Articles
When Love Is Misplaced
Jesus declared “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’ 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 "The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). Paul describes love as the fulfillment of the Law (Romans 13:10), Love is important to understand and emulate as a Christian; however, like many attributes we should possess, love can be misplaced.
One of the places our love can be misplaced is in money. Money in itself is not a bad thing, in fact there are many ways we can use it to bless others, but it becomes evil when it becomes our focus and our trust is in our money rather than God. “If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:8-10). We are instructed to be content with the bare minimum. It’s all that’s needed to live, it’s all that is needed to be a Christian. We should not long for the vanity of money but rather seek after the things that are eternal and lay up our treasure in heaven.
Jesus tells us "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. 25 "For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:24-25) Is our focus on the possessions that bring a moment of pleasure? Or are we looking to the eternity the follows this temporary flash of our life. No one can serve two masters, there is a war between the flesh and the spirit and we must ensure we are feeding our spiritual body. When we place our love and trust in money, we abandon what is truly important, and drain the strength from our spiritual body.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8). We are called to love. To love God, to love one another.
God gave us this beautiful aspect of life called love. The devil tries to corrupt love by drawing our attention away from the things God intended our love for. “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (James 1:17).
