Do Not Love
The title of the post this month is Do Not Love???
Yes.
Because John wrote it clearly to us, "Do not love or cherish this world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love for the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15)
This instruction is obviously intended to cover a very wide range of areas, and here we will look into how it relates with our finances.
Before digging deeper using this verse, for further understanding let's also look at Luke 14:26. Jesus said, "If any one comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple."
Jesus is illustrating from His heavenly viewpoint that there is a defined hierarchy - that we must choose to regard God as supreme and above all others... which means even above blood relations and marital relations. Knowing this, that hierarchy certainly also covers friends, peer pressure, coworkers and "the things that are in the world".
Though these verses declare "do not love" and "hate", what they're really saying is to LOVE God above all things He can be compared to.
So, going back to our original verse, a good illustration would be the old-fashioned scale like this:
A worldly love can be as simple as one who spends so excessively on "things" that they do not have enough remaining to tithe and give offerings to God. If one drifts into this area, it usually is from waiting to give to God until the end of the line - rather than at the beginning, where He belongs. This proper timing for giving is spoken of in 1 Corinthians 16:2 that reads "On the first day of each week, let each one of you put aside something and save it up as he has prospered..."
It also can be more subtle. Even with those who are tithing. If our affections are still drawn deeply towards this world's goods and riches we can choose to hold back from opportunities to help those in need when a special situation arises, by thinking about the cost and what we could purchase instead of making an impact.
If we give in to loving the things of this world repeatedly, we'll also likely waste a lot of our finite amount of money on those things - which will cause us to be even deeper into debt.
Because Jesus was always with the Father, He could provide the best "vantage point" in His teachings. One of His finest illustrations comes from Matthew 6:20 where He shares what it looks like from heaven when we give... "But gather and heap up and store for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust nor worm consume and destroy, and where thieves do not break through and steal."
Everything you buy here on earth is eventually destroyed -- but conversely, what you give towards God's kingdom will last eternally. When you give, you are literally taking what were originally earthly dollars, and they are being converted into heavenly ones by your loving Father who knows each and every time you gave.
Lastly, when considering whether to spend money for things here on earth (that we can see), or to give, please take to heart another heavenly viewpoint - inspired by the Holy Spirit to the apostle Paul... "We consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting." (2 Corinthians 4:18)
God Bless you and may He show Himself greatly to you,
Paul
