Thursday, March 11, 2010

"Some people eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." 1 Tim. 6:10



"I so solemnly believe that of all hypocrites, those are the persons of whom there is the least hope whose God is their money. You may reclaim a drunkard; thank God--we have seen many instances of that; and even a fallen Christian, who has given way to vice, may loathe his lust and return from it; but I fear me that the cases in which a man who is cankered with covetousness has been saved are so few that they might be written on your fingernail. This is a sin that the world does not rebuke; the most faithful minister can scarce smite its forehead. God knows what thunders I have launched out against men who are all for this world and yet pretend to be Christ's followers, but yet they always say, "It is not for me." What I should call stark-naked covetousness, they call prudence, discretion, economy, and so on; and actions that I would scorn to spit upon, they will do, and think their hands quite clean after they have done them, and still sit as God's people sit, and hear as God's people hear, and think that after they have sold Christ as paltry gain, they will go to heaven. O souls, souls, souls, beware, beware, beware, most of all of greed!" -Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The love of mammon is something we all need to contend with, I believe. And the desire to have things becomes a even more subtle snare when false Christians throw in their health and wealth Bible teachings, and feed the already depraved human heart. "God wants you to be rich!", they teach. They even teach that poverty is a sin. They say they love Jesus, and they may even think they do, I don't know. But what Spurgeon calls "stark-naked covetousness", they disquise as a blessing from the Lord.

So beware of your own heart first of all, and then beware of crafty pseudo-Christians.

2 comments:

mommanator said...

when I first started reading this I said man is your English different today, then suddenly giggled and said that was Spurgeon!
You really like his work huh. So did my hubby!

donsands said...

He was a wonderful example for all pastors in so many ways. He is mainly known for his preaching, but he was the whole Christian man, who loved Jesus first and foremost.