What could possibly be bad about having more money? We are continuing our series It’s Not About the Money and today we are considering the worst things about money.
In Luke 12 we find Jesus teaching. Someone in the crowd saw Jesus as an authority and he cried out, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” (V. 13)
If you were in the position of Jesus, how would you respond? Imagine you are speaking in front of a group, maybe leading in a Bible study or prayer meeting, and someone yells out, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” The personal issue has been made very public. It sounds like a sensitive situation that you might not want to get into. The whole group feels the discomfort and they look to you to respond.
Most of us would be frazzled but Jesus used the awkwardness as a teachable moment. Jesus didn’t tell the brother to divide the inheritance. Instead, he told the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:13-21). In this parable we see some of the worst things about money. It’s not about the money. It is about the destructive things that the love of money can do in our lives.
Here are eight of those things. Don’t let money do these things in your life.
#1 Money divides relationships!
We already start seeing bad stuff about money before we get to the parable. The man came to Jesus because there was a money problem between him and his brother. When someone says words like, “Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me”, you know that there is a story behind that, a story with more than one side. Maybe you have experienced this in your own family. First, you lose your parents. That is hard enough. Then you learn that there is no will. Or there is a will but you interpret it much different than your siblings. Someone is ready to get rid of dad’s collection but someone else cannot let go. Somehow your brother suddenly acts like he owns the truck. Your sister wants to put all the money into restoring the house, but you know that would be a big waste. The process of dividing the inheritance among the family can divide the family. If there was no inheritance there would be no division. One of the worst parts about money is that the blessing of assets can turn to a curse of divided relationships. Don’t let money do this to you.
#2 Covetousness is sneaky!
Luke 12:15 “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness.”
Why do we have to be on our guard? Jesus didn’t say to be on your guard against lying or killing. It’s because covetousness is especially sneaky. If we don’t guard against it we will, by default, obsess about getting more.
How would you honestly answer these questions from a perspective of financial wealth? Would you like to be “rich”? Are you “rich”? What amount of money makes someone “rich”? “Rich” is a moving target. Most of us are convinced that the right amount of money is a little bit more than we have now. On average, American’s say that “rich” is earning $150,000 or more per year. https://news.gallup.com/poll/151427/Americans-Set-Rich-Threshold-150-000-Annual-Income.aspx
Those who make 30k per year think that they would be rich if they made 70k per year. What happens when people make 70k? They don’t feel rich. They say “rich” would be 100k per year. Those who make an annual salary of 1 million dollars say that you are not rich until you have 5 million in assets. They don’t want to be one of those poor people with only 3 millions dollars in assets.
Covetousness is sneaky. Contentment is something we have to fight for. Be on your guard against covetousness.
#3 Materialism reduces life to possessions!
Here’s what Jesus said next, “for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (v. 15). This means that there is more to life than the things we have. If we make life about possessions we are missing out on what it is really about. Having stuff isn’t bad but life is more than the stuff. What valuable part of life are your possessions threatening?
Here is how the parable starts, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’
The guy had so much that he didn’t have a place to put it all.
We have issues. We are materialistic hoarders. This week we had a few friends come help us organize our house. What they saw when they looked in our closets is that we have a lot of stuff. We don’t have a place for all our stuff. What would we see if we organized the things in your house? My guess is that most of us have a lot more than we need, even more than is helpful.
The man in the parable asked an important question, “what shall I do?” It would be good for us to ask that question about everything we have. We usually make the assumption that we need it, but maybe we have more than we need. After asking the question the man came to a common conclusion. He would just store it.
And he said, “I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods”(v. 18).
One of the most dangerous things about loving money is that it reduces life to possessions. Wouldn’t it be a shame to spend your full self to store up stuff?
#4 Wealth is a false security!
Luke 12:19-20 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”
Proverbs 11:28 Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf.
Acts 8:20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!
Mark 8:36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
Proverbs 11:4 Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.
I once joined a guided tour to climb a volcano in Guatemala. I almost didn’t get to go. I ran out of Guatemalan Quetzals. I wasn’t too worried because I had a Ziplock bag in my RFID blocking travel belt with a couple of $100 bills. The tour was only about $40 American dollars. But they wouldn’t accept my money. It had a few wrinkles where it had been folded. I could not convince them that it was good money. Moments before the bus left we made a deal, they would keep the $100 bill and I would try to exchange it when I returned. I went on the tour and exchanged the money for Quetzals. I had hundreds of Quetzals left. I used them for travel and food, it was valuable to me. Then I came back home. I still had Quetzals and they were of no value to me anymore. They had temporary value when I was in the country they came from but once I was home they became play money for the kids. Money has temporary value now. But we are made for a different country. If you want to spend it you have to do it here. It has no value where we are going. Money is a false security because it’s value is temporary.
When we trust the false security of money we can become blind to our real needs. “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Revelation 3:17)
Jesus redefines financial security. There is no security in building finances. Stuff cannot provide security! There is only security in trusting all that we have to Jesus.
#5 Earthly treasures hijack heavenly desires!
Luke 12:21 “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
We have to shift our focus from “how can I get rich from this” to “how can I be rich toward God”.
Being rich toward God sounds like the right way to live but money can hijack those desires.
You are familiar with Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Did you hear that last sentence? It seems logical that our treasure would follow where our heart is. But Jesus said it backwards. Our hearts follow our treasure. Our hearts, including our character and desires, are shaped by what we value. When we store up earthly treasure we bind our hearts to this earth.
One of the worst things about money is that it can hijack our desires for God.
#6 The love of money fuels injustice!
James 5:4-6 says, “Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.”
Much injustice does not start with hating people but with loving money. James warns the rich person that financial injustice condemns and murders innocent people. Jesus told a parable of people who loved money so much that they killed the heir to an estate to try to take his inheritance. (Luke 20:14) It’s not about the money. It’s about treating people with justice.
#7 Pride is a pitfall of wealth!
Jeremiah 9:23 says, “Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches.”
It is almost impossible for us to not allow our view of who we are to be shaped by what we have. We do it to others too. We make judgments about who they are based on what they have or don’t have. Money can easily become a way to rank ourselves among others. It can make us feel superior or entitled. The connection of pride and money is so strong that we can even feel this pride even when we give money away. Jesus said, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1). The Bible speaks strongly against pride. It is contrary to the selfless character of God. It’s not about the money, it’s about the pride that so often comes with it.
#8 Riches deceptively choke out God’s Word!
Matthew 13:22 says, “As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” This is part of a parable that Jesus told about a sower and good soil. Money is deceitful. It appears like good soil to plant in. It promises many good things. But it actually is a thorn that chokes out the life from the plant we want to grow. We might say that we want to live by God’s word and to let his truth grow in our lives but if we let the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches grow up in our lives, they crowd out the Word. It’s not about the money, it’s about allowing God’s Word to grow in our lives.
What could possibly be bad about having more money? It’s not about the money but there are some terrible things that the love of money can do in our lives.