Reliable Truth Jesus' Perspective on Money and Wealth - Richard E. Simmons III
Did Jesus have an opinion on money and wealth?
There are five primary teachings given by Jesus in the Bible.
- The Kingdom of God
- God the Father
- Faith
- The nature of Satan and the power of sin
- Life and everyday living, money and wealth
Jesus says a lot about money—He says a lot of hard things about it as well. Why do you think he taught on money and wealth? I believe one of the main reasons is because we struggle with money, primarily because it is hard to see money's real effect on our lives. Like the concept of greed; it seems easy for us to see the problem in other people's lives but not our own.
Jesus tells us that a man's life is not measured by the abundance of his possessions. Yet too many people—men particularly—find their identity in what they possess because we think our possessions tell the world that we have power and influence and prestige.
In Luke 12:13-34, Jesus tells a chilling parable about the rich fool:
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”
Then He said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
And He told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.' And I’ll say to myself, 'You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.'
But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”>>Watch on YouTube