In the Bible Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira disobeyed the Holy Spirit because of loving money. This couple was moved so much when they first listened to the sermon delivered by the Apostles. They decided to sell their property when they enjoyed the worship service listening to the word of God. They planned to use the money to win even one more soul by spreading the gospel to the end of the world. They succeeded to sell their property according to their inspiration from the Holy Spirit.
But they changed their mind when they grabbed money after selling the property. They worried about how to live after giving all the money. So they kept back some amount of the money, brought the rest of it, and put it at the apostles’ feet. They lied that the money was all. The power of the money is very powerful as much as they trampled the inspiration from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in them only because Jesus bought them by his blood.
In Luke 16, Jesus told his disciples how miserable the end of people who didn’t prepare for the time of soul is, speaking about a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus in the parable. The rich man lived in luxurious life and enjoyed parties. In a short, he indulged himself by spending money. But the moment his life ended, he fell into hell.
In hell, suffering by torments of fire, he looked up and saw Abraham, with Lazarus by his side. Like this, those who love money don’t see the way that their souls are taking. We shouldn’t make our time of soul miserable by being blinded by money. We shouldn’t give priority to money over the work of the Lord. The money should never stand between God and us.
We believe in Jesus to get the wealth of the kingdom of God. If we have faith that we own the everlasting blessing with God like Lazarus, we have to be content with it although we may fall in despair because of having no money.
Pastor Seok-Jeon Yoon
Extracted from Yonsei Newspaper #702
