“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” While these words in Scripture don’t explicitly say we should also love God with all our money, a closer look reveals that this goes with the territory.
A Tall Order
A lawyer with a not-so-hidden agenda once publicly asked Jesus which commandment was the greatest. Rather than picking just one of the well-known commandments, Jesus replied with a summary commandment :”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”
Jesus went on to describe the second greatest commandment as loving our neighbors, adding that all God’s commandments boil down to just these two. We can trace every violation of God’s commandments to either our lack of love for God or our lack of love for people.
This isn’t the only time Jesus gave a summary commandment.
The Heart of the Matter
When a rich, young leader asked Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life, Jesus — knowing the condition of this man’s heart — told him he should do the impossible: keep all of the commandments. Surprisingly, this young man believed he had kept every one of them since he was a little boy.
To show otherwise, Jesus summarized the commandments in the same way he later would do with the lawyer. He asked the rich man to demonstrate His love for God by selling everything he had, giving the proceeds to the poor (building up treasure in Heaven instead) and following Him.
Because this young man loved his money more than God, he walked away from Jesus grieving and trusting in his bank account more than God Himself. He had in fact violated the first and greatest command to love the Lord with all his heart, mind and soul.
Loving God with these three parts of ourselves also means loving God with our money.
Impossible to Possible
Scripture tells us this rich man walked away from Jesus grieving. He trusted in his bank account more than God Himself.
After the rich man’s sad departure, Jesus looked around to his disciples and announced that the chances of a wealthy person entering the kingdom of God were as slim as a camel fitting through the eye of a needle. His shocked disciples responded with, “Who then can enter?”
Jesus’ reply gave encouragement to them and continues to give encouragement to us:
“With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.”
This encouraging truth reminds us that God’s power applies not only to those wishing to enter the Kingdom of God, but also to those of us who desire to love God with all our hearts, minds, souls — and, yes, money — while we’re still here in this kingdom.
To love God with everything, including our money is no easy task, but it is possible with God. Let’s resolve today to take Christ up on His offer and trust Him to do the impossible in all parts of our lives — including finances.
If you would like to have a discussion of what loving God with money looks like on a day-to-day basis, please give us a call. We would be happy to discuss the matter in more detail with you.
“Everything in the heavens and earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We done you as being in control of everything. Riches and honor come from you alone, and you are the Ruler of all mankind; your hand controls power and might and it is at your discretion that men are made great and given strength.” – 1 Corinthians 29:11-13
