Master or Slave?
May 30, 2008 (Friday)
For no special reason I seem to have been inclined to write about things related to economics this week, so I’ll just stay with that theme today, since it’s the last weekday.
Jesus had some things to say about money. In fact, he said quite a bit about it, but the statement that I remember most is, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Matt 6:24 NIV).
Money is like the ground or the sky: it’s just there. It is neither good nor bad. It can become good when it supplies our needs and enables us to help others. It can become evil when it becomes our master, and we become its slave. That’s why Jesus talked about money as a master. It can become your master if you let it do so. What Jesus was emphasizing was the attitude of a person toward money, not money itself.
The poet was amplifying Jesus’ words when he shared with us what he heard gold say:
“Dug from the mountainside, washed in the glen,
Servant am I or the master of men.
Steal me I curse you,
Earn me I bless you,
Grasp me and hoard me, a fiend shall possess you.
Lie for me, die for me, covet me, take me,
Angel or devil, I am what you make me.”
It’s up to you. Do you possess money, or does money possess you?
The Christian sees money and material things as God’s possessions, and sees himself/herself as one of God’s managers.