“Lay not up for yourselves treasure upon earth.” The Lord’s teaching on how to live the New Life was bound to be seriously incomplete if it laid down no principles about a right attitude to money, for in the minds of millions money is the great reality in life.
Pharisee righteousness had been shown to be bogus. So also Pharisee wealth—that which they chose to esteem as a God-given reward for their righteousness.
Jesus was too practical in outlook to deny money a place in the lives of his disciples, but the smaller the part it can be made to play the better. For the pursuit of riches is worse than the pursuit of pleasure. Appetite for the latter becomes sated, and in any case palls with advancing years. But not so the lure of wealth. For, no matter how much money a man accumulates, he always has some satanic reason for wanting more, if only as an insurance policy against the loss of what he has already accumulated.
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Author: Harry Whittaker
Keywords: mammon, mammon of unrighteousness, riches, money, wealth, love of money, covetousness
Bible reference(s): Pro 23:4-5, Pro 28:20, Matthew 6:22-24, Matthew 16:26, Mark 8:36, Luke 9:25, Luke 11:34-36, Luke 12:33, Luke 12:34, James 5:1-3
Source: Studies in the Gospels.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.