Crosshairs of Grace

Jesus taught, “You can­not serve both God and money”(Matt. 6:24, NIV). How do you respond to that state­ment? How does your response cor­re­late with your worldview?

The proper response would be that this is a true state­ment. From a Bib­li­cal per­spec­tive, it sim­ply means that if any­thing other than God occu­pies the throne room in your heart you have a divided inter­est to Him. A good exam­ple is Jacob and his rela­tion­ships with Rachel and Leah. He loved Leah less than he loved Rachel. The focus of his atten­tion, affec­tion, and desires was Rachel, his first love. There­fore, if we have money (or any other idol) sit­ting in the throne room we must have put God in another room. He does not have our full attention.

How­ever, can we ver­ify this world­view state­ment? Is there any evi­dence, sci­en­tific or life expe­ri­ences that would sup­port this state­ment? Are there any con­tra­dict­ing state­ments involved? Is it pos­si­ble to live out this state­ment in the world, as we know it? (Cos­grove, 2006, pp. 66–67) Jacob and his rela­tion­ship with his two wives would sat­isfy the first test. For those who feel using the Bible would be incor­rect, a life expe­ri­ence of a young woman in love and in her first semes­ter of col­lege would suf­fice. Who wins out for atten­tion, the boyfriend or col­lege? Are there con­tra­dict­ing state­ments? No. Is it pos­si­ble to live out this state­ment in our world today? Yes and most peo­ple would ben­e­fit greatly from choos­ing to do so.

My world­view places God as the object in which my daily life orbits, the one thing that remains con­stant each day. If any­thing else held that core and sud­denly van­ished, my life also would fall out of orbit. I feel that the state­ment is a true world­view state­ment and agrees with my worldview.

Cos­grove, M. P. (2006). Foun­da­tions of Chris­t­ian Thought: Faith, Learn­ing, and The Chris­t­ian World­view. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.