When discussing the role of money in our lives, a friend once honestly remarked, I don’t love money…but I do love stuff, and I need more money to get more stuff! I believe many of us would agree with his sentiment.

Jesus spoke of values surrounding wealth—you cannot serve God and money. A group of Pharisees in the audience, holding a philosophy similar to my friend, sneered at Jesus. How naive. Jesus turned and responded, You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.

Money and the stuff it buys, power and position, places of honor, attention—these the Pharisees loved. Yet God despised their values.

Which leads me to wonder—what do I think of highly that God actually detests?

Money, the use of money, the temptation to think more money will solve all my problems springs forth. Like the religious leaders surrounding Jesus, I value position, attention, pride of place. Values this world fuels with intensely narcissistic fires.

I need to pause and examine if I’m holding values that God not only finds distasteful, but actually loathes. Perhaps then I may move out of the detestable zone into a more humble region of God’s pleasure.

Luke 16 in reading the Bible in 2023

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