Matthew 25 is amazing and terrifying at the same time. It shows how important it is to be charitable and loving.
I understand the worldly idea of wealth too. If you love money, you can feel like it gives you license to exploit others by creating a wealth divide. Don’t fall for that trap.
Luke 16:13 “No servant can be the slave of two masters; such a slave will hate one and love the other or will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Instead, lets educate ourselves always, work a moral job, live a frugal life and help the poor more.
There is no excuse to not educate yourself always today. Literally full college courses are online available for free. Google MOOC and whatever you want to learn. Modern man should aim to be more educated than ever. Watch a little less tv, and educate yourself. A mind is more valuable than the wealth it can accumulate. Value intelligence and wisdom over great riches.
Working a moral job is straight forward. God likes people to labor and donate to the work of the church. But if your money comes from illegal, evil, or dishonest acts, he doesn’t want you to think you can buy him off by donating. No, we must stop sin, and then seek how we can serve. It is one thing to donate your money you earned dishonestly and then clean up your life and it is a completely different thing to rob people and give a percentage of your plunder to the church.
Living a frugal life can use some explanation though. Basically if you’re spending money on tools to earn more money, that expenditure is almost always okay. If you’re helping kids engage their minds and even play, toys are okay even. It is when you spend money eating out when your leftovers could have been eaten that should make you think. You can literally take the money you were going to spend eating out for a treat for yourself and designate it for the poor. I stopped buying beer in large degree when I realize the wasted money could help the poor instead. Some big ticket items we could go economical are housing, cars, and vacations. Most people don’t need a big fancy house when they can make do with a less elaborate one. Basically no one needs a million dollar sports car. And instead of an expensive vacation, consider if you could do without to help the poor more. Maybe do a missions trip. Hey, honesty hour, I’m going on vacation this week, but the last time I visited this guy was four years ago. Some vacations can be okay, especially if you’re taking your kids. This life is about serving others and not being served. This world is not our home. We should be about fighting to help those suffering out of their suffering. This is the only side of eternity we can do it.
If that sounds tough, it is. Work hard so you can help others? That’s too much for many. But here is what makes it: God is real. Jesus loves you. The next life will be better than you could wish for even if you had infinite wishes. Empty ourselves now. We can’t take it with us to the next life unless you’re talking about love. Invest in Heaven. Invest in love, and give to the poor to help em out.