In this teaching, Paul echoed the words of Jesus himself, who linked love for God with love of neighbor (Luke 10:27). Moreover, he developed the Old Testament idea of giving to the poor as giving to God. He told a story of a king whose subjects ministered to the poor in costly, tangible ways. This king received their benevolent actions as gifts to himself. The implication was clear: when followers of Jesus give their resources to people in need, Jesus receives these actions as worship (Matt 25:31-46).
Jesus and Mammon
Yet Jesus had much more to say about the worship of money than merely to reiterate the biblical connection between worship and giving. For Jesus, money was not only a tool for worshiping God, but also a threat to that very worship. He said, “No one can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money” (Matt 6:24 NIV). In this unsettling verse, Jesus used the Aramaic word for money, speaking of Mammon as if it were a spiritual entity vying with God for our allegiance.
Notice that Jesus used evocative language here, speaking of love and hate, devotion and despising. Both money and God are matters of the heart. They both touch our deepest needs, fears, desires, and dreams. Money seeks our hearts, even as God does. Thus Jesus said we can’t serve both God and Mammon. Neither will share our worship.
Many Christians have tried hard to prove Jesus wrong. We have sought to serve the Lord and, at the same time, to embrace the materialism of our culture. We have said things like, “As long as I put God first, it’s okay to have lots of money and the things money can buy.” This may well be true, but our rationalizations have often masked our own subservience to Mammon. Until we acknowledge money’s power in our lives, until we admit that we struggle to serve God and not Mammon, we won’t be released from Mammon’s power. Thus we won’t be free to worship God fully, with all that we have and all that we are.
Admitting our own personal struggles with Mammon is part of what enables us to lead others to worship God rather than money, and even to worship God with money. As a parish pastor, I often preached about money, not just because my church needed it for ministry, but also because my people needed to grow as disciples of Jesus through their faithful use of money. Yet as I taught about money in light of biblical ideals, I was bluntly honest about how much I wrestled with these standards and how often I failed to live up to them. For example, I admitted feeling resentful at times about giving to the church when it meant I couldn’t buy the latest piece of electronic equipment that had snared my desire. My honesty enabled others to confront their own struggles openly.
Freedom from the worship of money to worship God with our Money
What will set us free from Mammon’s power so that we might worship God with all that we are, including our money? To be sure, God alone can set us free from Mammon’s power. He does this through Christ who saves us, through the Spirit who moves within us, through the Word that teaches us, and through the church that encourages us.
Yet there is something we can do that will help set us free from the power of Mammon: giving. In his class book Money and Power, Christian sociologist Jacques Ellul observes that our giving actually strips money of its spiritual power. We break money’s bondage, the worship of money, when we choose to give it away. Thus giving money is not only an act of worship; it is also a means of breaking the worship of money in our lives so that we might worship God more freely and fully. Perhaps that’s one reason why costly giving is central to biblical worship.
Breaking the Grip of the worship of money
As Mammon loses its grip on our hearts, the worship of money is broken. We become free to worship God not only through giving, but also by choosing to spend our money in a way that honors Him. For God’s sake, we might stop becoming conspicuous consumers, buying what we don’t need simply for the sake of social standing. Or we might choose to shop in stores that treat their employees justly, even if it means we don’t get the best deals. Or we might decide to buy products from microbusinesses in developing countries though they aren’t the cheapest on the market, knowing that our purchases are helping to deliver people from poverty.
