Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5
The holiday season is my favorite time of year: Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas Day. Thanksgiving is a special holiday set aside for giving God thanks for His generosity to us. If you are like me, I find Thanksgiving to be a strange holiday. On Thanksgiving Day we give thanks for the incredible bounty we enjoy, but on the next day, we can go crazy at the malls or online buying all the things we just can’t live without. One day we are content one day and the next day we are not. Please do not misunderstand me. I love the Christmas season, including the giving and receiving gifts. However, we can quickly become unthankful.
Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher from the 1860s in London once said:
There is no trial like affluence.
Possessing wealth and money is trial like no other. Having wealth and possessions are not wrong. However, we have to handle them with care. Here is an example. In Hebrews 10, the author commends this church for their love.
For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Hebrews 10:34
The author commends this church for visiting their fellow believers in prison. While they were doing this, those hostile to the faith were watching and waiting until the believers left their homes, and then plundered their houses and stole their material possessions. Furthermore, those who had their home ransacked accepted this joyfully. They were not devastated with the loss of their material belongings because they knew they had eternal possessions waiting for them in heaven.
Nevertheless, the author of Hebrews still feels the need to admonish them not to love money but to be content. The pull to love money and be discontent is so strong, even when we have previously done well in this area. We must always be vigilant. Spurgeon is correct: There is no trial like affluence.
Having said that, we can be genuinely thankful for the material blessings and possessions we have. Furthermore, we need money to live, pay the bills, buy food and clothing. The truth is, living is expensive. Therefore, money should be viewed as something good, but it is easy to love money and the stuff money can buy. Instead of loving wealth, we must learn to be content. To be content is to recognize that we have enough. We don’t always need the latest thing.
Fortunately, God offers a wondrous promise to us, one that is better than wealth:
For he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5b
Love Jesus instead of money, because Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us. The author of Hebrews quotes Deuteronomy 31:6, 8 and Joshua 1:5. In Deuteronomy 31:6, Moses encourages Israel to enter Canaan. The land is great, but the people are strong. Nevertheless, the Lord will be with them. He will not leave them nor forsake them. In Deuteronomy 31:8 Moses encourages Joshua to lead Israel into the Promised Land because God will be with him. God will never leave him nor forsake him. In Joshua 1:5, the Lord Himself encourages Joshua to lead Israel into Canaan. The road will be difficult. There are many battles to fight. The enemy is strong. However, the Lord will never leave him nor forsake him.
For us who believe in Jesus, the Lord will never leave us; He will never forsake us. We know life in time sin-cursed world is not fair. The enemy of our souls is strong. We still battle against our own sinful desire. However, the Lord Jesus will never leave us.
The lesson for us is that worldly riches rot, rust, and wear out. Money is spent and devalues. However, God offers to us that which never wears out, never becomes useless, and never disappoints us: His Son, Jesus Christ. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus has saved us. Our countless sins are forgiven. God accepts us. God is for us, not against us. Nothing can separate us from His love. Regardless of the economic forecast, regardless or our health, He will never leave us nor forsake us.
We are reminded that our great treasure and our ultimate contentment are found in Jesus. While material goods and possessions rot, and rust, and fade, Jesus Christ never does. Therefore, we must be content with our earthly possessions, keeping our eyes on our true treasure, Jesus Christ.
I remember in September of 2018, a few weeks after I was diagnosed with cancer, Jeff Parish, who has battled cancer, hugged me and said, “The Lord will be with you.” Jeff did not promise me that I would be healed, or that cancer is not that bad, or to stop feeling sorry for myself. He reminded me about our faithful God: “The Lord will be with you.”
I have to remember this every day. I have to preach the gospel to myself every day. “The Lord will never leave us nor forsake us.”
For the next few weeks we are going to look at traditional themes for Advent: hope, peace, joy, love, and Christ.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving. God bless and keep you.
Mark Cymbalak holds an BA from Bob Jones University with additional class work from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He served as a part time paid elder at Black Earth Congregational Church/Curtiss Street Bible Fellowship. In 2006, Mark became a full time paid elder and pastor at Curtiss Street Bible Fellowship until his retirement in 2020.