(And Why You’re Probably Serving Money)
There’s a verse in the Bible in Matthew 6:24 which says,
“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 money.”
I probably don’t need to explain what serving money looks like, but I will just so we’re on the same page. It means allowing money to make the calls on your life. And it could look like this:
- Refusing God’s call for you serve people in a poor country because you’ll be broke.
- Deciding who to marry based on who will provide the most comfortable and posh lifestyle.
- Refusing to speak God’s truth because that might cause people at church to leave and lower your weekly offering.
- Planting churches only in affluent communities because that’s how you keep the lights on.
- Unwilling to give up sizable money to causes or individuals that God has laid on your heart.
- Deciding who’s in your social circle based on what they can do for you (i.e. connections, opportunities, business dealings).
Now, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with some of these as long as you are not doing something you believe God doesn’t want you to do. For example, if you’re a real estate agent it would make sense for you to be around people who have money. The problem is if this is not where God will have you and you don’t care, that’s when you get into trouble.
Do you notice that Christians will praise and thank God when they get a promotion or a raise, but they won’t do that when they get demoted or fired? It’s almost as if to say that it’s God’s will that you get rich. For some people it may be, but for others it’s not true.
Do you find it interesting that the richer you are the more you have to lose so you’re more likely to justify why God doesn’t want you to do anything that may hurt you financially?
A lot of Christians do say that they are stewards of the wealth God has given them, but when push comes to shove, they don’t really believe that. They really believe that their wealth rightly belongs to them. Here’s the scary part… God says you can’t serve both God and money. So if you’re serving money, there’s a good chance you don’t belong to Him.