We are coming up on a time of year when well-intentioned people often spend too much for gifts, etc. We need to have a proper perspective in this matter. Did you know you can hold a coin so close to your eye that you can’t see anything but the coin? However, if you move the coin away from your eye, it becomes much “smaller” and the world around it becomes “larger.” It is all a matter of perspective, and you determine that perspective.
It is also noteworthy that sometimes things become way too important to us, and we pass on that perspective to those around us (e.g., our children). We even let things come between God and us. Not good! In regard to proper perspective, money and possessions do not need to have first place in our lives. One writer said “getting all we can and canning all we get” can become an obsession. Nobody should be rebuked for being industrious and hardworking, but when the making and collecting of money and possessions becomes an end in itself, rather than a means to serve God and provide for our family, then we are holding the coin too close to our eye. It restricts our vision, our perspective.
The Bible says, “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith…” (1 Timothy 6:10). Notice the passage does not say “money is the root of all kinds of evil,” but rather the love of money is the problem. One does not have to have a lot of money to love it. Could this qualify as covetousness? Covetousness is the inordinate desire to have something. So yes, the love of money could fall into the category of covetousness. To covet is a sin (Colossians 3:5). Have you ever heard of anyone confessing to be guilty of the sin of covetousness? Rarely, if ever have I heard such. I guess none of us have a problem with this sin.
Yet, we hear children of God who think money, talk money and live money. We see members of the church who forsake their spiritual responsibilities, forsake the assembly, neglect their families or destroy their health for money. Yet, nobody has a problem with covetousness, right?
This ought to make us think, huh? Remember, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Take care to beware.
