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Money is a word that is very much in the news today. It worms its way into about every conversation, whether about business, society, politics or religion. Most people are familiar with the word — if not too much with the article itself. They say, "money talks," but nearly all but few of us have never heard it say anything other than "good by."
These are days when in all runs (it used to be walks) of life there is a crazy scramble after money. It is prominent in government and business, and too much so in religious circles. It is also a time when we should read, reread and seriously consider Paul's counsel to Timothy, and to the rest of us, as it is given in 1 Tim. 6:6-10. If anyone puts money first in his thinking and acting, to that extent it becomes his idol.
Solomon said, "the horseleach (vampire) hath two daughters, crying, "Give, give." He did not tell us whom these two represented in his day. But doubtless their counterparts have existed in every generation since then. I am wondering if in our times they might be the "Bible college" and "orphan's homes?" One thing we know is that they are both "big-time" beggars, and "Give, give" is their incessant cry. Like some other things mentioned by Solomon, they seem never to get enough.
Though the dollar today will purchase only about fifty cents worth of anything, money is still a potent factor in every phase of our activities. It is required for obtaining goods and services of all kinds in both secular and sacred realms — it is still powerful. But it may be a power for good, or it may be (and often is) a power for evil. The ultimate results, as far as good and evil are concerned, hinge upon these questions: By whom is it spent, and for what purposes? And, are we spending our own money, or that of someone else?
Money is a legal exchange medium, and is not itself an evil thing; yet it possibly ranks higher than any other as an incentive toward evil designs and practices. It will get a man into just about anything or any place he may desire, or out of anything he may get himself into. 1 Tim. 6:10 (cited above) says, "the love of money is a, root of all kinds of evil." It is all right if honestly gotten and wisely used. But many fine people, through their unrestrained love of it, may easily hazard precious eternal prospects by anxiously "reaching after" it. Let us take no chances.
The Lord said, "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God" — Mark 10:23. But most of us know that it is a pretty easy matter for one in that category to get on a school board, a policy-making committee, politically or otherwise, and even into a church "eldership." With plenty of "legal tender" regardless, in some cases, of how he got it, one gets in and proceeds to shape and run things to suit his own taste. And it is not always the best policy for all concerned in the business; nor is it always in the interest of truth and righteousness. Often it causes discord and thwarts progress.
From the enormous amount of advertising being carried in some of "our religious journals of the various "Christian colleges," begging for financial help to get more land erect more buildings; the loud and persistent calls in both pulpit and press for more money to promote numerous church, group, or individual projects, anyone not scripturally informed, could easily conclude that the principal purpose and function of the church is merely to serve as a collection agency for all such human institutions, none of which has (as adjuncts of the church) one iota of New Testament authority. They are as strange to that document as was Paul's "resurrection" preaching to the scholars of Athens.