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The Uncertainty Of Riches
publication date: Jun 16, 2009
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author/source: CJP
(By John MacArthur)
Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to
be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who
richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. (1 Tim. 6:17)
A very real danger facing American Christians is the temptation
to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches. To base their hope on the
uncertainty of riches, instead of God, is foolish. Proverbs 11:28 warns that "he
who trusts in his riches will fall." Proverbs 23:4-5 adds, "Do not weary
yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it. When you set your
eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings, like an eagle
that flies toward the heavens."
Rather than trusting in riches, believers are to fix their hope
on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. God provides far more
security than any earthly investment. Psalm 50:10-12 describes His incalculable
wealth: "Every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I
know every bird of the mountains, and everything that moves in the field is
Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is Mine, and all it
contains." God is not stingy; He richly supplies His children with all things to
enjoy. Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 reads,
Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to
drink and enjoy oneself in all one's labor in which he toils under the sun
during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his
reward. Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth,
He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice
in his labor; this is the gift of God. For he will not often consider the years
of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his
heart.
The highest form of joy for the believer is to bring glory to
the Lord. True gladness, then, comes when believers give heed to Jesus' words in
Matthew 6:19-21:
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth
and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where
thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also.
Later, in that same passage, Jesus gives the command three times
not to be anxious (vv. 25, 31, 34). When we trust in God rather than riches, we
have no reason to worry.
Today's post adapted from John's commentary on 1 Timothy
(Moody, 1995).
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