Lover Of God Or Lover Of Gold?

There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be … lovers of money.
2 Timothy 3:1-2

Loving God. Loving gold. Only one letter separates the two, but the outlooks are worlds apart. And the love of one will overpower the love of the other. As Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters … You cannot serve both God and money” (Luke 16:13).

Paul accurately described the perilous times when people will be “lovers of themselves” (2 Timothy 3:2) and “lovers of pleasure” (2 Timothy 3:4)—the result of embracing the world’s system of values.

John Wesley has been described as a man who died leaving behind nothing but his Bible, his horse and the Methodist Church. Listen as he echoes Paul’s admonition about the deceitfulness of riches.

WALK WITH JOHN WESLEY
“Let us but open our eyes, and we may daily see the melancholy proofs of this—those who, resolving to be rich, coveting after money, the root of all evil, have already pierced themselves through with many sorrows. The cautiousness with which the apostle here speaks is highly observable. For one may possibly be rich, without any fault of his, by an overruling Providence, preventing his own choice.

“Riches, dangerous as they are, do not always ‘plunge people into ruin and destruction’ (1 Timothy 6:9), but the desire for riches does. Those who calmly desire and deliberately seek to attain them, whether they do in fact gain the world or not, do invariably lose their own souls.

“These are they that sell him, who bought them with his blood, for a few pieces of gold or silver.”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
Worldly voices and values clamor for your attention every day. And given the chance, they will dictate your priorities. Paul’s advice has never been more timely: Focus on “the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15). God’s Word is a “gold mine” for the one who loves God.