A blog post from 2017.
I found myself thinking about money lately. In Acts there are two significant interactions between preachers of the gospel and people concerned about their ability to make money. The first story involves Paul and some peddlers of fortunes (Acts 16:16-21). While he was in Philippi, Paul was followed by a slave girl who predicted the future because she was possessed by a demon. “She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling” (v 16). Paul cast the demon out of her and this upset her owners. “When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone” (v 19), they made false accusations against Paul and Silas, who were sent off to prison.
The second interaction happened in Ephesus (Acts 19:23-27). The gospel had been proclaimed successfully in Ephesus for many months and it began to impact the city. Many had repented and many began to respect the name of Jesus. This resulted in a reduction in trade for those who made idols of the goddess Artemis. One silversmith called the others together to try to rectify their financial situation. He disguised his concerns about money with religious piety. “There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited …” (v 27). His desire for continued income meant that he set a crowd against the apostle.
In the above instances the love of money prevented the hearers from accepting the gospel. Their reactions were in fact the complete opposite. They persecuted those who proclaimed good news to them. The gospel and the desire for money will always clash. The love of money is utterly incompatible with living according to the gospel. “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matt 6:24). This is not a matter of “don’t try to do both because God is not pleased”. It is a cannot; it is impossible to love God while loving money. Love of money will always get in the way of serving God. It can cause someone to walk away from Jesus. “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Tim 6:10).
There are degrees of love of money. Sometimes things creep up on us. It is easy to lose sight of the goal and begin to want what other people have. This is why the Scripture warns us, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (Heb 13:5). The warning also comes with an encouragement. God will not leave or forsake his people. The things that we see, the material goods of this world are temporary. They will certainly fail us: fail to fulfil us, fail to satisfy us, and fail to provide us with anything lasting. But our God will not fail us. He is forever faithful and will get us to the goal of knowing him and being with him forever.
When I read the stories in Acts it caused me to ponder how much I desire money instead of the kingdom of God. It is not hard to come up with justifications for our love of money. After all everyone needs to have some money in order to eat and pay bills etc. The trick is to keep it in perspective. This meditation is not about accusation, but an opportunity for contemplation on your relationship with money. So today’s challenge is to truthfully consider where the love of money ranks in the hierarchy of desire for you personally. If love of money has begun to interfere with your love of God, then choose to put God and his kingdom first.