Show Me The Money!

Before we get to today’s article, I just want to mention that am writing from the perspective of a man that has experienced many of the challenges of which I write…. and those spiritual battles continue daily. The articles are implications of what it means to obey the commandment to raise your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. They require some reflection and are particularly for Christians who, as Peter would say, are diligently seeking to confirm their calling and are making every effort to supplement their faith. Said more succinctly, serious Christians. If you know other believers who desire to walk more faithfully with the Lord, please forward an article to them and tell them to sign up for future articles. Thanks so much!

Show Me The Money!

It’s 1996 and a new movie, called Jerry McGuire, is released. The story follows the life of a high level professional sports agent whose life has been all about accumulating wealth through his slick marketing and negotiating skills. Then suddenly, he changes his view on life and work and as a result, loses all but one client. As Jerry McGuire once was, this one professional athlete is completely focused on himself and making money. At one point in his conversations with Jerry, he makes clear that there is only one thing that Jerry can do that will prove his worth as his agent and he repeatedly shouts, “Show me the money!”

Show me the money! That also was my daily roar prior to the day I was saved in 1993. I thought I was smart and slick, and I was very successful at accumulating wealth, that is, until I wasn’t. Or better said, until God said, “you are not.” Previous to that, my pursuit of money was used by the devil to keep me in blindness until God in His mercy gave me new eyes to see. Once I was able to see my greed and coveting, I stopped yelling to the world, “show me the money.” In fact, I went to the extreme opposite end of the attitude spectrum and no longer cared about money at all. But even after my salvation, thinking biblically about money has been a challenge from time to time. It has proven to be a great temptation to me and the power of it never completely goes away.

Listen to 1 Timothy 6:9-10 “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

Speaking as a man who has loved money in the past and a person who has known so many people who have fallen into this terrible temptation, I implore you to listen carefully to God’s word and examine yourself to see if you have fallen or are in the process of falling, into this terrible snare.

First, see that it is a snare. “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare.” Snares are not things that you see and decide to fall into them. No, snares are hidden traps, and these traps are the work of the devil. Typically, snares have some kind of bait or motivating factor for the victim to draw close to it. In this case, it is the desire to be rich. Unfortunately, for all the blessings that we have living in America, we also have the curse of being trained to think achieving wealth is the American dream. I’m afraid that we often attribute the devil’s work to particularly devilish people, but we miss the fact that the devil has created world systems that are designed to blind or mislead people into destruction. Every Christian needs to carefully examine not only a particular person who might lead them into a trap or snare but examine the big picture system that they are living in and discern whether or not that system of thinking and it’s implications is something pleasing to God.

Next, hear Paul when he says, “into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” What are these senseless and harmful desires and how do they result in ruin and destruction? We need to think about how much time and energy we are spending in a desire to accumulate wealth. It is not just the number of hours a person might work but it is also examining their thought life. How much time do you spend just thinking and strategizing about increasing wealth? There’s a simple calculation that follows. If a person spends inordinate amounts of time related to wealth accumulation, he will not be able to spend the proper amount of time that’s necessary to love his wife, grow his marriage, and train up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It is inevitable-something has to give.

In fact, it is inevitable that the powerful desire to accumulate wealth and its ultimate manifestation in idolatry, will destroy a person’s relationship with the Lord. The verses from first Timothy we are looking at here are not alone, as there are many other warnings from the Lord in his Bible. Jesus himself said in Matthew 6:24, “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.”

Paul continues, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.” Looking back to the time when I loved money, I remember my own heart and when you are intent on accumulating wealth and it’s time to do your taxes, you are tempted to cheat. I know that if I incorrectly received money through a company’s mistake in their billing, I was tempted to keep it instead of notifying them of the mistake. I know that when I needed to apply for a loan, I was tempted to lie on the application. Even when I was selling a car I owned and knew of something mechanically wrong, I was tempted to keep the fault hidden. I could go on but the point I hope I have made is the love of money will affect almost every area of your life. There are evils in getting more money, evils in having it, and evils in holding on to it.

Back to the passage we read, “It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” For me, my love for money did not result in me wandering away from the faith because I had none. In fact, the Lord used my idolatry to bring me to faith when He graciously destroyed the financial idols that I had built and showed me my wicked heart. But in the process, I did feel those pangs. I recall the times of slowly losing all that I worked tirelessly to build and sitting in my office at the end of the day feeling hopeless and desperate as the Lord continued to do the work needed to make me look to Him. Many, many pangs.

But for the one who professes to be a Christian, the temptation to love money can be a test of one’s faith. Please note that Paul says that some who have fallen into the snare of loving money, have “wandered” from the faith. This is something that we must understand is gradual. He did not write that they “ran” from the faith, or that they “denied” the faith. Those would be descriptions of a person who made a definitive stand against the Lord. No, he uses a word that describes a person’s faith in terms of a person who is confused or lacking direction, or maybe even stumbling about. I believe Paul is describing something that may be subtle and develop over time, making it difficult for a person to see the danger ahead.

I hope you see the danger the love of money can bring into your life. Paul writes to the Ephesian church and says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”

Paul also gives us the antidote for the love of money in the previous 2 verses. In 1 Timothy 6:6-8, he writes, “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.”

Essentially, it is about striving to realize that our deep desires must be about growing in our love and obedience to God and remembering that all material wealth is fleeting. Therefore, we should be content with the minimum needed to sustain our lives and serve the Lord. It is about not thinking like the world but thinking like Christ.

One more point needs to be made: money is not an evil. God may choose to bless the finances of some more than others and in whatever we have, we are to remember that it is God’s money and we are only stewards. What is evil is our own hearts and that is where the battle is won or lost. How about you? Are you fixated on making money? Are your days dominated by your quest for wealth?