Luke 12:15 AMPC
[15] And He said to them, Guard yourselves and keep free from all covetousness (the immoderate desire for wealth, the greedy longing to have more); for a man's life does not consist in and is not derived from possessing overflowing abundance or that which is over and above his needs.
How did we get here? Jesus was speaking to the crowd that was following Him everywhere He went. There was so many people that the bible records that they were trampling on one another. In our own day today, we would see that as a sign of strength in ministry. We now equate numbers with divine approval, whilst forgetting that with God, numbers are not as critical as God's backing. Even with the crowd pressing against one another, Jesus took time to warn His disciples not to be distracted by the 'leaven' of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. These were leaders who spoke a lot but did very little to align with God's will. As it was then, so is it now.
In the middle of such serious conversations, the one thing that matters to someone in the crowd was a share of his father's inheritance. I am not sure why this man asked Jesus to command his brother to share; maybe He knew Jesus had some authority, based on the way He preached, or how He commanded the crowd, but this is just a window into the lack of divine priorities that is plaughing the world today. Whilst lives are distracted and being destroyed by the devil, those who know God must be focused on the assignment and mission of evangelism. As the bible makes clear, God wants us to be prosperous, as it makes the message about Him attractive.
The world will need phyiscal confirmation that it pays to follow and serve God, but this can only be done as God commands, not as we desire. It does not mean that possessions are not important; as we know, the gospel needs financing but this pursuit of wealth must not be at the expense of salvation and eternal life with God. That which I desire must not be the same thing that can deny me a place with God. As the verse above says, riches and wealth are good, but one must be careful of their pull. Desire them, pray for them, but do not be distracted or deceived by them. As God has so planned it, nothing on earth, no matter how much of it you have, can take His place in the human heart.
There is nothing of value down here that can sufficiently console you for the loss of eternal life. That is the message of the verse above: my life does not consist in the abundance of what I hold, but in who I know. Compared with the world, true value is not in how I am valued but in who I value in my heart. The world uses currency to judge net worth; God uses my surrender to Christ to judge worth. With Christ in my heart, I truly have all that matters. God promises me abundance, bssed on the need He wants to meet through me. May the Lord keep me away from covetousness. May He fill my heart so that nothing else can stake a claim to any part of me. God's time of favour is here.
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