Would You Rather Have Rusting Treasures, or Eternal Treasures?

Mike Hosey, An Elder

Jesus teaches us that the greatest commandment of all is to love God with everything we have (Matthew 22:37).  The first of the Ten Commandments is basically the same.  It is there that God commands us to put Him first in everything. (Exodus 20:3).

This is one reason that giving to God from our wallets is so important.  It forces us to give something up which we believe we have earned, and to which we foolishly believe we have full rights. This notion that we have full rights to our wealth isn’t true, of course, because God is the one who gives us the ability to earn that wealth in the first place (Deuteronomy 8:18). When we are forced to give up that bit of cash on Sunday mornings, we are putting God first in our finances.  Having this kind of mindset forces us to put God first in other areas of our lives as well.

Interestingly, it will also force us to keep our finances straight. For instance, if you want to put God first, and be able to give to his purposes through your local church, then you will have to make sure you have money in the bank. You will have to make sure that you don’t overspend in trivial areas, and you’ll have to make sure that you keep yourself content with having your basic needs met. So loving God first instead of your own trivial pleasures will actually make your financial life more stable.  Conversely, loving your own pleasures before God will likely have a negative impact - practically speaking - on your finances. This is because you’ll pursue those pleasures at the expense of right living.  And that’s one of the major ways that people get into debt.

But there is an infinitely more practical reason why we should put God first.  The Bible teaches us that our hearts will naturally want to be where our treasure is (Matthew 6:21). And all treasure on earth becomes moth eaten, rusted, or stolen by thieves (Matthew 6:19-21).  But if we put our treasure on Godly things, well, that’s where our heart will be – on Godly things.  In the end, our wealth will be incorruptible if we prioritize it properly.  But if we choose to store up our earthly wealth at the expense of putting God first, then we run the risk of losing not only that earthly wealth, but something far more eternal as well (Luke 12:20-21, Mark 8:36).