“I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love!” I think it was Yvonna Trump who once said, “I didn’t marry him for his money, but how else was I going to get it?” Billboard advertisement for a savings and loan association: “We lend happiness at 18 locations.” Judge to defendant: “I noticed that you are not only charged with stealing money, but with stealing watches, rings, and silverware.” “Yes,” replied the defendant, “I firmly believe that money alone won’t bring true happiness.” We all know that money is not the most important thing in life, but like Jack Benny used to say, “it is way ahead of whatever is in second place.” We all know that these thoughts are basically funny because they hint at something that has a smidgen of truth to it. We know that there are so many things in life so much more important than money; family, friends, good health, a clean conscience and many other things. Yet we all often wish we had more money! We know that money won’t buy happiness, but we’d all like to find out for ourselves!
Solomon warns us in Ecclesiastes 5:10, “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income…” How true, when that’s what we go after, we’ll always simply want more. Sadly enough many people will sacrifice what matters most for money in this life. It’s really shocking to see people trade the precious for the mundane! People compromise their values to get a promotion or make a big sale. Women might compromise morals in order to get ahead. Men might choose money over relationships and family. It happens all the time and we read about it in the papers and hear about it in the news. There’s always some kind of scandal going on with regard to money.
The more money you have the more corrupt you seem to become. Just recently a newspaper ran an article saying that the largest banks in the world are in collusion in manipulating the economic sector to increase their profits. One article says, “Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game. We found this out in recent months, when a series of related corruption stories spilled out of the financial sector, suggesting the world’s largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything.” The scandal involves as much as 379 trillion dollars which is about 100 times the amount of the United States Federal budget. No wonder that Paul warned Timothy, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Timothy 6:10).