Money has a way of getting our immediate attention. If you doubt that, throw a handful of twenty dollar bills up in the air while walking down a busy sidewalk and see what happens. And that says a lot more about human nature than it does about money. Some folks quote the Bible as saying, “money is the root of all evil,” but God does not say money is the root of all evil. He says it is the love of money that is the source of trouble (1 Timothy 6:10). Money, in and of itself, is simply a tool and has no good or evil connotation whatsoever.

Jesus often taught about how money can be used to better the world, but he was also well aware of the stranglehold it can have on us and how easily we can confuse making a living with making a life.

It is difficult for us to learn that what we live for is much more important than what we live on.

When we lose sight of who we are in Christ and why we are here (our identity and purpose!) we become less and less productive. Jesus said it this way in Matthew 13:22, “the person who hears the message but allows the cares of this life and the longing for money to choke out God’s Word, does less and less for God.”

We push back against statements like that. We think, “Jesus is talking about someone else, not me!” We want to reason with God and remind Him of the very real threat of scarcity in our world and how, at any given moment, there are millions of people suffering because they are without resources.

That part we have no trouble believing; our own eyes and ears can verify that fact. The part we have trouble believing is the notion that in the kingdom of God there is no such thing as scarcity. There is only abundance. That sounds so foreign to us, so counterintuitive, that I would like to say it again: in the kingdom of God there is no such thing as scarcity. There is only abundance. That is Jesus’s promise: in Me there is life overflowing  (John 10:10).

You and I have a choice: we can believe the promise of Jesus, or we can believe that “God helps those who help themselves,” or that we live in a dog-eat-dog world and we must meet the dogs on their level or be eaten. But when we choose that way of looking at the world, Jesus’ teaching becomes nothing more than pretty words. Why? Because at a very deep level in our soul we are doubting the goodness of God. We are saying, “I don’t know if God is good enough to put together a plan for my future that would be better than the one I can put together for myself.”

One of the surest ways I know I have left the kingdom of God is when I start becoming concerned about the scarcity of money in my bank account. Or I worry about the future potential for scarcity. And when I ask myself, “why do I go there?” an ugly, ugly answer comes back… I go there because my trust in God is wavering. I don’t usually say it that way. I may not even consciously think that way, but what I do with my money tells the truth of the matter.

Jesus, unlike many of us, understands that what is really being discussed when the topic of money is brought up is the issue of trust. God makes that plain to us in His Word, using language we can all understand. Take a few minutes to read what Jesus has to say about the subject in Matthew 6:19-34.

We will let Jesus have the last word on the subject. He spends a large portion of his most famous sermon talking about how our relationship to money impacts our relationship with God, and he lays out a deep truth about God and about us. In essence, he says that God is good and will take care of us as we allow Him to. The Message paraphrase captures Jesus’s teaching on this perfectly: “Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow” (Matthew 6:33-34).

Do we live in a land of diminishing returns? At the supermarket, the price goes up while the box gets smaller. At work, we’re asked to produce more and take less. Benefits shrink or are eliminated. Given this reality, it’s not surprising that many of us fear that with less coming in, life will not be good. History, however, teaches us that tough economic times can be blessings in disguise because they force us to become very clear about our priorities.

Of course, this isn’t the only thing that tight economic times bring. They can also tempt us to play the “what if” game. Do you ever play that one? When I play the “what if” game I excel at imagining the darkest outcomes, and when I do that I am believing a lie the Devil loves to tell me: Satan wants to convince me that when things get bad, God won’t have my back. The enemy wants me to believe that when times get tough, God will leave me twisting the wind. So I better have a backup plan for those times when my prayers don’t get me what I want.

I’ve heard enough of that message; what does Jesus say? In one of his clearest statements on the subject, Jesus linked it to his very purpose for coming: “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Yet Jesus also told his followers that “in the world you will have much trouble” (John 16:33), which tells us that the abundance Jesus is referring to is not something as mundane as comfort–Jesus is talking about a life that can be full and rewarding regardless of circumstances.

At the heart of the discussion is our relationship with mammon (an Aramaic word for “money and possessions”) . Jesus points out that “No one can serve two masters. 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 both God and mammon. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” (Matthew 6:24-25).

Do you have a hard time believing that? What about Jesus’s commandment in verse 33? He says, “Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and God will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”  

That is a straightforward promise from Jesus, yet most of us (based on the choices we make with our time and money), find it impossible to take Jesus at his word on this. And our inability to believe Jesus is why the god mammon has such a stranglehold on our lives and why we are constantly tempted to allow money to have the power to make us feel secure and successful and valuable.

Jesus, contrary to popular belief in both his day and ours, says that having an enjoyable life does not require having wealth and possessions. In fact, Jesus says, it can have the opposite effect. “Watch out!” Jesus warns us in Luke 12, “Be on your guard against greed in any form, because your real life in no way depends on the abundance of your possessions.”

Okay, so if having what Jesus calls a “real life” (1 Timothy 6:19 calls it “the life that is truly life”), doesn’t depend on my possessions, what does it depend on? Well, perhaps on the simplest level it depends on two things: being thankful for what I have and investing my life in what will last.

The first part is simple to understand and has to do with my attitude: instead of always wishing I had something better, I will follow the counsel of Ecclesiastes 5:19 and choose to rejoice in what I already have, recognizing it as a gift from God. It is so easy to get caught up in “if/then” thinking (if I can only get “x,” then I’ll be happy). Our culture tells us our happiness is tied into what we have, but God says happiness is not tied to our circumstances, but to who we are and, more importantly, whose we are. The Book of Hebrews gives us wise counsel: “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you'” (13:5).

Why the warning to keep our life free from the love of money? Because when we love money, we will inevitably use people to get more of what we love. Hence the warning: money is to be used, not loved; people are to be loved, not used.

There is a very practical reason to learn to be content with what we have: it helps us learn to focus on what will last. “Do not trust in your money which will soon be gone. Use your money to do good and give to those in need. By doing this you will be storing up real treasure for yourself in heaven–it is the only safe investment for eternity!” (1Timothy 6:17). That is an easy-to-understand command, but also one we are good at rationalizing away so we can pour our time and money into things that bring us short-term happiness.

Many of us are like the man in Luke 12 who was quite successful in amassing earthly treasure. This was a guy many of us would envy; it seemed all he had to do was eat, drink, be merry, and figure out where to store all his cool new stuff. But on the very night he was pondering where to build his new warehouses, he died and was left to consider his foolishness. He had spent his life chasing wealth and power, but what did he have to show for it now? None of it went with him when he died, and all he is left with is the unanswerable question Jesus asks in Luke 9:25, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?”

How easy is it for us to fall into the same snare? To focus only on what we can see and trust only in what we have in the bank? How often do we pour our time and money into things that we later regret because the investment did not bring us the happiness we thought it would?

When we are ready to live into the meaningful life Jesus purchased for us, the path is before us. All we need do is walk down it. And while there is much more we can say about walking this path, we will never hear more valuable instruction than Colossians 3:2, “Set your mind on things above, not earthly things.” In other words, look at life from God’s perspective.

One of Christianity’s most controversial teachings is that there are not many roads that lead to God. There is only one. In John 14, Jesus declares that he alone is the way. Not surprisingly, there are many who strongly disagree with Jesus’s claim. And not just atheists and skeptics. Many Christians are also uncomfortable with his declaration. We wonder about the fate of the millions who lived before Jesus and the millions today who have never heard his message.  Are they to suffer eternal punishment for being born in the wrong time or place?

That is an important question, and one the Bible addresses. The Scriptures tell us that every tribe and nation from the beginning of time has heard all they need to hear to choose Jesus.

The Bible tells us that God accomplishes this in four ways:

God communicates his truth to us through nature.

The psalmist said that even though the created world has no way of speaking, it is constantly declaring the existence of its Creator. I like the Message’s paraphrase of Psalm 19: “God’s glory is on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon. Madame Day holds classes every morning, Professor Night lectures each evening. Their words aren’t heard, their voices aren’t recorded, but their silence fills the earth: unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.” God’s witness through nature is affirmed in the New Testament: “God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God” (Romans 1:18-20). Creation stands as a mute witness to the presence of God. In every generation, men and women have seen the magnificence of the created world and been convinced of the existence of an even more magnificent Creator.

God communicates his truth to us through our conscience.

Consider Paul’s reasoning: “God does not show favoritism. When the Gentiles sin, they will be destroyed, even though they never had God’s written law. And the Jews, who do have God’s law, will be judged by that law when they fail to obey it. For merely listening to the law doesn’t make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight. Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right” (Romans 2:11-15).

God communicates his truth to us through the Holy Spirit.

In John 16, Jesus says the Holy Spirit “will convince the world of its sin, of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.” All of us have experienced this. There have been times when we desperately needed help and sensed God inviting us into his love. And there have been times when we did dark things and sensed God’s Spirit telling us we were not created to be that.

God communicates his truth to us through other people.

In his letter to the church in Rome, the apostle Paul explained that, “The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart. And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, ‘Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.’ Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:8–13). This is why it’s so important that Christians take Jesus’s invitation to family and friends and engage in those sometimes awkward and painful conversations about who God is and who we are. Our loved ones need to hear the message of the One who died for them and called us to be salt and light.

Most of us get that, but we are still concerned about the people who live in remote places who have never heard the name of Jesus. What about them? God anticipated that question. Let’s continue reading in Romans 10. Paul asks, “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” (Romans 10:14-15). The obvious application is that God is calling some of us (maybe you) to go out and reach people in remote areas.

But it’s bigger than organizing a mission trip. God has an amazingly deep plan to penetrate the hearts of every being on the planet. There’s a good example of how it works in Acts 17. The apostle Paul is on Mars Hill having a discussion with the Greeks about Jesus and says, “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about. He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, and human hands can’t serve his needs–for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries” (Acts 17:22–26).

Think about what Paul is saying here: God has chosen the exact time and place for every person who was ever born. He put each of us in the ideal location and time period to hear his truth and share it with others. And there is a reason for that. Let’s continue reading in verse 27. “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him–though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring'” (Acts 17:27-28).

Paul told the Greeks that he was not there to tell them about a God they knew nothing about–he was there to proclaim the same God their poets spoke of. Paul did not bring God to Athens. He had been there all along. What Paul did was teach them the name of their unknown God.

This passage really helped me understand God’s plan for evangelism. I began looking for evidence of God in popular books and movies and music–and he started showing up everywhere. It made for some interesting conversations, and the Holy Spirit lead some souls to Christ. And it convinced me that a Mars Hill approach is still a great way to communicate with seekers of truth. May the Lord give his people wisdom and creative ways to tap into the spiritual rivers that flow through our culture.

Christianity is getting less and less popular in the United States. Why? We could look at several reasons, but I would like to zero in on one of the most offensive teachings in Christianity: the claim that there are not many roads that lead to God. There is only one–Jesus.

So why does orthodox Christianity cling to this narrow-minded belief? Who said that Jesus was the only way? Well, Jesus did. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to Father except through me” (John 14:6). Not a lot of ambiguity in that statement.

Not surprisingly, there are many who strongly disagree with Jesus’s claim. And not just atheists and skeptics. Many Christians are also uncomfortable with Jesus’s declaration. If you wrestle with the exclusivity of Jesus’s statement, take a few minutes to reflect on why the Bible says that it can be no other way. And as you consider God’s reasoning, keep in mind that most of us, regardless of our religious preference, fall into one of two categories: we are either legalistic and believe we must earn what we get, or we are fatalistic and believe that what is to be will be. But when we look in the Scriptures, we discover that God is neither legalistic nor fatalistic.

To understand God’s perspective, we need to go back to the beginning. We read in Genesis 2 that “the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground–trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. . . The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, ‘You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden–except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die'” (vv. 7–9, 15–17).

What’s happening here in the garden? God is telling Adam that he is free to choose his destiny–but to choose wisely. There will be eternal consequences. Why would God do that? Why would he give Adam the ability to choose? Because God wanted to create in us the capacity to love, and love cannot be coerced. It must be given freely.

There is a passage in Deuteronomy 30 that helps us understand why things must be the way they are. In verse 10, the people of Israel are told that deliverance will come “when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” God then offers them two options: they can choose life, or they can choose death. God says, “This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you to understand, and it is not beyond your reach. It is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey?’ It is not kept beyond the sea, so far away that you must ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear it and obey?’ No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it. “Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy. But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy. Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Today I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Deuteronomy 30:11–20).

Why is following the Lord such an exclusive proposition? Why is it him and no other? Because, as verse 20 says, “The Lord is your life.” God isn’t saying that he will kill us if we don’t choose him; he’s saying that he is life. We read in Genesis 2 that it was God who breathed life into us, so this isn’t about which religion is right–it’s about who has life. When Jesus says he’s the only way to life, he’s not eliminating other options that lead to life. He’s saying that there are no other options.

Jesus’s offer is quite different than those we hear in other religions. Pick one. Hinduism? Hinduism tells me that I’m trapped in samsara, the endless cycle of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth. I will reincarnate until I learn how to escape the cycle. Buddhism says the same: my karmic baggage is holding me down and I will reincarnate until I get it right. Reading Hindu and Buddhist holy books like the Vedas, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Dhammapada led me to the conclusion that reincarnation is a kind of punishment I must suffer until I’m able to remove all desires and feelings and everything that makes me human.

The other thing I learned about these two religions is that no one is coming to help me. I am on my own to attain Nirvana. Ditto with Islam. Allah is not coming for me. He left me a list of do’s and don’ts in the Koran and I must work and work. And even then, Allah will decide if I am worthy of paradise.

Christ’s invitation is strikingly different. “Come to me,” Jesus says, “all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Another great place to see how Jesus’s offer is different than all the others is in John 15. In verse 9, Jesus tells his followers, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

Did you catch those last few words? 

Jesus didn’t come to make trouble for us.

He came to invite us to be his friends.