Love makes the world go around...

Is money as important as we believe it to be in this world?  Some say yes – and some will say no.

What would you rather have in the world – world peace or everyone has enough money to sustain themselves?  Some will say peace – some will say money for everyone, and some will even go so far as saying if everyone has enough money this will create peace.

I truly beg to differ on this.  Not because of what I think – but rather because of what I believe.

If you believe people have enough money to create peace – this means you have a desire or love of money. 

The Bible teaches one thing on this matter:  1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Now – let’s think for a moment – God gave some people money to help out the Kingdom, to help the people of God.  Some of these men were richer than we can prossibly start to comprehend.  Yes there was a purpose for these men to be rich, to have all this money – but at the end of the day people were still starving.  People were still going without food and people were looking for something greater – they were looking for a Messiah.

Their Messiah came – and is no other than Jesus Christ.  Jesus was one of the poorest men to ever walk the earth.  Yes – the famous/infamous Son of God – Jesus Christ – was probably the poorest man to ever walk the earth.  Yet – here we are in a post Jesus day – and we are still longing for money to help one another.  What did Jesus say?

John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

I find this verse very interesting.  Love one another – as I have loved you.  Jesus had no money to give anyone – was He helping the poor by giving them money?  No – He wasn’t.  Yet why do we as declaring ourselves as Christians – followers of Christ – feel we need money to help one another?  The answer is simple:  we don’t need money.

You see – people start to value their worth with how much money they have, or how many people they’ve helped, or how many times they’ve forgiven someone.  If this is you – than you just missed the entire message of the Gospel – as it’s never been about any of this.  You receive your value from Jesus alone – because once all those other things are taken away from you, all those wonderful things you’ve done are taken away from you – what do you have left?  Absolutely nothing!  If you get your value from Jesus Christ -–and all those other things are added unto you and later taken away – what do you have left?  You still have Jesus left!

Yes – God has given people throughout history – but this simply goes to show how selfish man is.  You won’t help someone just from the goodness of your heart – you want payment in return for your works.  Ok – sometimes you may not be that way – but how often do you do something for someone to help them out and later you need a helping hand and are asking that person you once helped for help – but they can’t because they’re committed with something already?  Of those times – how often do you try and guilt them into helping you because you once helped them out?

I’ll tell you one thing – if that’s a category you’re in – you never did it out of love to begin with.  You were doing it out of selfishness because you were hoping and expecting they come back and help you when you need it.

Now – that doesn’t sound very Jesus like.

Jesus – paid the ultimate price for us.  Jesus died on a cross to pay the price for our sins – that we wouldn’t be ashamed – that we can come forward and that regardless of what others think – we can go out and love the world.  We can go out and do things and not need money to do them.  With this we can change the world.  In the long run – we would eventually eliminate the need of a currency in the world.  Why?

I tell you – it’s not money that makes the world go around.  It’s people.  Take people out of the equation and what good is your money?

People may watch the movie “A Christmas Carol” – a book originally written by Charles Dickens – every year.  Do you see it’s not just about an old rich man who says “bah – humbug” – but it’s actually a book about everyone of us who feel we need money to go on.  In the book, in all the revisions of the movie – we always see the Scrooge character give up on money because he comes to realize it’s not about money – it never has been.  It’s about love and relationships.

This my friends – is what makes the world go around:  Love and Relationships.

1 Corinthians 13

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Way of Love

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;^[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.