Jesus taught about money often. Jesus talked about money often. Jesus challenged the way people think about money often. It’s pretty amazing to think about how much Jesus talked about money when he personally had almost no money. At his death, his earthly possessions amounted to the clothes on his back. Yet he never worried about where his next meal would come from or having enough money to pay the bills. I guess you could say that Jesus had money issues or maybe it’s more accurate to say… Jesus had issues with money.
If you summarize Jesus’s teachings about money they basically boiled down to two main ideas. The first is a follower of Jesus has no reason to worry about money. God the Father takes good care of his children. Our Father owns the cattle on thousand hills (Psalm 50:10). Nothing escapes his attention. He knows your needs perfectly (Luke 12:4-7). He is able to provide everything that you need completely (Luke 11:11-12). So, if you know Jesus why are you stressed about money?
His second teaching was a warning about money. He wasn’t warning people to be careful of what money can do to your faith (Mark 10:23-27). He was warning people who trusted in money rather than him (Luke 16:13). Basically Jesus was saying that if you’re not careful you’ll start worshiping money instead of him.
What are you working so hard for?
This is true all over the world. Men and women get up early in the morning, work all day long, come home exhausted, work from home late into the evening, get up early and do it all over again. They give up their vacations to get more work done. They lose sleep, hair, and time with friends and family in order to make more money. In essence, they worship money.
Whatever gets the majority of your time, the majority of your attention, and the majority of your affection is what you worship. Based on these criteria it is easy to see how money has become a god in your life.
Maybe one of the reasons why Jesus talked about money so often is because money demonstrates what’s most important in your life. There’s no other way to look at it- what you spend your money on is important to you (Luke 12:34). Perhaps, Jesus talked about money so often because it demonstrates the condition of your heart. Money points to who you worship. Do you spend your money worshiping Jesus or worshiping yourself? By faith in Jesus poor men become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). Without faith in Jesus, rich men become poor.
