100 Days on Jesus’ Sermon Mount (Day 56)

Jesus said, “No-one can be a slave to two masters, for either that person will hate one of them and love the other, or else they will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t be a slave to God and to money.”

— Matthew 6:24 (USC)

The King’s splendour is so resplendently remarkable as to really not know how exactly to remark upon it! He who is the Name above all names, he who created the beginning and the end and everything that exists, has ever existed, and will ever exist, will bring forth the Age to come. He who is all this, and infinitely more, surpassing all we can comprehend, we are also destined to meet.

We will come face to face with this glorious and fearful God – the Lord Jesus.

He will take all our thoughts and words and deeds into account on that final day!

(We are building to a crescendo, here, so please now begin to anticipate it.)

We can only but imagine what that day will be like. Many of us look forward to it. So many of us, still, are incredibly fearful for what may come to pass. And a blend of both thoughts — boyish joy and frightful reverence — are appropriate. What we imagine is most certainly the light at the end of the tunnel.

That light is coming, toward us, with eternal certainly and untarrying ferocity.

Then we come to the matter of the word, “money.” Money! What fools we would be to have money set up as a god anywhere near God, yet we are so concerned about our mortgages, our retirements, our health funds, our social security, and our world swallows our faith in an ever habitual gulp.

We are right to do all we can to bring security into the sphere of our family life.

To do so is part of our worship of Jesus. But subtle is that balance. Whenever money comes to be of a sense equal with God, our faith is at threat and we begin to live like mere mortals, concerned with things of the world, again.

Humble saints, this is a temptation of the Evil One.

Even as we squirrel away money for that rainy day, we are ever closer to the reversion of our faith. Not that it isn’t wise to save and be diligent stewards of our worldly cares. Those resources God has placed in our hands are there for a purpose and reason. But we are not to worry about it. We must hold our money and our possessions ever lightly.

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One Who is All is Coming.

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QUESTIONS in REVIEW:

1.     What grip has money (or a lack of security) over your life? How can you rescind such a horribly disdainful grip?

2.     Will you take seriously that responsibility God has placed in your hand to steward his Kingdom? Part of the responsibility is how you handle money.

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

Note: USC version is Under the Southern Cross, The New Testament in Australian English (2014). This translation was painstakingly developed by Dr. Richard Moore, a NT Greek scholar, over nearly thirty years.