Are You Rich Toward God?

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Dec 10, 2015 1261

But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God (Luke 12:20–21).

What did Jesus mean by being rich toward God?

Jesus meant this: we are stewards of the Almighty. It is God who gives us our ability to get wealth. To forget our stewardship is crass folly. We shouldn’t be nervous when people remind us of our obligations with our wealth. In the recorded things of Jesus about one verse in every six talks about money or possessions. About half of his parables do the same.

The Bible is just full of warnings against being absorbed with things. Man cannot live without things, but he who lives for things alone is not a man but a beast. Things cannot satisfy the heart. One can toss a hundred thousand worlds into the sun and leave room for more. We can put into our hearts all this world has to offer and there would still be a great vacuum.

Possessions don’t do what we think they do. Nothing is as good in the hand as it is in the head. Nothing is ever as satisfying upon possession as it appeared in our imagination. All the goods in the western world have not brought peace.

What shall we say then to these things? How shall we save ourselves from this trap of covetousness? How shall we avoid being like the foolish wise man? God’s people of old gave up to one-third of their income for religious purposes. We live in a more privileged era, and every Christian should have as his dearest desire to give all he can to foster the gospel of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Scripture says:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich (2 Cor 8:9).

Our Lord Jesus exchanged all heaven for a cow-shed and a cross. As we behold that, what shall we withhold from him?

Giving is the antidote to selfishness and covetousness. Only those who practice regular, systematic giving to the cause of the gospel will be safe and saved at last. May God guide us as we reflect on our responsibility to give. May we become like him in our giving.

– Des Ford. Rom 8:27–32 (Adapted from “The Foolish Wise Man”)