What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.
Here the Teacher is talking about faithfulness. Being trustworthy!
There are many definitions of what it means to be a faithful follower of Jesus. Some think of regular church attendance. Others focus on works of service or Bible study and prayer.
These are hallmarks of the faithful, but not what Jesus chooses to emphasize in this context.
So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?
The Teacher singles out how we use our money as the ultimate test of faithfulness. How we handle our wealth is an accurate measure of our trustworthiness.
He contrasts money and possessions with the true riches of the kingdom of God. He indicates if we are using money in God’s service it is a good indication we will be faithful with spiritual riches as well.
No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
In the grand scheme of things money doesn’t mean much. Becoming more like Jesus in love, joy, peace, faith and other virtues is what life is all about.
If students of Jesus are dishonest with money by hoarding it for their own use, it is unlikely they will be trustworthy in the more important process of being a serious student of the Teacher.
The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts.”
It seems like Jesus spoke of money and how to handle it often.
ReplyDeleteHe also talks about the character of an individual.
Sometimes we tend to think that the little things don'[t matter much. We do this in a lot of different areas... language, money, attitude, gossip, lies, lust, obeying the government authorities (like speed limits!) - the little things aren't that big of a deal, right?
Look again:
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
How are we at the :little things" ?