PAPER TRAILS
By Zach Chronley
Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.”
The pandemic is the latest seismic event to leave the global economy shaken and remind us that there is no real security to find in this world. In the blink of an eye, thirty million people lost their jobs in America, and seven months later millions are still out of work. Aside from the loss of human life, the loss of financial security and livelihood has left many feeling hopeless.
It’s human nature to hate the feeling of powerlessness that life-shattering events leave us with. A sudden car accident and we end up with a totaled vehicle, and our minds reel with how we can get to work or school. A mystery illness can leave us feeling crushed under the weight of medical debt.
Money feels like the answer to these problems, and the Bible does not shy away from celebrating wise stewardship of finances. So, what is the problem of money and idolatry? The question we need to ask ourselves is when the chips are down, and we need rescue, what do we look to, to save us? Where is our hope? Because when our hopes fail us, we are left feeling despair.
In 2009, in the immediate aftermath of the global recession, pastor Timothy Keller wrote:
“With the global economy in shambles, many of those idols that we have worshipped for years have come crashing down around us. This is a great opportunity. We are briefly experiencing ‘disenchantment.’ In the old stories, that meant that the spell cast by the evil sorcerer was broken and there was the chance to escape. Such times come to us as individuals, when some great enterprise, pursuit, or person on which we have built our hopes fails to deliver what (we thought) was promised.”
These terrible moments have the power to become catalysts that reveal to us our misplaced hope. As long as we keep putting our hope on our finances, we will continually be setting ourselves up to be heartbroken. We will constantly be baffled by why these things keep happening to us. But God desires to free us from this slavery.
When money becomes an idol, it begins to make demands of you. It tries to set itself upon a throne in your heart. The Bible is very clear that idols cannot simply coexist with God when it comes to the life of a follower of Christ. Jesus himself made the two options completely incompatible. It’s either-or. Either you follow Jesus as the master of your life, or, you serve money above anything else.
Jesus could have made the point of serving two masters about any idol, but Jesus specifies and calls out money rather than any other. At first glance, it feels this would have made more sense for Jesus to have called out another idol, something that would be more directly opposed to following Jesus. In a sense, this feels antiquated or overly simplistic, but in truth, our modern American sensibilities towards money in many ways leaves us more vulnerable to a distorted and disordered view of money and its role in our lives.
Money is not only a personal idol for many, but it’s also an idol deeply embedded in our culture. Conversations about money are ever-present in our culture. We call the opportunity to work hard and get rich “The American Dream.” In one sense, money itself might not be the idol we are worshipping because more often it becomes the object that we look to help us acquire the things we’re hoping for. Money is so closely related to our idols because money is the exact thing that we use to exercise the control we have on earth.
Keller says, “the Bible uses three basic metaphors to describe how people relate to the idols of their hearts. They love idols, trust idols, and obey idols.” Let’s look at how money often fits into these categories.
Love
Our spending reveals what we love. Even if money does not feel like an idol in our hearts, it often leaves a paper trail to many of our idols. How do we look to our spending to supply us happiness? Do we spend a small fortune on a hobby? Spend outrageous amounts on collecting sneakers? Hobbies are great, and there is no shame in spending money on things we enjoy, but proportionately, how does our spending on ourselves compare to our charitable giving? Do we invest deeply in other people with our finances? Are we known for our generosity?
Trust
Putting our trust in money is obvious. Like many things that can become idols, having some savings is a very good thing. It is a good and blessed thing to be able to invest our money wisely and to be able to bless others financially. But there is a point for each of us where we go from being wise to placing an unhealthy level of trust in our finances. And that misplaced trust leads us to misplace our security, and we start believing that we are secure because of our bank account rather than the God who owns everything.
Obey
How does our obedience to savings measure against our obedience to God? Do they ever conflict? Do we find ourselves unwilling to change our budget to give more to support missionaries? Instead of constantly thinking about giving whatever happens to be in our wallets at any given time, we need to consider ahead of time about how our financial priorities are locked-in already.
Do you use wisdom as it pertains to money, or does money control you, to the point where you would never pull money out of savings to help someone in need? The
concept of being unable to serve two masters is so important because as theologian James K.A. Smith wrote, “our ultimate love decides all our penultimate (or secondary) loves.” Our budget reveals our financial priorities. It leaves a paper trail that leads to our hearts.
There’s no sense in comparing ourselves to anyone else in terms of generosity. It’s not about sheer dollars and cents. In the eyes of Christ, the women who gave the two pennies she had to live on gave more than those who gave massively out of their abundant income. God doesn’t need our money. He doesn’t care about what’s in our hand, except when what is in our hand, has our hearts.
CS Lewis wrote, “[an idol] ceases to be a demon, only when it ceases to be a god.” We need to check our allegiance. Where is our trust and who do we obey? Based on our account history, what do you love most? What takes the biggest slice of the pie chart of our finances? Do we believe that God knows what we need and that he will provide if we ask him? Only God can ever give us hope that never fails us. Only God can truly be our savior. Even now, despite all our misplaced hope, Jesus loves us and desires to save us from the slavery of our fears and worries.