Sometimes when you read the things Jesus Christ taught, your heart skips a beat and you ask yourself, just as His disciples asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’
Particularly His doctrines, I mean teachings about money and how we make and spend it. They have a way of making a student disciple of Christ think twice about how to deal in life.
For instance, He said we should not seek the things the world seek after rather seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness… He said we should not lay up treasure upon the earth… Mathew 6:19-34
He told one man in Luke 18:22 to sell all he had and give to the poor for a treasure in heaven, and then to come back to follow Him.
He taught that we should give expecting nothing in return, we should give to everyone who asks from us, even when what belongs to us is taken we shouldn’t ask again. We should give to those who don’t deserve it. Mathew 5 and Luke 6, these being part of what we call the sermon on the mount, the crux of His Kingdom teachings.
At a time, a man came to Him concerning the sharing of his rightful inheritance with his brother, only for him to get a rebuke, a teaching and a parable against covetousness.
Luke 12:13 Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?”
15 And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
He was so particular about not serving money in the place of serving God. Luke 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. (NIV)
But this stance is not according to the the world’s economic standards. If you will ever have to get by based on natural standards, these are not instructions to follow. It will take the intervention of the Supernatural to get by, to follow those instructions to making it in life. They are clearly adverse to the systems of the world.
But He was clear about it. He did not hide it that it won’t be the same way the unbelievers and the people of the world do it, it will have to be by the power of the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
But we are so scared doing things that way, His way. The way of the the world is natural and that’s the way, even the church would embrace today. Of course, we take advantage of those thoughts when we are at the receiving ends, when we have to make people give to us, they are wonderful materials to use but not when we are to build our personal lives and businesses, then we pretend as if Jesus did not say so.
But Christ knew why He was saying this to His people. The natural system is open to rusts, moths and thieves Mathew 6:19&20. The natural system was put there by God, but its not the same after the fall of man. Man would still till his ground but only thorns and thistles will it bring, and his labour will eventually take toll on his body and eventually kill him. Genesis 3:17-19
Not that this natural system of work is gone but it is open to rust, moth and thieves according to Christ and so we need the insurance of the supernatural so we can have heavens supernatural reserves that could be drawn upon by faith through God and His Christ.
To rot or rust is to be subject to natural forces of depreciation that may go haywire. Moth represents non human living things and their destructive impacts on what has been gathered, and thieves represent both human beings and demonic forces and their negative impacts on human fortunes. It includes losses through governmental policies, industrial errors, bad decisions of men, wickedness and the greed of people, destructive market competitions, extraction and colonisation, mismanagement of economies, bad investment environments, corruption and other human impacts that are beyond the control of those subjected under it.
Shouldn’t we know by now that people aren’t poor and homeless just because they made poor life and business decisions alone? Lots of hard-working, intelligent and honest people in this world are poor and many of whom were once rich but lost their fortunes to the environment where they belong, the policies beyond them and sometimes to satanic attacks beyond their own control or the explanations of natural laws.
We learned also from Christ about the thief who had come to steal, to kill and to destroy represented by Satan and his demonic forces. They use all manners of means outside laziness and lack of intelligence to destroy people. Jesus Christ wants us to be protected from these and that’s why He taught those things.
But, the believer is always being tempted to leave his or her stronghold. The enemy will show you how unbelievers are making it without following these things Jesus Christ taught and many ministers of Christ too would fall for it and teach and practice what’s wrong because they believe Jesus Christ doesn’t make sense in these matters. It’s a trap and many who suffer it won’t tell us their pains.
Jesus Christ was tempted too. Satan didn’t show Him the slums, the sick, the shamed and the slaves of the kingdoms of the world, rather, He showed Him the kingdoms and the glory of those kingdoms. He told Him to bow to him and he, being the god of the world would give all to Him. Thank God He understood that it was only God who should be bowed to, it should be His Kingdom alone we should seek. He did not bow, but He reigns today on the right hand of God.
Now, if He had bowed and Satan had made Him the owner of the kingdoms of the world and their glories, the world may not have known that He had bowed to Satan on the mount. All we would have seen would be Him being the owner of the kingdoms and their glories even if under the authority of Satan. He would have also been a reference point as to how the systems of the world and not of God is what really works. We must be careful as children of God.
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Don’t be tempted by the glories of the world being flashed across your face so as to go after the principles of the world leaving Christ’s teachings behind. It is a trap!
The treasures of the earth belongs to all, we should till our grounds because there’s much food kept in there for all. We should not be lazy, we should not be slack in doing things. We should exploit our potentials and show responsibility.
But we should not seek what the world seeks in doing all these, we should rather seek the kingdom of God. We should follow all that Christ taught us concerning finances, our security for today and for tomorrow is within them.
Have you been able to become rich in the things of this world by following its rules, you need to also follow Christ in knowing how to preserve the future.
Hear what the apostles said about this…
1Tim 6
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.
19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
Hebrews 13
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”
6 So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”
Be careful of messages purported to be from God to push you off the track. If what is said isn’t in line with the teachings of Christ, it can’t be by the Holy Spirit who was sent to testify of Christ. They may sound sensible but being sensible won’t take the place of God’s Word.
Jesus Christ is the word of God, the wisdom of God and the power of God.
Follow all that the natural demands, don’t be lazy or foolish but don’t be more foolish by not building your destiny house on the rock, by not hearing and doing what Jesus said. Matthew 7:24-27
It is our eternal insurance for the uncertainties of this world’s system and against the wickedness of the devil and of his forces!
Good morning to you!.
© Evans Adetokunbo Emmanuel
August 2020
