Developing A Godly Relationship With Money预览

Money Law #4: Money is a Form of Power

Money is a form of power. Like any other type of power, money can be used to do what its possessor wants it to do of those things it can do. Like fire which can be used to cook or burn someone’s house, money works the same way. Money can be used for good, but it can also be used for evil. Money in itself is neutral. It only does what the person who has it wants it to do.

Money is usually disdained by most people because they associate it with what bad people use it for. Instead of looking at the people who use their money to achieve ill things, people blame money. I think that is unfair to money.

Another unfair thing that most people do to money is that they accuse money of failure to do certain things. The common one as we mentioned in our earlier post is that money cannot buy happiness, or health, or whatever they accuse it of. Money, like many other things, was not meant to be an answer to everything. However, for the things that money was meant to buy, it will always buy those things. 

In Ecclesiastes 10:19, in some versions of the Bible, money is said to be an answer to all things. However, the same scripture lists two things that money can do: it can buy wine which makes a heart merry, and it has the ability to put together a party. The word "all" in this scripture could be translated “both” in today’s English. “A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things”. The "all" in this passage means both. 

In the scriptures that are quoted in today’s scripture reading, we can see that money was used to do noble things. It was used to rescue someone at the brink of death by the roadside. James is telling us that if someone is hungry, or naked, we cannot just wish them well. We need to do something about that. It requires money to help someone to eat, and to clothe, and to get decent medical attention.

Nonetheless, in Matthew 28: 11–15, we see that money was used to achieve an evil end. It was used to perpetuate a lie. This is a clear indication that it is not money that is a culprit here, but its possessor. If someone has evil intentions, they will use the money for ill purposes. If they are good people, they will always use the money for good.