A Jewish man asked Jesus to speak to his brother about sharing an inheritance with him. Jesus replied "Man, who made me a judge or a a divider over you?" Then Jesus told a story of the consequences of greed which in the scriptures is calls 'covetousness'. Here is the story Jesus told. How it resembles so many who seek after riches today and not after God. Listen to it as recorded in Luke 12:15-21:
15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?
21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
Jesus said "A man's life does not consist of the things he possesses". In other words, God measures a person's net worth not based on what he has deposited in man's bank, but by how much he has deposited in God's Bank.
Notice that this man had much wealth by man's standard of riches, but was not rich by God's standard of riches. So that brings us to the question: What is God's standard of riches and how does one attain it?
I will answer the second part of the question first. How does one attain the riches of God's kingdom? First of all, God's riches are in God's kingdom. In order to get his riches, one must first enter into his kingdom.
Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." In another place (John 3:3) Jesus said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God". So to get into the kingdom of God, one must be born again through Jesus Christ the Savior of all mankind!
To be born again, one must repent of sin and ask for forgiveness by the blood that Jesus Christ shed for us on the cross.
Now, how does one attain riches by God's standard. God sent Jesus Christ his Son, not only to die for our sins, but to show us through his life how we are supposed to live. So after being born again we are to grow more and more like Jesus. This is how we become richer and richer toward God. The more we are like Jesus in character, the richer we are by God's standard.
If we spend our whole lives amassing wealth, and are not rich toward God our lives count for nothing. And just like the man in the story, time will run out for each of us. And God who is our maker will require our souls to give account to Him!
Jesus was not saying that money is not necessary to live on the earth; but that it is not as important as Godly riches, which has eternal value. The Bible says he knows that we have need of these things (money, clothes food, shelter etc) Luke 12:30
Rather than seeking riches, Jesus says, "But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Luke 12:31) In other words, if we seek God and what is right according to the standards of his kingdom, he will provide for our daily needs as a Father provides for his children.
Jesus' point is this: If we spend our time seeking after money and things we will only attain earthly riches but will be poor toward God. But if we will seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, we will be rich toward God and he will provide for our earthly needs as well! And believe me, He can supply your needs much better than you can. I have experienced this first hand over and over again!
Repent of your sins and ask him to forgive you of your sins and make you a new person. He will! And begin acquiring true riches from this time forward! Don't dare put it off!
Do it now, and begin to become rich toward God!
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