John Piper's Blog, page 283

Free from Money, Rich Toward God

Let’s talk about money. Jesus says,

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust don’t destroy and thieves don’t break in and steal, because where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:19–21)

Jesus spoke more about money than he did about sex, heaven, and hell. Money is a big deal to Jesus. There must be something really dangerous about money. He said, “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24).

My guess is a lot of rich people object immediately, saying something like: “No, it says the love of money is the root of all evil. Money is not bad.” Excuse me? It is harder “for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God,” period, not a rich man who loves his money. It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Money is dangerous. If you have it and depend on it, it will kill you. If you don’t have it and crave it, it will kill you. Money can kill us, because it reveals our hearts. My question is: What does it mean to lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven rather that treasures here on earth? Let’s see if we can get some help from Jesus.

Maximize God or Money?

Here is a story to be told. We’re in Luke 12, where a man’s crops have produced much more than expected. He said, “What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?” (Luke 12:17). His answer? “I will tear down my barns and build larger ones” (Luke 12:18). That is what I will do with all my accumulated wealth here at the end of the year when the stock market is going through the roof. What will you do with all your extra money, rich man? He’s going to build bigger barns.

Then he says to himself, “Well, self, let’s relax and eat and be merry for you have goods stored up for years to come.” You fool. “This night your soul is required of you” (Luke 12:20). Then comes this crucial sentence in verse 21. “So is the one — meaning fool — who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21).

What in the world does that mean? “Rich toward God.” I struggled with that for years. Surely it doesn’t mean give God lots of money. He doesn’t need any money. He has the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10). No, being rich toward God doesn’t mean to enrich God. I think it means count God as your riches. If you are looking about for where to be rich, focus on God. He is your great reward. He is your riches. Therefore, laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven would be living in such a way as to maximize God as your treasure. Handle your money in such a way as to show that God, and not money, is your treasure.

You Cannot Serve Two Masters

Here is another word from Jesus about money. He says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24). What does it mean to serve money? I think that will shed light on what it means to serve God. How do you serve money? You don’t do what money says. Money is not talking to you, like a little dollar bill with a mouth on it saying do this or do that. To serve money means to calculate all of your behaviors, all of your life, to maximize what money can give you, always asking what benefits can come to you from money. That would be serving money. I think most people would probably agree with that.

So what does it mean to serve God? Don’t bring in an alien meaning from outside this comparison. If you just stick with the comparison, serving God would mean doing everything you do, calculating all your behavior to maximize the pleasures you can get from God, all the benefits you can get from God in Christ.

You cannot serve God and money that way. Those are mutually exclusive. Either you are angling to make God your treasure in everything or you are angling to make money your treasure in everything. So lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven means to calculate all your behavior to maximize the benefits that you get from God, the benefits you have in God through Jesus Christ.

Sell Your Possessions

Lastly, let’s look at Luke 12:32-34, one of my favorite passages to write about. It goes like this,

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Luke 12:32–34)

There’s a connection between laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven (which we’ve already looked at) and sell your possessions and provide yourselves with purses or money bags that don’t grow old. You are to provide yourselves with money bags and treasures that never fail, and you are to give to the needy. Jesus is saying: The second command is how you do the first. Sell your possessions and give to the needy, and thus (decide for yourself if inserting that word seems appropriate) provide for yourselves treasures in heaven.

I think the answer here of how you provide for yourselves treasures in heaven is that you take your money and you show your freedom from it. It is not your God. It is not your treasure. You love people, and you want people to love God, so you are displaying the love of God to them by sharing more and more of what you have. And in doing that, your joy in God, your treasuring of him, increases.

A Shepherd, a Father, a King

Jesus gives us a motive for that kind of lifestyle in verse 32, “Fear not, little flock.” We tend to be afraid. We think if we give this much to the church or if this much to a ministry that cares for the poor, we may not have enough. Jesus says, “Fear not, little flock.” And if he calls us a flock, what is he? God is our Shepherd. “Fear not, little flock, it is your Father’s . . . ” — so now we have a Father and we have a Shepherd — “good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Now he is a King.

Jesus piles up pictures of God to take away our fear of giving and of laying up treasures in heaven. He is a Shepherd. He is a Father. He is a King. Shepherds know everything the sheep need to live, and provide for them. Fathers take incredible care with their children. Kings have authority and power to get it done. God is all of that for you. So don’t be afraid. Be lavish, generous, cheerful givers. Treat God as your treasure above all treasures, and then show how much he is your treasure by giving and giving and giving to those in need.

“Keep your life free from the love of money” (Hebrews 13:5), for he has said: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). Therefore we can confidently say: “The Lord is my helper. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:6). Therefore, among all the people on the planet, may Christians be the most lavish, generous, free givers, at great risk to themselves.

This video is part five of a six-part series through John Piper’s What Jesus Demands from the World. In the book, Piper looks at the demands of Jesus as found in the four Gospels. It’s an accessible introduction for thoughtful inquirers and new believers, as well as a refreshing reminder for more mature believers of God’s plan for his Son’s glory and our good. Smallgroup.com has provided a PDF of the group study guide for each session.

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The One Must-Read This Year

I have never called any book a “must-read” except one, the Bible. I suppose that’s because I take the word “must” so seriously. I mean, “Must,” or you perish. “Must,” in order to make it to heaven.

Now there you go, turning salvation by grace into salvation by works. Salvation by Bible reading!

Probably anyone who responds like that is not very saturated with the Bible. For the Bible makes plain that there is a practical, ongoing “holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14), and that this holiness is produced by the Holy Spirit through the word of God. Hence Jesus prays for us, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).

This is how we confirm that we are truly his disciples, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples” (John 8:31). And if we are not found to be his holy disciples in the end, we will perish. This is what Paul meant when he said, “I warn you . . . that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21).

The truth of God, rising continually through the roots of faith planted in God’s word, is the way God keeps Christians alive and enables them to bear the faith-authenticating fruit of love, so that they will not be castaways in the last day. This is the essence of why I say the Bible is a “must-read” — the only must read.

But there is more. Infinitely more. So, to lure you onto this happiest of all paths to heaven, let me hold out to you seven reasons to read and meditate on the Bible every day next year.

1. God, the creator of the universe, the one who holds all things in being, and who therefore knows everything there is to know, and who is infinitely wise, and full of grace and truth — this God inspired the writers of the Bible in such a way that the Christian Scriptures are the infallible word of God.

All Scripture is breathed out by God. (2 Timothy 3:16)

No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21)

Pause. Let this sink in. There is a book that is unlike every other book, because it is the very word of God. You have this book. Or you have access to it. Many do not. But if you are reading this, you do. It is astonishing. Absolutely astonishing. You can hold in your hand a book whose words are the very words of God. God! Do you hear this? Really hear it?

There are no emotions of thankfulness or wonder or adoration that come close to what we ought to feel because of this book. This is why the psalmist cries out in desperation: “Incline my heart to your testimonies” (Psalm 119:36) — because our hearts cannot delight in this book as we ought, without omnipotent help from God. The book is so great, we need great help to see it and savor it for what it is. Let this sink in. God gave us a book of complete truthfulness about himself, and his saving work, and his will for us. This alone is enough to make a wise person read it and savor it deeply every day.

2. Jesus, the incarnate Word of God, who was with God and was God from all eternity, stands at the central hinge of history and pledges his absolute allegiance to the Old Testament as the inerrant word of God, and pledges his absolute commitment to bring the fullness of God’s written revelation to completion in the New Testament.

“I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:18).

“Scripture cannot be broken.” (John 10:35)

“Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?” (Mark 12:24)

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” (John 16:12–13)

This is how most people come to trust the Bible. They meet the living Jesus in its pages. Jesus wins them. He wins their trust. His glory — “glory as of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:14) — cannot be denied. It is self-authenticating, like the glory of the sun. And there he stands, full of grace and truth, witnessing irresistibly to the infallible Scriptures.

Is this circular — seeing the glory of Christ in the Scriptures, and believing the Scriptures because of Christ? It is no more circular than seeing the sun rise in the east and knowing infallibly that this universe is the creation of God. The material sun testifies to the glory of God in the creation of the world (Psalm 19:1), as the incarnate Son testifies to the glory of God in the inspiration of the word.

3. The word of God to us in the Bible is complete.

I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. (Jude 1:3)

So then you are . . . members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. (Ephesians 2:19–20)

Jesus delegated his authority to a generation of apostolic spokesmen. Their charge was to record the foundational truths of the church. When they were done, the faith had been delivered — once for all — and the foundation was laid.

The Scriptures are sufficient. That is, in order to see God and know God and love God and be transformed into Christ-exalting images of God, we do not need any more infallible revelation from God. What we have is inexhaustible and unfathomable. But we desperately need the ongoing ministry of God’s Spirit, inclining us to his word, and opening the eyes of our hearts to see its wonders and bow joyfully in obedience to its authority.

The ongoing ministry of the Spirit, in gifts of wisdom and knowledge and prophecy, are not an extension of infallible Scripture (1 Corinthians 14:37–38). They are humanly fallible expressions of things God may have brought to mind, and as such, are in the same category as spiritual wisdom shaped and tested by the Scriptures. We need no more infallible revelation from God to know him and please him. What we hold in our hands is complete.

4. In the Bible, we see God — more surely and more clearly than anywhere else.

This is what we were made for — to see God, and know him, and love him, and be changed by him into radiant images of him. Here is the way it happened for Samuel:

The LORD appeared again at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD. (1 Samuel 3:21)

He revealed himself. By the word. This is how it happens for all believers. In the word of God, the glory of God himself stands forth. When God opens the eyes of our hearts (Ephesians 1:18), we behold the Lord himself.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

And how do we know this happens by the word of God? Because four verses later Paul describes this beholding as “seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). The glory of Christ reaches through “the light of the gospel” — the narrative of God’s saving work in his word — and breaks into our hearts as a sight of Christ, and thus a sight of God.

Do not pass over this too quickly. God has designed us to see him and know him and love him and be changed by him into images of him — and this transaction of glory happens through daily sightings of God in his word. Would anyone really call this happy, supernatural quest legalism? If they do, they probably have not tasted the reality of this encounter.

5. By the word, God gave us life. Life from spiritual deadness. Life that lives by union with his life. Life that will last forever.

You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. . . . And this word is the good news that was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:23–25)

Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth. (James 1:18)

Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)

If this is not enough to make you love the word of God and want to read it every day — because God used it to give you life — then ponder what comes immediately after Peter tells us that we were born again through the word:

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation — if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Peter 2:2–3)

In the new birth — through the word — we tasted the goodness of the Lord. Really tasted it, with new and living spiritual taste buds that had once been dead. And, Peter says, if that has happened then you will “long for the pure spiritual milk” — that is, you will long for the word, where we go on tasting the goodness of the Lord, and so grow up into salvation. We are born again by the word. And we grow by the word. Long for it. Long for it. Every day this next year.

6. The warfare against soul-destroying sin is won by the word of God.

If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)

Take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:17)

I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:11)

“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17)

How do you take up the sword of the Spirit in this mortal daily warfare? We are not playing games. If you don’t fight, you die. If you fight by the Spirit — wielding his sword — you live. Everything is at stake. And by God’s grace, with God’s Spirit, the word is enough. God will keep us (1 Peter 1:5) — by this word. Take it up. Take it up every day. Don’t walk out into the battle unarmed.

7. By the word God imparts to us the very joy that his Son has in himself.

“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11)

“But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” (John 17:13)

“I have spoken.” “These things I speak.” Why? Why did Jesus speak? Why were his words taken down? Why did John and the others put them in a book? For our joy.

No, not just our joy. But our joy as the very joy of the Son of God in us. We do not have the spiritual strength to enjoy God with the reality and intensity with which he was meant to be enjoyed. So Jesus promises that his enjoyment of the Father will be in us. Do you hear this: his enjoyment of God, becoming our enjoyment of God? How? By his words! “I have spoken that my joy may be in you.”

As I complete this article, I am praying for you. Thousands of you — that this next year will be a year of consistent Christ-exalting miracles in your life. I pray that every day will start with the miracle of desiring and seeing and savoring the glory of God. I pray that God will incline your heart to his testimonies, and that he will open the eyes of your hearts to see wonders, and that you will store them up so that you do not sin, but are filled with joy — the very joy of Christ.

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