Please enjoy some biblical teaching from Zacharie on wealth and faith...
The love of money is the root of all evil ( 1Tim 6:10). Unfortunately, many people don't understand that. They think that money is one of the most important things and it can help them buy possessions that can make them happy. Therefore, it causes them to fall into lust as they fight to gain more money to buy what they want or need. Many people think that wealth means happiness; sometime this is not true, because many rich people are truly poor. They are never satisfied with what they have. Others allow God to control their wealth and they share what they have in profit with other people in need. These rich people are happy because they live according to God’s will. It is better to be satisfied with what God has given us. This portion of Jesus’ sermon on the mount can be divided into four parts:
1. Where your treasure is your heart
will be also: ( Matthew 6: 19-21)
To understand this bible passage,
we need to know and understand what is meant by "treasure.” The bible verse that we are considering says,
"Where your treasure is your heart will be also." A treasure might be
a person or an object that has great value in our eyes. God wants us to give
him our heart. Therefore if we keep thinking of other things and forget God, we
put God out of our life. It is not bad if you love your friends or family, but
sometimes focusing on them can turn your heart away from God. These bible
verses don't mean that you don’t need to take care of personal things. But it
is a danger to give your heart to what you get. Things can take God’s place in
your heart. That is why the devil makes the whole world his slave because of the
world’s addiction to wealth.
Christian people should not allow
riches to turn them away from God. Everyone who is controlled by what he has
chooses idols over God. We could write a
long list, but everyone knows his own weakness or idols , the things that can
separate you from God. It is the true
sense of these bible verses that we should not seek earthly things, but
heavenly treasure. What treasure would you like to choose: earthly treasure or
heavenly treasure? Unfortunately we can't choose both. Gathering treasure for heaven is when you
serve or support the little ones who are in need. The weakest people, homeless,
unclothed and so on… This is what you can do, you give yourselves to answer the
problems of the needy. Our organization
H.I.M. focuses on this and evangelism.
2. No one can serve God and material
things or the devil at the same time (verses 22-24)
It is not bad to gain wealth if you
do so honestly, but a materialist person dreams of material things. Those who
trust in material things always think that the things of the earth are the
greatest parts of life. They don't know it
is impossible to serve two masters at the same time. We can't serve God if we
keep serving worldly things at the same time.
There are some Christians who claim to work hard and save money, but in
reality they are just being stingy towards God and others. See Luke 10: 38-48.
When your work compromises your spiritual life that is materialism, because
many people neglect their spiritual work to focus on material things. Some are too busy to study the bible or pray
to God because they choose to serve money instead of God. It is important for
the parents to teach their children how to serve God instead of serving things.
According to Matthew 6:33, God tells us we must work, but we have to understand
that work is another way to serve God, because the bible says we must work to
earn our bread so that we can help ourselves and support those who are in
need. We cannot allow work to become an
idol.
3. We must not become anxious about
our needs (verses 25-32)
At first glance, it seems that
these verses contradict the teaching of other parts of the New Testament. The idea is not to worry about the next day,
but not to make preparations seems strangely at odds with the teaching of
industriousness we find elsewhere. But students of the bible know very well
that we must consider all aspects of the bible to have a balanced view of what
the scriptures teach. We must not
isolate a verse and a base an entire doctrine on it without comparing it with
the rest of the bible.
These verses are used to balance
the biblical verses about work. In this passage we read, “do not worry or think
too much about tomorrow.” These verses help us put material things in their
proper perspective. Why do people look
so energetically for money and the things money can buy?
1- To
satisfy their desires and…
2- to
find security
These reasons, neither one nor the
other is acceptable for a Christian. The
Christian must find deliverance of his desires or he will not long be a
Christian. A Christian finds his security
in God through faith in His Word, and not in his earthly possessions or wealth. Wealth then, such as when a Christian has
some goods or money, is for a different purpose (than the reasons stated
above). This does not mean that a
Christian should be irresponsible or lazy.
A true Christian will be very hardworking and responsible with his money
and property because they belong to God and not to himself. He knows that God has entrusted to him the
glory of God and because of this, Christians can sometimes be richer than some
of their ungodly neighbors. However,
rich or poor the Christian is able to leave his financial affairs in the hands
of God and go to sleep without worrying for his life or for his food, because
everything is in the hands of God.
4- It is much more important to be
just than to be rich. (verse 33-34)
The last two verses conclude by
stating that the most important thing we can do is to seek first the kingdom
and righteousness of God. The material
interests are not as important as the spiritual interests. We expect to live
much longer in eternity than here on earth. Is it not absurd to amass earthly
security at the expense of your heavenly treasures? How do we seek the kingdom
and righteousness of God? How do we gather heavenly treasure? These are silly questions to the carnal man,
but they are important to us because they affect the Christian’s destiny.
If we cannot find the kingdom of God and amass heavenly treasures, we
lose everything of value. These verses
tell us that if we seek the kingdom of God, all these things will be added to
us as well. Because it is God's will
that we have all the treasures of heaven, he will guide us to the things that give
us these treasures. In the scene of judgment
in Matthew 25, we see what kinds of things bring heavenly treasure. The righteous in this judgment passage are
blessed because of their small acts of kindness they have made. For example, a simple glass of water given to
a person in need. But we must submit to
His will in all things in our life, not just random acts of kindness.
Conclusion: How do we seek the kingdom of God? We seek to
discover what he expects from us and give it the first place in our lives. When all our properties, our desires, and our
relationships are secondary to our love for God, we collect the treasures in
heaven.
