Here to Make Money?

A preacher from another country who lived in America for a few years was frustrated. He tried to teach the gospel to others from his own homeland who were also living in America. He was able to reach some of them, but many of them were not interested. Even when they were converted, they didn’t remain faithful. He said they were too busy working so they could buy things and enjoy themselves. "They are here to make money” he lamented.

Are home-born Americans any different? Some know that our prosperity is a gift from God and they are thankful for it. Others just want more. Three thousand years ago Solomon said, “The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing” (Ecc. 1:8). Most people run from one pleasure to the next without asking why or considering that it will all end.

Jesus taught a parable about a king who made a feast for the marriage of his son and invited guests. “But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business” (Matt. 22:5). That parable is about the church and how people respond to the invitation to be in it. It would be hard to imagine more fitting words for our generation.

Jesus also said in the parable of the sower that some receive the Word at first, but “the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word” (Matt. 13:22). In Luke 8:14 He said they are “choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life.”

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, a man wrote to Alexander Campbell and asked him what the country was going to do with this crisis. The first thing Campbell said was that no people can enjoy prosperity long without becoming careless and complacent. He believed that was the real cause of the war.

The world around us—people we work with, our relatives, and even some church members—talk constantly about earthly things. More than ever we must be strong. We won’t be able to change many of them, but we don’t have to let them influence us. We must “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Eph. 6:10). This world and everything we own will be burned up (II Pet. 3:10). If we took that seriously when we run out to buy something we just must have, we would save a lot of time, stress, and money.

Kerry Duke

West End church of Christ • May 11, 2025