WEALTH
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Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
God does not give to us so that we can hoard for our own comfort.
We must generously help others, especially the needy.
The most terrible, tragic reality is that the selfish and rich of this world do not even realize their miserable status, nor the horrible judgment that awaits them because of their neglect of the needy.
Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
Wealth will consume the whole person as a fire. If we hoard wealth, the passion to increase or stockpile more and more money will burn within us.
And the more we hoard, the more we will desire and lust after wealth.
Ultimately, the passion for more and more will consume us. We will never be satisfied or fulfilled.
The obsession with acquiring more wealth will in time destroy us, both here and now and for all eternity.
It will eat our flesh and become the consuming fire and passion of our lives.
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 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.
Wealth will be stored up as a treasure against us in the last days.
This refers to the days of coming judgment when all men will stand and give an account to God.
The words heaping together picture a person working day by day and hour by hour to heap up treasures on earth and, at the same time, heaping up wrath against himself in the terrible day of God's judgment.
The wrath heaped up will savagely fall upon the rich person. Why?
Because the rich person hoarded while a world of needy people died from hunger, cold, or disease, or were doomed eternally because no one cared enough to share the gospel.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
ILLUSTRATION:
The story is often told of a carpenter who had worked many years for the same company. But the carpenter was dishonest. He took shortcuts and had unfortunately learned too well how to do so. The shortcuts enabled the carpenter to pocket a lot of money that should have been spent on the houses. One day, the owner of the company told the carpenter he had a special project for him. The carpenter was told to construct a very special house. As usual, the carpenter used cheaper materials and took many shortcuts. When the project was completed, the owner presented the house to the carpenter as a gift. "I cannot think of a more fitting present for all you have done over the years," the owner of the company told him. Much to his dismay, the carpenter was doomed to live with the penalty of his own shortcomings.
—Source unknown
Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
Some rich people cheat, steal, and defraud their workers.
Note what usually happens when they do: the cheated person cries out to God in his suffering. When he does, God hears him.
Rich people can steal and defraud..
. by not paying just wages
. by not paying a full hour or day's wage
. by not paying for all the work done
. by withholding more than what they should
. by adding to the bill the laborer owes for supplies
. by adding weight to the scales that measure what is being bought
The getting of treasures by a lying tongue
Is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death.
He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches,
And he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.
And I will come near to you to judgment;
And I will be a swift witness
Against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers,
And against those that oppress the hireling in his wages,
The widow, and the fatherless,
And that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me,
Saith the Lord of hosts.
No person is to get money by extortion nor to charge more interest or taxes than what he should.
Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates: At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee.