Is it the will of God for his children to be wealthy in earthly goods? Are Christians ready to hold fast to the words of Christ on earthly wealth? It is by stern obedience to the words of Christ, that we overcome the devil.
The Sermon on the Mount was a long and rich sermon from the LORD. In this sermon the LORD addressed many issues including the subject of earthly riches. His words are plain and clear.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Mathew 6.19-21).
“Lay not up treasures for yourself upon the earth” means do not store up earthly riches. To store means to gather more than you need. Rich people live in luxury beyond the need level. One who does not store up cannot become rich. A giver can never become rich because there are so many poor people.
The LORD does not want us to store up. He is angry with those who store earthly goods.
And Jesus continued with this story, "There was a rich man and his land had produced a good harvest. He thought: 'What shall I do? For I am short of room to store my harvest.' So this is what he planned: 'I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones to store all this grain, which is my wealth. Then I may say to myself: My friend, you have a lot of good things put by for many years. Rest, eat, drink and enjoy yourself.' But God said to him: 'You fool! This very night your life will be taken from you, tell me who shall get all you have put aside?' This is the lot of the one who stores up riches instead of amassing for God (Luke 12.16-21)."
God does not want believers to store goods, but He wants believers to store treasures in heaven.
The light of our love shines when we give to the poor. The LORD God commanded us to love one another and give to the poor. God cares for the poor. Nothing but souls of men will go into eternity. Every other thing will be destroyed (2 Peter 3.7, Rev 21.1).
When we do not store earthly wealth, our hearts are freed from the spirit of mammon. Where your treasure is, there also your heart will be. The heart of the rich man is on his earthly wealth. If you have plenty money in the bank, then your heart is in the bank. You can’t put plenty money in the bank and try to set your heart on God. You deceive yourself. This is the truth which the rich may never acknowledge. A rich man cannot enter the kingdom of God except he gives up his earthly treasures.
In the old covenant, earthly wealth was a promised blessing to the righteous. But in the new covenant, heavenly wealth is the promised blessing to the righteous. The way to the kingdom of Heaven was not yet open in the old covenant, so the requirement of not storing earthly wealth was not part of the old covenant.
Anyone attempting to serve both God and mammon cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven. We must love God with all our hearts.
When we do not store earthly wealth, our eyes are focused on God alone. The human eyes can have only a single focus at a time. The eyes that look at two directions at a time are evil eyes. The eyes that look to God and money are evil eyes. Such eyes can never see the light. If your eyes are evil, then your whole life will be given up to darkness. We must look at God only. We must not set our eyes on the riches of the earth.
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (Mathew 6.22-24).
Selling our earthly wealth and giving the money to the poor is a requirement for those who want to enter the kingdom of Heaven. By giving up our all, we qualify for discipleship unto perfection. The LORD commands anyone who wants to follow Him to sell his possessions, give to the poor, obtain purses in heaven, and follow Him (Luke14.33, Luke 12.33, Acts2.45, Mat 19.21).
The condition to sell ones’ wealth was not meant only for the rich young ruler. It is meant for all following crowd who are yet to become following disciples.
One day, when large crowds were walking along with Jesus, he turned and said to them,
"If you come to me, without being ready to give up your love for your father and mother, your spouse and children, your brothers and sisters, and indeed yourself, you cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not follow me carrying his own cross cannot be my disciple.
Do you build a house without first sitting down to count the cost to see whether you have enough to complete it? Otherwise, if you have laid the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone will make fun of you: 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' And when a king wages war against another king, does he go to fight without first sitting down to consider whether his ten thousand can stand against the twenty thousand of his opponent? And if not, while the other is still a long way off he sends messengers for peace talks.
In the same way, none of you may become my disciple if he doesn't give up everything he has.
Sell what you have and give alms. Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, and make safe investments with God, where no thief comes and no moth destroys (Luke 12.33).
In Mathew 19.16-30, the LORD told the rich young ruler,
"If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all that you possess and give the money to the poor and you will become the owner of a treasure in heaven. Then come back and follow me."
On hearing this answer, the young man went away sad for he was a man of great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly I say to you: it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Yes, believe me: it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven."
The disciples had left everything to follow the LORD.
Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee, what shall we have therefore?
It is difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God because it is difficult for him to give away his all. He serves another god (his riches). You can only know how much something controls you when you are asked to give it up.
It is easier for a poor man to free his heart from mammon than it is for the rich man because the poor man has little. Very few rich men like Zacchaeus could pass through the needle’s eye. Zacchaeus on hearing the gospel of the kingdom said to Christ, `Look Sir, I am going to give half my property to the poor and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him four times the amount’. And Jesus said, `Today, salvation has come to this house… (Luke 19.8-10).
After the Lord’s departure, the church continued to sell their possessions and give away the proceeds to the poor among them. (Acts 4.32-35).
Yes, one must give up everything to follow Jesus.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. The one who finds it buries it again, and so happy is he, that he goes and sells everything he has, in order to buy that field” (Mathew 13.44)
“Again the kingdom of heaven is like a trader who is looking for fine pearls. Once he has found a pearl of exceptional quality, he goes away, sells everything he has and buys it” (Mathew 13.45-46).
Money is unrighteous in its nature (Luke 16.1-15). The earth and all its substance were created by God, but money was never God’s invention. Men today give their entire lives to make money rather than to God. If you are not faithful in your dealings with money (cheating, defrauding, dishonesty, stealing etc.), who will give the true treasures of heaven.
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? Or, what shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof (Mathew 6.25-34).
To live in anxiety means to worry or think about tomorrow’s needs. The sinners live in anxiety. They worry about earthly things. The Children of the kingdom must not be anxious. The heavenly Father provides daily for all his children. We should do all we can to keep the rules of the Kingdom, then our needs will be met. Know God. Love the truth. Obey God and keep the truth. It is not by worrying that our needs will be met. Worrying about earthly things takes your mind away from spiritual things. We must trust God and pray to God daily for each day’s need. We must pray, “Give us today our daily bread” (Mathew 6.11). This is the way of the kingdom – the way of simplicity. One of the devil’s lies is that earthly wealth is God’s blessing. In the Old Covenant, God blessed his people with earthly riches but in the new covenant, God has blessed his children with spiritual riches (Eph.1.3). The way to the kingdom of God was opened only through the death of Christ – the blood of the new covenant.
The way to the kingdom of Heaven is narrow and hard. There are very few that walk that road. Abandoning earthly riches or desire for earthly riches is a difficult and almost impossible task to do. But with God, it is very possible.
The LORD does not want us poor but at the same time he does not want us to store up. The rich should give to the poor and the poor should not desire to store up. All believers including the poor should learn to give and share their resources (Mark 12.41-44). The poor people are blessed because theirs is the kingdom of God (Luke 6.20, Luke 14.18, James 2.5). There should be no limit to our giving (Luke 16.9).
Christians are pilgrims on the earth. We must lay aside every weight on the journey (Hebrews 12.1-2). God led the Israelites into the wilderness to teach them humility and trust. He gave them manna from heaven everyday but instructed them to collect according to their daily needs. Some Israelites collected more than they needed, and Moses was angry with them because they did not trust God to provide the next day as he did “today”. The left-over manna stank and bred worms.
Apostle Paul’s testimony after renouncing everything:
But once I found Christ, all those things that I might have considered as profit, I reckoned as loss. Still more, everything seems to me as nothing compared with the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my LORD. For his sake I have let everything fall away and I now consider all as garbage, if instead I may gain Christ. May I be found in him, without merit or holiness of my own for having fulfilled the Law, but with the holiness which comes through faith in Christ, the holiness given by God which depends on faith in Christ Jesus. May I know him and experience the power of his resurrection and share in his sufferings and become like him in his death, and attain through this, God willing, the resurrection from the dead! (Philippians 3.7-11)
The Sin of Greed
Believers must watch out against the spirit of greed and all its kind.
The Parable of the Rich Fool
Then someone in the crowd told him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." But Jesus asked him, "Mister, who appointed me to be a judge or arbitrator over you people?" Then he told them, "Be careful to guard yourselves against every kind of greed, because a person's life doesn't consist of the amount of possessions he has."
Then he told them a parable. He said, "The land of a certain rich man produced good crops. So he began to think to himself, 'What should I do, since I have no place to store my crops?' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and I'll store all my grain and goods in them. Then I'll say to myself, "You've stored up plenty of good things for many years. Take it easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself." But God told him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you. Now who will get the things you've accumulated?' That's how it is with the person who stores up treasures for himself rather than with God."
Then Jesus told his disciples, "That's why I'm telling you to stop worrying about your life—what you will eat—or about your body—what you will wear, because life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the crows. They don't plant or harvest, they don't even have a storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds! Can any of you add an hour to the length of your life by worrying? So if you can't do a small thing like that, why worry about other things? Consider how the lilies grow. They don't work or spin yarn, but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. Now if that's the way God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and thrown into an oven tomorrow, how much more will he clothe you—you who have little faith? "So stop concerning yourselves about what you will eat or what you will drink, and stop being distressed, because it is the gentiles who are concerned about all these things. Surely your Father knows that you need them! Instead, be concerned about his kingdom, and these things will be provided for you as well. Stop being afraid, little flock, because your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.
"Sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor. Make yourselves wallets that don't wear out—a dependable treasure in heaven, where no thief can get close and no moth can destroy anything. Because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Luke 12.13-34)."
The LORD Jesus warns his disciples to stay away from greed of every kind. Greed manifests itself in various ways:
● Fighting for property or inheritance
● Storing more than you need
● Covetousness
● Anxiety or worrying about your needs of tomorrow
● Refusal to share your goods with others
● Refusal to give or lend to others
● Lack of contentment with the basic things you have
● Craving for all the material things of these world
● Desire for plenty
● Stinginess or giving away only an insignificant portion of your wealth
● Possessing earthly riches
● Cheating, defrauding, stealing, dishonesty
We are to trust God daily (not yearly/monthly) for sustenance. Today, fighting for inheritance or storing lots of money or living your life to become rich is accepted as legitimate. These things are highly valued by men, but it is loathsome in the eyes of God.
The sin of Greed is the sin of idolatry and it is punishable by death.
So put to death your worldly impulses: sexual sin, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). It is because of these things that the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient (col. 3.5-6).
Do not let sexual sin, impurity of any kind, or greed even be mentioned among you, as is proper for saints. Obscene, flippant, or vulgar talk is totally inappropriate. Instead, let there be thanksgiving. For you know very well that no immoral or impure person, or anyone who is greedy (that is, an idolater), has an inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God. Do not let anyone deceive you with meaningless words, for it is because of these things that God becomes angry with those who disobey. So do not be partners with (Eph. 5.3-7)
Riches is a master (god). Many people serve money.
"No one can serve two masters, because either he will hate one and love the other, or be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and riches! (Mathew 6.24)"
The sin of idolatry is punishable by death.
But people who are cowardly, unfaithful, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars will find themselves in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death (Rev. 21.8)."
Many Christians may have already repented of other deadly sins such sexual sins, sorcery, murder but they are still to repent from greed (idolatry). Sexual sins are sins against the body. Greed is filth of the spirit. It is as deadly as sexual sins. Believers must thoroughly repent of this sin. Many believers have not been filled with the Holy Spirit because they have not yet dealt away with the spirit of greed. If they do not repent, they will not inherit the kingdom of Heaven. There are any false teachers today (wolves in sheep clothing). They are eating from the flock and are teaching same to their followers. Both they and their followers will land in death.
We are called to righteousness and not to comfort and luxury. Those who live in luxury now have already received their comfort. They will not receive the comfort of the Kingdom of Heaven (Luke 6.24, Luke 16.25-26).