How do we serve money instead of God?

[upbeatjonm]

Jesus says that we cannot serve God and mammon. We must love one and hate the other.

Do you think when we do the following, that we are serving money instead of God:

1. We work for a living, trying our best to receive raises, do a good job, get bonuses, etc.
2. We save for our retirement, in 401k, etc, and check the status of our investments, making periodic adjustments to the portfolio, etc.
3. We are generous with donations, but not to the point of jeopardizing our ability to make ends meet, and maintain our retirement.

What do you think?

 

[Secret_Square]

The short answer in MOST cases is: no, no, and no.

The exceptions would be if your attempts to accomplish any of these goals put you in direct conflict with a moral teaching or duty of your faith:

If your “work for a living” was with Planned Parenthood or NARAL, or as a campaign manager for a pro-abortion political candidate, etc.;

If getting raises, bonuses, etc. involved doing something immoral like sleeping with your boss or cooking the books for him/her; or

If you went out of your way to invest your retirement funds in companies you knew to be deeply involved in promoting the culture of death, simply because they performed well. (I don’t think it’s possible to avoid EVERY single investment that has any link to abortion, PP, etc., but I wouldn’t deliberately seek them out if I did not have to.)

When Christ says to “hate” someone or something, he’s using a Semitic figure of speech that emphasizes making them a lesser priority – NOT literally abandoning them completely or wishing them harm. You can do your job and earn a reasonable amount of money as long as it doesn’t conflict with or become a higher priority than doing God’s will.

 

[upbeatjonm]

The short answer in MOST cases is: no, no, and no.

The exceptions would be if your attempts to accomplish any of these goals put you in direct conflict with a moral teaching or duty of your faith:

If your “work for a living” was with Planned Parenthood or NARAL, or as a campaign manager for a pro-abortion political candidate, etc.;

If getting raises, bonuses, etc. involved doing something immoral like sleeping with your boss or cooking the books for him/her; or

If you went out of your way to invest your retirement funds in companies you knew to be deeply involved in promoting the culture of death, simply because they performed well. (I don’t think it’s possible to avoid EVERY single investment that has any link to abortion, PP, etc., but I wouldn’t deliberately seek them out if I did not have to.)

When Christ says to “hate” someone or something, he’s using a Semitic figure of speech that emphasizes making them a lesser priority – NOT literally abandoning them completely or wishing them harm. You can do your job and earn a reasonable amount of money as long as it doesn’t conflict with or become a higher priority than doing God’s will.

Thanks for the reply. What got me thinking about this is the reading in 2 Timothy 3; 1-2. “There will be terrifying times in the last days, people will be self-centered, and lovers of money…” I guess to your point, as long as we are God-centered, instead of self centered, we should be ok. The love of money part reminded me of Jesus’s words, and got me questioning everything. I think too much sometimes.

 

[Roman_Army]

Jesus says that we cannot serve God and mammon. We must love one and hate the other.

Do you think when we do the following, that we are serving money instead of God:

1. We work for a living, trying our best to receive raises, do a good job, get bonuses, etc.
2. We save for our retirement, in 401k, etc, and check the status of our investments, making periodic adjustments to the portfolio, etc.
3. We are generous with donations, but not to the point of jeopardizing our ability to make ends meet, and maintain our retirement.

What do you think?

Jesus’s statement has to be understood in the context of the deadly sin of greed. It is when someone decides to hord all the wealth for himself, denies his employees or co-workers a fair wage, denies others the right to make a living (e.g. in a monopoly), refuses to donate a substantial sum of his money to poor people who are starving, lack shelter, lack clothing, lack medical care, lack jobs, etc., works only to increase his excessive wealth, when he donates only does so that others may see his generosity and reward him, cheats his clients or customers, refuses to help his relatives and friends in need, refuses to have more kids just for being able to have certain luxuries, etc and etc.

In regards to your three examples,

1. it is fine to seek raises and bonuses so long as you are not denying others a just living and always donate a reasonable percentage of your income to charity and to your church. When you donate the motivation must be out of love of God and man, this is what makes your work a service to God and not a service to mammon.
2. It is fine to save for retirement and 401k plans as long as you do not neglect chairty and do not resolve to live in sloth in your retirement. Retirement is when you cannot work efficiently anymore or are unable to endure the burdens and stresses efficiently anymore due to frailty resulting from the normal aging process.
3. Not all of us are called to be like St. Francis and sacrifice even our basic necessities, there is nothing wrong with not donating enough to jeopardize making ends meet and our future ability to make ends meet, so long as we do not neglect the virtue of charity.

 

[LilyM]

It’s a question of surrounding circumstances with each of those.

If you are already on a salary that is way more than sufficient to ensure financial security, with no Bill-Gates-sized giving away to charity of substantial percentages of that excess, are spending a lot on luxuries, and yet somehow are still after more $$$$, then there is good reason to question whether your priorities are in line with Christ’s teachings.

Or, for example, if you work for a company which is (as many are) cutting staff and raising prices or fees on customers left right and centre and yet still insisting on getting paid your performance bonus or what have you, again when you already earn more than enough to make ends meet.

As for giving to charity - no, I don’t think it’s necessary to genuinely jeopardise your financial situation. But then there are a substantial percentage of us who do live a much more lavish lifestyle than we really need. So it may be that that verse is challenging us to think about where we spend and whether we could cut back in some areas so as to be able to give a little more.

 

[whatevergirl]

*I think we serve money, instead of God, when we look to money as an idol of sorts. Becoming a workaholic to the detriment of your faith walk, to your family relationships, etc would be considered serving money and not God. Not helping others when you CAN, but choose to only think of yourself. Nothing wrong with owning nice things, but when we become greedy, or look at those things as SOURCES of happiness and contentment, we’re missing the mark. Only God is the source of peace. *