Luke 16:14 - Don't dearly love your money

“The Pharisees, who dearly loved their money, naturally scoffed at all this.”

Luke 16:14

The Word of God has much to say concerning the virtues of wise saving and generous giving, but it’s easy to love money too much. In the New Testament, the Pharisees were the strictest adherents of Judaism, yet they loved money and scoffed at all that Jesus said. What did they scoff at? Jesus had just finished saying “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Luke 16:13). This is what they scoffed at. Jesus had insight. He knew the truth. He knew you couldn’t serve both God and money. The sad fact is that that truth sounded like foolishness to the Pharisees. As Christians, we have to be careful that we don’t fall into the same trap as the Pharisees. We need to heed His words, not scoff at them. It can be just as easy for us to love money too much as it was for them. The struggle is real and “No one can serve two masters.” No one can. Not even us Christians. May we not fool ourselves and think that we can serve both. Jesus once told the Pharisees “You like to look good in public, but God knows your evil hearts. What the world honors is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). God’s kingdom is different than the world’s system. Be wise. Love the Lord and serve Him only!

Father, we know that “No one can serve to masters.” Your Word says that we “will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.” We want our hearts to belong to You! In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.