If we’re honest with ourselves, we’d admit that there are sins we struggle with more than others. We may tell lies, think unkind thoughts towards others, and use language that we shouldn’t. When we think of the sins we commit, we don’t often think of idolatry.
We may not bow down and pray to some statue of a strange god, but that doesn’t mean we don’t commit idolatry. We commit idolatry any time we put anything above God. We commit idolatry any time we put our faith in anything other than God.
The greatest idol we have in our modern culture is money. It is certainly not a stretch to say that we idolize money. However, this is not the exclusive domain of Wall Street investment bankers or the ‘movers and shakers’ in our society. No, the idol of money is everywhere. People with no jobs at all religiously play the Lottery in the hopes of becoming millionaires. There are television game shows that offer hundreds of thousands or even a million dollars as a prize.
When people are asked what they would do if they won the Lottery, they often have a laundry list of things they would buy. A new house, a new car, a boat, gifts for friends and relatives. Many say they would quite their jobs the next day. Still others say they would pay off all their bills. Yet we hear all the time about lottery winners who, within a few years, have spent all their winnings.
We are all encouraged to invest for our retirement. There are many online tools for executing our own stock market trades. One almost feels like they are missing the party if they do not have their money in all sorts of investment vehicles.
Many of us work long hours in order to make more money. We work long hours in hopes of getting a promotion in order to make more money. We rationalize our time away from our families by telling them, and ourselves, that we are just trying to provide a better life for them. Of course, by better life we mean a bigger house, nicer car, bigger television, nicer clothes, and more disposable income to spend on more stuff.
We have created idols out of money without even thinking about it. We spend more time shopping every week than we do at church. We spend more time online researching our next purchase than we do reading The Bible. We have put our money and the things it can buy above everything else in our lives.
Certainly we say that we do not love our money more than our families. However, we spend more time at work than we do with our children. When we do have time to spend with them we are usually tired from working. We try to subdue our sense of guilt by giving our children credit cards, cell phones, clothes, cars, and anything else they want, in order to show our love with our money rather than with ourselves. We teach our children to worship our idol as well.
In 1 Timothy 6:6-10, The Bible says:
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world and we certainly can’t carry anything out. But having food and clothing, we will be content with that. But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been lead astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
When money becomes more to us than a way to provide our basic necessities, it forces us into making decisions that can compromise our faith. What are we willing to do to make more money? We have seen that many of us are already willing to sacrifice time away from our family. Sure, it starts out as just a few hours more a week but as we see that promotion or that raise come into sight, we tell ourselves that we will work just a bit longer. Once we get the promotion, then we will spend more time with our families. But, of course, that doesn’t happen.
We start to imagine all the things we could have with just a bit more money. We think of the lifestyle we could live. We may associate with people that can help us get more money. These people may not have Christian values. They may want us to join them in activities that are not pleasing to God. However, we go along because we don’t want to be seen as an outsider and risk our chances of gaining more wealth by associating with these people.
Our idolatry also tends to make us think more of ourselves than we should. We begin to look down on those who do not have as much money as we do. We feel that the lack of money is an obvious sign of a deficient character. Those other people simply aren’t willing to work as hard as we are. They are not as smart as we are. Our heart hardens towards our brothers and sisters. Is it any surprise then that the more money a person has, the less pleasant they act towards others.
This arrogance brings on a sense of entitlement as well. We feel that because we have all this money, that we are somehow entitled to better treatment. We feel that, through our own works, we are deserving of anything we desire.
Even when we give our money to others, do we do it in a humble way or in a way that brings glory to ourselves?
The Bible says in Matthew 6:1-2:
Be careful that you don’t do your charitable giving before men, to be seen by them, or else you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Therefore when you do merciful deeds, don’t sound a trumpet before yourself, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may get glory from men. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward.
The pride that comes from money can even corrupt the good works that we try to do.
Many people have found over the past few months that a faith in the idol of wealth is truly a false idol indeed. Many Wall Street hot-shots have been brought low. People who lived opulent lifestyles are now facing a future in a prison cell.
Many people have seen their retirement accounts decimated. The security that people placed in their money for their latter years turned out to be no security at all. People who were planning a life of recreation, leisure, travel, and idle wealth now look towards a future with no end to work at all.
Many people have lost jobs; once, not only the source of their income, but of their entire identity. They were known by the work they did. ‘I am an executive.’ ‘I am a computer programmer.’ ‘I am a construction worker.’ Our means of providing food and clothing became our entire identity. Our idolatry has defined who we are.
Few people plan to so give themselves over to this particular idol. Not many people even consider their faith in money, and their ability to make money, an idol. But in a culture that encourages consumption, it is not hard to be lured into believing that money is more than a means of survival. Even now in our financial crisis, our leaders tell us the solution is to spend even more. The solution is to go further into debt. The solution is to keep worshiping the idol of greed and materialism that we have had so much faith in; the idol that has let us down again.
These times that we live in have laid bare the the lies of this idol. The insecurity that many feel, has exposed this idol as a fraud with only false promises of comfort and safety. There is only one God who promises to take care of us through all of life’s trials.
In Luke 12:29-34, The Bible tells us:
Don’t seek what you will eat or what you will drink; neither be anxious. For the nations of the world seek after all of these things, but your Father knows that you need these things. But seek God’s Kingdom, and all these things will be added to you. Don’t be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
Sell that which you have, and give gifts to the needy. Make for yourselves purses which don’t grow old, a treasure in the heavens that doesn’t fail, where no thief approaches, neither moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
We must first seek God above all things. We must seek his forgiveness and his mercy. We must seek to keep his commandments and live the way he wants us to. God’s commandments are not meant to ruin our fun but to keep us safe from the harmful things that sin can do in our lives. This is why God tells us not to be greedy or to put our faith in money. A faith in money will always let us down but our faith in him, the Father who loves us so much that he sent his son to die for us; his love will never fail us.
When we keep God’s commandments and trust in him to provide for us, we are unburdened from the concerns of this life. God knows that we need food and clothing. He knows the things we need to live. He will not only provide the things that the nations of the world seek but even more than that.
Many religious leaders would have us believe that God will reward us with material goods if we trust and serve him. This notion has less to do with what The Bible says and more to do with church leaders telling people what they want to hear. Of course, if the church members should prosper materially, they will ’show their love for God’ by returning a portion of their wealth to the church; or so certain church leaders would tell us. This is the false doctrine of The Prosperity Gospel. This is a self-serving theology. We should certainly give our possessions in service and worship to God; but not as a bribe to get more material gain.
These are not the things God promises to provide us with. It is not surprising that an idolatrous culture would only see God’s rewards in terms of more materialism. Why would God reward us with things that would ‘pierce us through with many sorrows’? Of course, he would not.
When God does give money to some people, he does not do it so that they would lavish material possessions upon themselves. Let’s look at what God tells us to do with the money we have been given:
But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and closes his heart of compassion against him, how does the love of God remain in him? My little children, let’s not love in word only, neither with the tongue only, but in deed and truth.
1 John 3:17-18
Charge those who are rich in the present world that they not be haughty, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on the living God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold of eternal life.
1 Timothy 6:17-19
God wants us to share his blessings with others. This not only gives us the opportunity to help God’s children and do his work, but more importantly, it gives us an opportunity to share God’s message of forgiveness with others. God does not want us to become attached to any material blessings that he gives us; otherwise we might be tempted to put our faith in these things rather than the one who provided them to us.
A faith in material things provides us no peace. We cannot trust that money will never run out. We cannot trust that investments will always increase. We cannot trust that we will even live long enough to spend any of the money we are chasing after. We can spend our whole lives trying to secure ourselves with money only to find, that when we die and face a holy God on Judgement Day, that our money does not buy us anything. Our money cannot buy us the eternal security that we really need.
Our lives are hear for a mere moment compared to the length of eternity. God will provide what we need in this life, but more importantly, he has for us what we need to safeguard our eternity in the next life. Let us never lose focus on the true blessings of God; peace, love, joy, and eternal life in Heaven with him.
Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, ‘I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.’ So that with good courage we say, ‘The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?’
Hebrews 13:5-6
