What Will I Serve: God or Money?

In Matthew 6:24 it says, “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)

We live in a culture of materialism. The goal is to get more and more and more. And just about the time we catch up with the Joneses, they refinance or file bankruptcy. And just about the time I think you’ve got it all, the Black Friday advertisements come out, and they tell me about all kinds of things I didn’t know you couldn’t live without. 

It’s tough keeping my priorities right when I live in a society that’s all about “getting.” The one with the most toys wins, right? No! The one with the most toys still dies, whether or not I’ve got toys.

There is only one antidote to materialism: generosity. Every time I’m generous, I have a spiritual victory in my heart. Every time I’m generous, my heart grows. Every time I’m generous, I break the grip of materialism in life. Why? Because materialism is all about getting—get, get, get, get! It is my nature to get and to hold on.

But every time I’m generous, I’m breaking that grip and defeating materialism in life. 

This is why, as a parent, I need to make sure my kids and grandchildren see me giving. They need to see me being generous because they’re not going to learn it anywhere else. I need to make sure they see me model generosity so that they can learn it too.

The Bible says in Matthew 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). Notice it doesn’t say I “should not.” It says I “cannot.” It’s impossible. I can’t have two number ones in my life. 

I need to choose what’s going to have first place in my heart. Choosing generosity will transform my relationships with others and my relationship with God. It will change me from the inside out as I learn to be generous like God is generous with me.

I need to be careful that any focus on money / wealth does not take first place in my life. I need to use what God has given me wisely and I need to be generous with both the money I’m entrusted with and my time.