Oaths and Lawsuits from the Early Church
"...how can such a man, who has been proven faithful, show himself to be unfaithful so as to need an oath? Isn’t his very life a sure and decisive oath?…
Would you like to be rich and not have to worry about money?
What a question! Who wouldn’t like to have it so good?—especially these days when everything is so expensive.
One wealthy man complained bitterly, “The worst thing about money is that it costs too much!” He had learned the hard way that the love of money can be the root of many evils (1 Timothy 6:10). After amassing a fortune at the high cost of neglecting his family, he lamented, “I have enough money to send all my children to hell.”
An envious man once approached Rothschild, the international banker, and commented, “It must be wonderful to be so rich.”
Rothschild sighed deeply and confessed, “It forces me to sleep with pistols under my pillow.”
Millions of people pour money into the lottery, hoping to strike it rich. Those who hit the jackpot, however, find that their newly acquired riches don’t bring them joy and fulfillment. Often, their new wealth brings unimaginable heartbreak and anguish. One man won over $300 million in a lottery, and then saw it ruin his marriage and his family. “I wish I’d torn that ticket up,” he exclaimed.
John D. Rockefeller put it this way: “The most miserable man in all this world is the man who has nothing but money.” How tragically true! All too often wealth brings with it dissatisfaction, conflict, and suffering.
Another put it this way: “Money may be the husk of many things . . . but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintances, but no friends; servants, but not loyalty; days of pleasure, but not of peace and happiness.”
And those words, peace and happiness, reach directly to the root of the matter.
PEACE . . . HAPPINESS—what tantalizing words! These are the true riches, possessions of real value that men long to possess at any price. Many would gladly exchange their wealth for peace of mind and rest for their souls (Isaiah 57:20, 21). Many have learned, to their sorrow, that the troubled soul can never be calmed by currency.
Life is filled with tragedy: “Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). When troubles multiply, or when you come face to face with death, you discover that a roomful of money is utterly worthless.
Whether rich or otherwise, whether we have everything or nearly nothing, we do well to remember that money doesn’t meet a single need of the soul (see Isaiah 55: 1, 2). Our greatest need is that we MUST be born again (John 3:7). We must invite Jesus to live in our hearts by His Spirit. We must pass out of the poverty of spiritual death into the unlimited riches (2 Corinthians 8:9) of God’s great salvation (deliverance from sin). “No one is so poor as the man who has no home in eternity.”
The Lord Jesus Christ is preparing a home in Heaven (John 14:2) for those who love and serve Him. Money has no meaning in this heavenly matter. Heavenly wealth is a gift. “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
Your salvation, with the peace and happiness that it brings, comes at a very high price. But you are neither able nor required to pay for it, for Jesus has provided for it by shedding His blood for you (1 Peter 1:19). You have but to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus with all your heart. Cling no longer to the bankruptcy of your own sinfulness, but choose to receive true riches through Jesus Christ. Accept God’s great invitation: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). He who is thus forgiven and declared innocent is truly RICH!
-E. R. Anderson, adapted
Christian Light Publications, Inc. Harrisonburg, VA 22802 Phone (540) 434-0768
