BaptistWay Bible Series for July 25: Setting right priorities in a money-driven world

In his 2010 commencement speech at the University of Southern California, retiring USC president Steven Sample posed this question to the graduates: “How do you feel about money?” He went on:

… the world is full of unhappy people who have never figured out how they really feel about money. There are multitudes of priests, teachers, artists, and public servants who, deep down, would be much more fulfilled by the pursuit of wealth, and who, in following that inclination, would probably make much more significant contributions to society. Similarly there are many people caught up in profit-seeking jobs, where the principal reward and measure of success is money, who would be much happier and more productive if they were engaged in more altruistic occupations…. [I]f a person can discover early on how he feels about money, he will be able to address many of life’s choices in a more definitive and satisfying way. (5/14/2010, quoted here)

Money is pervasive in society, and our attitude about it affects everything we do. Famously, Jesus talked about money than most other subjects in the New Testament.

• Bigger barns – Luke 12:15-31

Jesus is not instructing against the accumulation of money here nearly so much as he is warning about the dangers of placing our faith in our possessions. That does not mean that Jesus preaches in favor of amassing great wealth – to find that in his teaching would be a mistake; but, it would similarly be a mistake to decide that Jesus goes out of his way to condemn the wealthy. That is simply not his point here.

Jesus’ point is that the man who takes the “eat, drink, and be merry” philosophy that can be found in Ecclesiastes out of context runs quite a spiritual risk. The Old Testament Teacher commends our work and our enjoyment of life to us (Ecclesiastes 8:15) on the path to understanding that the whole purpose of life is to love God and keep God’s commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13). The barn-builder of the parable, however, has no forward vision toward the fear of the Lord; instead, the barn-builder is looking to “relax” when his good are stored up for many years in his bigger barns. He quotes the Old Testament, but so what? Satan can quote the Bible with the best of them (Matthew 4:6). The barn-builder does not understand that fulfillment and contentment come from the gifts of God. Our own works, our own money, our own accomplishments – in short, our own stuff – may be gone tomorrow. Jesus calls him a “fool.”

Fortunately, Jesus does not stop at this low point. The Sermon on the Plain continues straight into the answer that Jesus has for us. That answer is this: strive for the kingdom of God. The lilies of the field and the birds of the air know to rely on the Father, and so should we.

The tie between worry and materialism cannot be missed. We are not to worry about what we have and what we wear. In Philippians, Paul tells us not to be worry, to “be anxious for nothing” (Philippians 4:6). This admonition comes just verses before Paul explains the secret to contentment without materialism (Philippians 4:11-13).

• The Love of Money – 1 Timothy 6:6-10, 17-19

Of course this passage is routinely misquoted. Like Jesus, Paul does not attack the wealthy. In fact, in the latter verses here, he offers direct advice to the rich that does not instruct them to stop being wealthy but rather how to be stewards of their riches in a Godly way. Paul also does not say that “money is the root of all evil” but rather that “the love of money” is the root of all evil.

So what is the point? It is that contentment is in godliness, not in stuff. The very commandments of God are inherent in our relationship with our money. Loving money is idolatry. Loving money is having a god before God. Loving money is adultery.

This lesson should not be a guilt trip for those who wear a nice suit or drive a nice car to church. It should, however, be convicting to those who so value money – be its form “career” or “materialism” or “savings” or “plans for the future” – that they are building bigger barns rather than devoting their time and energy to their discipleship. For then, they “love money” and stand at the brink of “all kinds of evil.”

President Sample did not simply ask his graduates what they thought about money. He continued to a key final question: “How do you feel about God.”

What I have found, however, is that the vast majority of people duck this question altogether. It is simply too scary or too overwhelming for them to address in any serious way. There are millions of people in this country who regularly attend religious services, and yet haven’t the foggiest idea of how they feel about God, or what kind of relationship they have with their God, or what they expect of him, or what they believe he expects of them.

Similarly, there are millions of agnostics who have concluded that questions pertaining to God are simply unanswerable or unimportant, and yet who find it impossible to fully suppress their concerns for the spiritual and transcendent aspects of their own existence. One of the painful realities we must confront is that we are, in the final analysis, fully and completely human, with all the unsettling and uncomfortable characteristics which that word connotes.

We are as fully human, and no more human, than our brothers and sisters in ancient Egypt or in modern Mongolia. One of mankind’s deepest and most abiding concerns for all times, in all places, and for all peoples, is our feeling for and relationship with God. (Id.)

The questions go together: “What do you think about money?”, and “How do you feel about God?” Like new college graduates, we need to take the time to assess our lives. Our direction will be largely guided by how we answer these two questions. Answering them with an eye on scripture will help us be content and not be the barn-builder guilty of loving money.