One may wonder why Jesus did not pick false religions when He taught on serving God alone in Matthew 6:24. In His divine knowledge of what would happen throughout time, even in our time where false religions are rated equal with Christianity, Jesus could have picked false religions but He chose money. There could be many other things in the eyes of man that could have been Jesus’ concern on competing with God than money. Indeed God differs a lot in thought to man. Jesus knew that money is far more dangerous and entangling in the life of a believer.
In other Bible translations, the word mammon is used in place of money. According to Jesus, it is not possible to serve Him while you also serve money. You will either serve Him or money but not both. Don’t fool yourself to believe that someone that loves money is on God’s side. No matter whether he or she is a good preacher, deacon, prophet or whoever is highly esteemed in the Christian community or a church.
How then do we find ourselves or purposely serve money? Though there are many of practices that explain the phenomena of serving money but I can generalize by picking six common indicators I have learnt about and observed:
- Putting money before God’s will – Just as an example, if God says clearly forbids giving bribes in Exodus 28:8 or accepting them and you do it just to get a tender, you have clearly shown your dire service to money than to God. If you would bribe another employee, probably from the HR division, to get a promotion or some favors, you have shown yourself to be serving money than God.
- Killing other people for money – killing takes many forms. It’s not only the act of killing the physical body but it is also about depriving some else for unfair personal gain. It is true that people that can physically kill for money are known and they come from all walks of life. Some are politicians, business people, church leaders and many other groups of people. To the Christian, if you have the potential to help and you decide not to because you feel like it will rob you off of your money; then you have fallen into the trap of serving money as opposed to serving God.
- Money makes people proud – I have noticed and I know the world also knows that most people that have a lot of money are proud. Pride even shows in their children and sometimes even in their employees. God hates pride (Proverbs 8:13).
- Churches, believers and leaders do fight over money – instead of focusing on spreading the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, church leaders often get bogged down into discussions of who should not be given money, who has stolen money and many other money related issues.
- False prophets are often driven by money to do fake miracles – You are a witness to that miracles are for sale in our time. Read the post ‘Selling miracles is SIN’.
- Many people have sold their souls to the devil because of money – I have read about the illuminati groups and Satanists that they get paid handsomely for belonging to the devil. If it was not for money, many would not be part of these groups. I encourage you to do your own research on these two major groups and you will know that money drives these entities.
I could go on and on to discuss on politicians, businessman, professionals and organizations on how they have lost their track through serving money. Nonetheless, the message is clear to the child of God. I would translate the verse to be warning Christians about the power money has to take up the place of God in their hearts if not controlled. Remember, this is a command to choose serving God alone if you want to be on His side.
In all honesty, it is not only the love for money that will make many get rejected in the last day but so many other categorically listed things in the Bible. It is true that there is none righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10) yet all people are called to holiness and righteousness. The Christian walk is a call to self-discipline and control. That is why Paul said that He disciplines his body so that he should not be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:28). According to Jesus, money is one thing that a believer should work at disciplining oneself not to worship it.
Let God answer you in those areas where you are not sure whether what you are doing is serving money or not. You can check this by following the suggested methods given in the post ‘How does God speak to people’.