“Then Jesus, looking at him,
loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you
have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take
up the cross, and follow Me.” But he was sad at this word, and went away
sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then
Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who
have riches to enter the kingdom of God!”” (Mark 10:21-22 NKJV).
No greater tragedy can ever
befall a person than to turn down the love of God. This was exactly what the
rich young ruler of our text did. He walked away from the love of God into an
irredeemable perdition. What pain of sorrowful displeasure must have pierced
through the heart of our Lord as He watched that young man He so fervently
loved turn his back against Him and took the first fatal step away from Him? Why
would he do such a thing you might be thinking?
He turned down the love of God because he loved something more that
Jesus. He loved earthly possessions more than he did eternal treasures in
heaven, which Christ offered him instead.
He preferred the perishable blessing of material possessions that he
could see to the imperishable blessing he could not see. Whenever you lack the spiritual sight to see
the reality as God sees it, you trade the temporal for the eternal. By so
doing, you bring an unmitigated disaster upon yourself. Here is the principle
–you cannot have your eyes focused on the visible and still see the invisible
(Hebrews 11: 27 NKJV). This truism was the theme of the Lord’s lamentation in
the Prophecy of Isaiah, “Who is blind but
My servant, Or deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is blind as he who is
perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant? Seeing many things, but you do not
observe; opening the ears, but he does not hear.” (Isaiah 42:19-20 NKJV).
Herein lies the real danger of materialism.
Materialism is the cancer of the present
church. Like cancer, it’s danger is not
easily noticed but it works unnoticed until it has taken over the system of its
host. By the time cancer become obvious to its victim, it is ready to kill. The
rich young ruler could have quarrelled with any person who accused him of being
materialistic. Not when he flaunted such impressive religious credential as he
did. Our Lord had tested him on the laws of his religion and found him perfect–“You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’
‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honour your
father and your mother.” And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all
these things I have kept from my youth.” (Mark 10:19-20 NKJV). Like Paul the young man could boast to be
blameless “touching righteousness which
is in the law” (Philippians 3:9 NKJV). Certainly, the man was morally
upright but had no deep love for Jesus because he could not love God and mammon
(Matthew 6:28).
Materialism is a mindset that prioritizes the
material over the spiritual, the earthly over the heavenly, the seen over the unseen
and the temporal over the eternal. The Bible enjoins us to weigh the eternal
more than the temporal. “Therefore
we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward
man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a
moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while
we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not
seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not
seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NKJV). Wise people invest the present to gain the
future. That explains why people endure the pain of discipline today in order
to enjoy the glory of tomorrow. Besides, most of the things that really matter
in life are not material –God, love, kindness, laughter etc. All these are unseen
realities that greatly impact our day-to-day life on earth.
The real danger of materialism is that it weakens
the ability of believers to respond to the Spirit and to discern God's loving
call. This was the case with the young man of our text. He rejected the love of Christ because “he had great
possessions.” God can love you but until you welcome His
love and appropriate it for yourself, it will not benefit you. Our test
declared “Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” That notwithstanding,
an unwelcomed and an unappropriated love has no redeeming power to it, even if
it is God’s love. God loves you! Do you love Him? Until we love God with all
our heart, soul, mind and strength, we do not love Him well enough. We must
love Him with our material possessions too! May our prayers always be that the
blessings of God in our lives should not be our reason for rejecting Him and
turning our back on His loving call in Jesus Name.
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