The Money Master

We can take it straight from Jesus’ mouth: wealth can be deceitful, so it’s a dangerous place to rest our identities.

Sometimes our possessions and the status they give us can start to dominate the way we operate in life and society. So we always need to keep the right priorities. If we allow our socioeconomic status to become a definitive identity we pursue or flaunt, we run the risk of losing what’s most important in life and even—according to Jesus—losing our souls (Mark 8:36).

In fact, Jesus repeatedly put money and possessions in their place. He said it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God (Luke 18:25). It’s not impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, but the parable of the seeds shows us why it would be difficult: “The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22).

Jesus in his wisdom pointed his followers to what matters most; he told them to store up true treasures above, not to toil for lesser treasures here on earth. Matthew 6:19–20,24 is so important when we discuss our relationship with money and status because the pursuit of the American Dream and the human desire to have more and more material wealth has robbed many from understanding spiritual truths. They place themselves above some people and attempt to work their way to be above others.

Is this to say that we should be poor for the Lord? (Not at all. Money is not evil; the love of money is.) Nor do I believe that Jesus’ goal is to make us all rich. Jesus knows that if we don’t allow him to be our master, then what we own will be the master over us. The dangers of allowing our possessions to possess us are gravely underrated and not emphasized nearly enough in our culture today.

Tethering all that we have to God and not to ourselves is the beginning of being liberated.

In what ways does your economic status have mastery over you? How might you begin to yield that mastery to Jesus?