love, You make the world simply nothing. / Just let me see You alone, / Just make me need You alone; / None other is there for me, it’s Jesus alone!
# God’s heart longs, desires that we, / His lovers, seek Him corp’rately. / On each other spent constantly; / My life is for you, yours for me.
# As I love You I set my being— / My spirit, my soul and body. / With my heart, my mind, and my strength, / Absolutely on Thee. - Pictures credit: Luke 16:13 here, and “love of money” here.
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Money can buy a things or fantasy but we give everything to the Lord Jesus more than money.Our way od live be without the love of money and rather filled with the love of God
Luke 16:13b You cannot serve God & mammon.
Heb 13:5a Let your way be without the love of money…
'Because mammon is in rivalry with God, it s evil…what ever 1 loves, his whole heart, even his entire being, s set on & occupied & possessed by. This s crucial!'
Lord let our 1st love b U, & when we give let it b n resurrection & not self glorification.
Amen! 🙂
We serve either God or mammon, this is very serious. Those who desire to be rich are under the power of mammon. Today, may we all advance step by step and be totally free from the power of mammon. Because mammon is in rivalry with God, it is evil. We have to hate mammon as much as we hate sin. If we are truly under God's administration in resurrection, we shall overcome money and material possessions. They will have no power over us, and they will not occupy us or possess us. Instead we shall overcome them and reign over them. May we be those who serve God (Luke 16:13) by loving Him, giving our hearts to Him, cleaving to Him and giving our entire being to Him.
Lord Jesus! May we be captured by your beauty! Loving You every moment of our being! May You be found in our hearts, thus our love for You be a duplicate of Your Love! Such love in resurrection will help us to overcome the evil one in mammon and we will have the power to hate him as we do towards sin. May such love shine in our being daily eliminate all traces of love toward mammon and give us a desire to give in the ressurrection power of your love for the building of your kingdom.
A person will lose God if he gains wealth and will have no room for wealth if he gains God. the goal of human life, which is just God Himself. if we wanted anything outside of God, we would lose God (franciss of assisi).
In Ecclesiastes chapter one Solomon declared that all things under the sun are a vanity of vanities (v. 2). If God were to give the material things to us, He would be giving us vanity. In the New Testament,Paul, a man who knew God, said that material things are refuse, dung, and stinky, worthless things (Phil. 3:7-8). Many Christians today, however, consider these stinky things treasures. This is because man, having fallen into the enjoyment of material things, cannot discern the true nature of these things. Therefore, some are even bewildered and ask, “Do you really mean to say that we should not care about our food and about our living? Why should we embrace a religion if it cannot take care of our living?” Many people have asked the same questions. This only indicates the pitiful situation of men who have fallen into the snare of material things. God’s salvation is to deliver us from the fallen condition of the material world, just as He has delivered us from our lusts. Therefore, Christians should take nothing else but God Himself as their goal.
Even the poor struggle to overcome, thinking little more i could do this or that, true adversary of the love of god
Oh Lord! Save us