Love is not something you can quantify but it is something you can see and hear. Words express love and actions define it. If we have eyes to see and ears to hear, the love of money is everywhere we look and listen.
I’m a big fan of amateur athletics and college football in particular. The sport has been compromised for the love of money. NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) contracts have made the pursuit of money master over recruiting, developing and retaining young men and women. The pursuit of money has taken the place of the pursuit of excellence. Once the lust for money trickles down to players and coaches, there is no turning back. Case in point, the Coach of Ole Miss has left his team at the alter of a National Championship for…more money. Amateur and professional athletics are fully compromised.
Professional sports are the easiest venue to see where money has become the first love. This year, NBA scandals involve players and coaches rigging games so bets can be made to leverage sky high salaries for more money. Gambling is the equivalent of margin in the stock market, it exacerbates and effects the outcome. Try listening to a sports podcast on football, golf, hockey or any sport without hearing an advertisement for a gambling website or the podcaster talking about the odds in a competition. Owners of gambling sites call for the removal of coaches and players when they don’t cover the spread.
The love of money is everywhere. I’ll be brief. Social media (Facebook and Twitter) enable churches and pastors to monetize their congregations with the number of posts and likes garnered. Governments get in the blood lust as they send tax dollars around the country and the globe to ‘fund’ programs that kick back dollars to their personal interests. We may even learn that UAP’s (UFO’s for those boomers who haven’t adapted the new monikers) have been kept secret just to serve financial gains for technology and defense corporations. Providing for your family, increasing quarterly earnings and securing national interests are worthy pursuits when you don’t love and serve those needs at the expense of your soul.
Money is NOT a bad thing. It is also NOT a simple tool. Jesus said money can be a master when it dictates our actions and directs our lives. He emphatically said you can’t serve God AND money. I can’t define when anyone else serves money over God because I don’t know what another person defines as God. Most often, this depends on the people and institutions (church) where they were raised or currently worship. Many in modern western Christianity are preaching tolerance and forgiveness at the expense of hypocrisy, wrath and judgement. “How can you say to your brother ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye’, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye.”
The Christian theologian A.W. Tozer once stated “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us…The history of humankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above it’s religion..” Does God provide for all your needs or just the ones you can’t provide for yourself. Has the world converted to a religion where money is the new god? Do religious people of all denominations believe they can serve a heavenly Kingdom with more money as opposed to more faith?
In 1st Timothy the Bible again speaks to money. ‘For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.’ THE easiest place to witness how our culture and society LOVE money is Wall Street. The place where common men and women (shareholders) have the opportunity to ‘share’ in the gain of a company’s success…or failure. Yes, another gamble but one where there is supposed honesty and transparency to prevent fraud. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Banks, brokerage firms, individuals, the SEC and other institutions have chosen to serve money over God by ignoring the second greatest commandment, “‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”…and turning their head from blatant fraud. When you purchase a share of stock odds favor you are buying a counterfeit share that doesn’t even exist. There should be settlement of each transaction but that hasn’t existed for decades…and everyone on the Street knows it! Each day many stocks trade multiples of the number of shares outstanding in a company. Put simply, if a company has 5 million shares outstanding, how can it honestly trade 200 million shares in a day??
Whether you recognize the love of money in your own life, don’t overlook it in other people and places. Watch as the European Union, England, Germany and France default on their currencies (and citizens) to adopt digital money. These changes will come with incentives and encouragements…and possibly wars to distract from their god. A new currency will be presented as a way to provide safety and transparency but will serve to dictate and master your actions. This will not be a choice to make as you are forced to go along if you want to buy and sell in the new economy.
The dangers and changes we will face in 2026 have been known and talked about for decades, but the time is NOW. It is similar to where the Bible talks about those who scoff at the idea of Jesus’ return saying everything goes on as it has with no changes. Eventually the boy who cried wolf was correct. Soon the Bible will once again prove prophetic and true.
We need money. We like what it allows us to do. It’s a slippery slope to falling in love with money because the transition is made without a public declaration or ceremony. If your needs are met by your dollars and not your God, the days ahead will be a time of great strain.
Stay in the Word. Be in relationships with like minded believers. We need each other more now, than ever.
Awesome word and truth.