What is wrong with concentrating on things instead of value?

Q: I am just beginning my legal career and have been offered a large salary and lots of perks. My friends say that I am concentrating on things instead of value. What is wrong with that? — S.P.

A: Luke 16 is the famous passage about a rich man whose disobedience to God led him to reject the very thing he longed for — eternal life. God does not condemn people because they are rich, nor does He justify others because they are poor. Poverty is not a virtue, nor are riches themselves sin.

But Jesus did say, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:25). People who attain great riches often trust in them more than trusting in God. This was the problem with the young man in Scripture. He sought Jesus. He came to Jesus. He even bowed before Him desperately wanting to know how to gain eternal life in Heaven. When Jesus told him to forsake all, he walked away. He did not want to give up his vast wealth in order to follow Christ to Heaven. His riches were a distraction to obeying Jesus.

The altar of God is where kings and paupers meet. There are no rich nor poor in God’s Kingdom. The rich man must put his riches upon the altar and the poor man must put his greed upon the altar and with one voice cry out to God, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.”

Some of the finest Christians are people of means, but their bank accounts, like their lives, are consecrated wholly to God. Money with all of its advantages cannot buy everything, but Christ gave His all to save us. Make Him the center of life in every way.

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(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)

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