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THE PENTATEUCH

GENESIS ---EXODUS--- LEVITICUS 1.1-7.38 --- 8.1-11.47 --- 12.1-16.34--- 17.1-27.34--- NUMBERS 1-10--- 11-19--- 20-36--- DEUTERONOMY 1.1-4.44 --- 4.45-11.32 --- 12.1-29.1--- 29.2-34.12 --- THE BOOK OF JOSHUA --- THE BOOK OF JUDGES --- PSALMS 1-17--- ECCLESIASTES --- ISAIAH 1-5 --- 6-12 --- 13-23 --- 24-27 --- 28-35 --- 36-39 --- 40-48 --- 49-55--- 56-66--- EZEKIEL --- DANIEL 1-7 ---DANIEL 8-12 ---

NAHUM--- HABAKKUK---ZEPHANIAH ---ZECHARIAH --- THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW ---THE GOSPEL OF MARK--- THE GOSPEL OF LUKE --- THE GOSPEL OF JOHN --- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES --- 1 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-16 --- 2 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-13 -- -GALATIANS --- EPHESIANS --- COLOSSIANS --- 1 THESSALONIANS --- 2 THESSALONIANS --- 1 TIMOTHY --- 2 TIMOTHY --- TITUS --- HEBREWS 1-6 --- 7-10 --- 11-13 --- JAMES --- JOHN'S LETTERS --- REVELATION

--- THE GOSPELS

Chapter 18 Our Use of Money And Our General Way of Life.

When it comes to money the question is equally important. Jesus made quite clear that the way in which a man uses his money very much reveals the condition of his very soul. Those who use it on themselves reveal their own selfishness and thoughtlessness. And they have become thieves. For ‘our’ money is not ours, it is something that God has entrusted to us so that we can use it wisely in His service. And when considering this we have to face the fact that actually Christians cannot possess money. They are dead. And dead men do not have possessions. Thus any money that they once had is now the Lord’s, to be used as He will. The Laodiceans ‘were rich and increased in goods and had need of nothing’ precisely because they saw their money and possessions as their own. But in reality they were ‘wretched people, miserable, and poor, and blind and naked’ (Revelation 3.17), for their attitude to their money and possessions laid bare their own souls. They were ‘wretched people’, spiritually withered, spiritual misfits.

So He commanded that we should not lay up treasure on earth, but should lay it up in heaven by our right use of it under the Lord’s guidance (Matthew 6.19-20). He pointed out that it was impossible to love both God and riches (Matthew 6.24). He stressed that we should use the possessions that God has put under our control to make friends for ourselves whom we will meet in eternal habitations (Luke 16.9), in other words to assist any worse off fellow Christians and in order to take the Good News to men so that they may be saved.

Jesus made His position about what He thought about giving perfectly clear when He saw the widow creeping in to the Temple and slipping her pathetically small gift into the offering boxes. For while she was giving so little it was all that she had. And Jesus drew her to the attention of His disciples and said, ‘She has given more than all of them, for they gave a proportion of their plenty, but she has given all that she had to live on’ (Mark 12.41-44). In other words He was saying, ‘God does not judge your giving by how much you give, or what percentage you give, He judges it by what you retain for yourselves.’ That is why Jesus said it was hard for those who had riches to come under the Kingly Rule of God (Luke 18.24). For while they would do so in a general way, they would want to keep control over their own riches, and that could not be. For from then on all that they had was to be at the disposal of the king. And that they would not want. In fact the teaching of the Bible is clear that for every idle penny or cent that a man shall spend, he will give account of it in the Day of Judgment, for what he is spending is not his own money but the Lord’s (Romans 14.12). If anyone has money it has simply been entrusted to him for him to use in the Lord’s service. It is therefore a dangerous and difficult thing to be a ‘rich’ Christian, for his riches can easily become a snare and a trap. Having riches even at the lowest level was one of the three things that Jesus warned against. He wanted us to know that the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things were the most likely cause of men falling away and failing to find Him (Mark 4.19).

Does that mean then that every Christian must give away all that he has? In one sense yes, because he must give it to the Lord. We must allocate it all to Him. But in the sense in which the question is being asked it is not as easy as that. That would be too simple. Because of the society in which we live we may well have to spend a certain amount of money in possessing a house, in maintaining a certain lifestyle, and certainly in providing for our children. These are our ‘expenses’ in His service. But the point is that we must do it wisely, remembering that for it all we have to give account. And when it comes to giving to the Lord’s service and to those in need we should ‘give hilariously’ (2 Corinthians 9.7, and this to a collection on behalf of the needy overseas, the poverty stricken people in Jerusalem). For God loves an hilarious giver. it reveals someone who is like Himself.

The problem today is that there are too many ‘ten-per-centers’. They give God ten per cent and they then think that the remainder is their own. But that is not so. The ten-per-cent is an initial guide. Then the Christian has to think what God wants him to do with the remainder which is also the Lord’s.

We have up to now concentrated on time and money, for they are both so much a part of our lives, but now we must turn our attention to our responsibility to live before the world in such a way as will glorify God (Matthew 5.16). That does not mean that we will force ourselves on people and make ourselves a nuisance. To do that is to be as bad as to do nothing. But it means that day by day we will reveal to the world through our Christ-likeness what He is really like. The question ‘what would Jesus do?’ is a good one, for that will reveal what He wants to do through us.

It means that our concern for others will be seen to be real. It means that we will be awake to other people’s need, not obtrusively but gently and with forethought. It means that we will have time for other people. It means that people will not be upset about our attitude towards them, or be slighted because we have overlooked them, because for His sake, if not for their own, we will truly care about them. There is a sense in which the world does not only need more preaching. What it needs is more of Christ walking in our streets. It needs more of His love reaching to them. Every person who goes hungry, (even in Africa), every person whose thirst is genuinely not satisfied (both physically and spiritually), every poorly clothed person, every lonely sick person, every person in prison and unvisited, every neglected child, is a testimony that we have not done what it was our duty to do. ‘Inasmuch as you have not done it to the least of these my brothers, you have not done it to Me’ (Matthew 25.40). It was James who said that it was not sufficient to feel kindly towards people and say wishfully, ‘Be you warmed and filled.’ What we have to do is warm and fill them (James 2.16).

It means that people will no longer fear our tongues, the cruel hurtful comment, the sneering word, the harsh judgment. For the one who enjoys the presence of the Lord is ‘he who speaks truth in his heart, he who does not slander with his tongue, nor do evil to his friend, nor take up a reproach against his neighbour’ (Psalm 15.2-3). Instead they will hear words of Godlike love flowing from our lips. They will take delight in hearing us. It means that we will not be engaged in gossip and in tittle tattle, or going about as talebearers (Leviticus 19.16). For we shall love our neighbours (19.18), and the resident alien (19.34), as we love ourselves. We will also remember that for every idle word that a man shall speak, he will give account of it in the Day of Judgment (Matthew 12.36).

And it means that we will keep our promises. It were better not to have promised, than to raise hopes and then break our promise. This sin was one on which the Bible lays great stress. A Christians’ word is his bond. Among other things the one who will be blessed and be found in the presence of the Lord is ‘he who swears to his own hurt, and changes not’ (Psalm 15.4).

And on top of all this we will have ‘clean hands and a pure heart’ (Psalm 24.4). Our eyes will turn away from every evil thing (Matthew 6.22-23), although seeking to remedy them where we can. We will avoid situations where we are filled with wrongful desire for a woman (or a man) (Matthew 5.28). And we will seek to please Christ in all our doings and in all our ways.