Listen to these words of Jesus
‘You can’t worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both.’ (Matthew 6:24, The Message).
The Greek word that is translated here as ‘Money’ is the word Mammon, which is a direct transliteration of the Aramaic word for ‘property’, which included, but was not limited to, money. What’s fascinating about Jesus’ use of the word is that he is effectively placing worldly goods on a par with God as an object of worship and of service. Jesus is saying that Mammon is an idolatrous rival to the one true God.
William Stringfellow writes:
‘Idolatry, whatever its object, represents the enshrinement of any other person or thing in the very place of God…. Thus human beings, as idolaters, have from time to time worshipped stones and snakes and fire and thunder, their own dreams and hallucinations, images of themselves and of their progenitors; they have had all the Caesars, ancient and modern, as idols; others have fancied sex as a god; for many, race is an idol; some worship science, some idolize superstition. Within that pantheon, money is a most conspicuous idol.
The idolatry of money means that the moral worth of a person is judged in terms of the amount of money possessed or controlled. The acquisition and accumulation of money in itself is considered evidence of virtue. It does not so much matter how money is acquired...the main thing is to get some. The corollary of this doctrine, of course, is that those without money are morally inferior - weak or indolent, or otherwise less worthy as human beings. Where money is an idol, to be poor is a sin
The idolatry of money has its most grotesque form as a doctrine of immortality. Money is, then, not only evidence of the present moral worth of a person but also the way in which a life gains moral worth after death. If someone leaves a substantial estate, death is cheated of victory for a while, if not ultimately defeated, because the money left will sustain the memory of the person and of the fortune. The poor just die and are at once forgotten. It is supposed important to amass money not for its use in life but as a monument in death. Money thus becomes the measure of a person's moral excellence while alive and the means to purchase a certain survival after death. Money makes people not only moral but immortal; that is the most profound and popular idolatry of money.’
Questions for reflection:
In thinking about the extent to which you might have made money an idol in your life, consider the following questions:
- How much time do you spend thinking and worrying about money?
- How often do you think that the ‘solution’ to whatever challenges or difficulties you may be facing lies in having or getting more money?
- How often do you fantasize about winning the lottery or making a fortune?
- Have you ever turned aside from something that you felt God was calling you to do because you thought that you couldn’t afford it? What was it?
- In what ways have you compromised your honesty and integrity for the sake of financial expediency?
Putting Faith into Action:
Tomorrow’s devotions will deal with the spiritual discipline of giving money away, which breaks our compulsive clutching onto money as our source of security and shatters the god-like power that money can wield over our lives. Resolve today that you will not gloss over tomorrow’s devotions but will engage fully, as an act of faith, with the challenges that will be presented there.
Prayer:
Forgive me, Lord, for my idolatrous relationship with money. Forgive me for thinking that my worth and significance is wrapped up in how much money I have. Forgive me for seeing money as my ultimate source of security in this world. Forgive me for acting in ways that demonstrate that I’m willing to trust you with so-called ‘spiritual’ matters, but that when it comes to my material needs I’m far more concerned about my bank balance than with falling to my knees in prayer. Forgive me for grasping so fiercely to my ‘right to autonomy’ in my financial affairs, and for making my finances a ‘no-go area’ for the nudges and promptings of your Spirit. Forgive me for allowing money to replace you at the centre of my thoughts and actions. By your grace, come and free me from my slavery to this god that cannot save. Amen.
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