The Bible is a book about God and His plan of salvation—not only from sin but also from ourselves. To save us from sin, God sent His Only Son to the world to die, thus, paid the penalty of our sin. To save us from ourselves He gave us abundant directions on how to live in such a way that we do not end up destroying ourselves. One of those directions is found in Matthew 6:19, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.”  A good directive, but hard to do.

As I have said before, God is not anti-wealth, and He is certainly not anti-rich folks. He is only anti-rich lovers, and here is the reason why as stated 1 Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”  Rich-lovers open themselves up to all kinds of evil and griefs. God loves us so much that He does not want to see us end up destroying ourselves.

At this age, I have seen enough. I have seen how transitory wealth is; it comes and goes; sometimes slowly, sometimes fast. I have also seen how the love of money has produced all kinds of evil—from light to heavy evils. And, I have seen how a surplus of money has brought a surplus of griefs. But I have also seen, many who have known this fact all along and believe in almost every word written in the Bible, do not really believe this warning. They still love money.

If we’re wondering why, I think part of the answer is because there is glory in wealth. Talking about glory, perhaps the Great Wall of China is a lesson for us to keep. Its total length is 13,170 miles, more than two round-trips Los Angeles-New York. Man’s ultimate glory! But its glory is now fading, slowly eaten by “moth and rust.”

Pastor Paul