“…but the
worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other
things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.”
Wealth is not only of money, but there can be a
wealth of knowledge, a wealth of power, a wealth of status, a wealth of
influence, a wealth of friends, a wealth of compassion. The pursuit of wealth is a desire for a safe
number. It is a search for security
founded in numbers. We keep score and
know we will be content eventually when the safe number is reached. Too often in this pursuit we are willing to
sacrifice the real best interest of others. The deceitfulness of wealth referred
to by Jesus is when we make a false god of security. While security is a basic human need, it is
corrupting to view it as an ultimate need and object of worship. That is, even in the instance of compassion, if
the focus becomes on acquiring a full tank of compassion rather exercising even
a little of it in love, then we have been won over by the deceitfulness of
riches. For security is not found in
wealth and excess but in the smallest acts deriving from the disciplines of
love.
