The Lord Jesus on Money

"“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on 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 and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money."  
(Matthew 6:19-24, ESV)

Please take special note of the closing words of the above quotation:
 
            “No one can serve two masters....  You cannot serve God and money."  
(Matthew 6:24, ESV)  
            
Well that’s pretty clear, is it not?
 
You see the problem with money is that it is like seawater. The more a person has to drink the thirstier he becomes.  This truth was once powerfully illustrated by a man who asked John D. Rockefeller – at that time the richest man in the world – how much money was enough.  In response Rockefeller answered: “Just a little bit more.” 
 
Isn’t this sad but startling proof of the danger of money?  Doesn’t this indicate to us that a person can amass the world’s largest fortune and yet if their affections are set upon the fortune itself they will never be truly satisfied as they forever grasp for more?
 
And do you know why this is?  Do you know why money, which promises to satisfy us can NEVER satisfy us?
 
Here’s the answer:  It’s because money is a created thing and we human beings were not designed to be satisfied with created things.  Humans were designed to glorify God and enjoy Him and true satisfaction can never be known apart from that. Therefore, the obvious danger of money and all the creature comforts that it can purchase for us is that it tempts us to believe a lie.  It tempts us to believe that the more we have the more satisfied we will become...  and our fallen hearts are all too willing to believe the lie.
 
It is in response to this danger that the Lord Jesus made his remarks about money in Matthew 6.  In essence He was asking His disciples - what is it that has your heart? Do you treasure gold or God, cash or Christ, earthly things, or heavenly ones?
 
And here’s why Jesus asks...  it’s because:
 
            “....You cannot serve God and money.”
v.24