Why Christ spoke about money

[jugghead]

     He never ceases to amaze me in teaching me the truth in the way that I will understand and comprehend it, in His Way, who is Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. I felt this was too important to keep to myself in retirement.

     This morning as I was driving, I was thinking about some things and a phrase came to mind that was a perfect revelation if I ever heard one. After I heard it, the rich young ruler immediately came to mind with the words "sell all that you have and give it to the poor." This whole writing of mine today has to do with why Christ spoke so much about money.

     When we sell something, it is sold for cash, and that money can be used to buy anything, it has the property (or attribute) of being "universal"; the phrase I heard today was "money is universal." That phrase blew me away, how could I have been so blind to that for so many years? Some may not find it as awesome as I did, but think about it in this way: if you had a very close relationship with someone and they are no longer with you, and when you see something that you know that they loved very much, it triggers a memory and a very intense emotion in you, that is what I experienced with that phrase when I heard it.

     Just as money can buy all that is physical to satisfy our physical needs, so is Christ (The Word) can buy all (has bought all) that is spiritual to satisfy our spiritual needs. Have you ever considered what words actually can be compared to, is it not money, and a principle they have in common is one that "they both have value". Words can buy trust (and many other things), you give your word that you will do something and that person you gave your word to trusts you to do what you say. And again, this goes back to the word and the spirit of the word. If someone makes a promise to another (gives their word) and fulfills that promise, they are more apt to be trusted; but if they do not back up their words with the fulfillment of them, those words become dead and they cannot be trusted. In other words, the actions that follow what was said is the spirit of the word, if it is fulfilled, it is a spirit of truth, but if it is not fulfilled, it is a spirit of untruth, a lie. Words become truth or a lie depending on the actions that follow. Thus the reason for the fulfillment of prophecy.

     Anyway, getting back to what I also found amazing with those words "money is universal", in the example of the rich young ruler (who a lot of people believe was Paul), he was to sell all that he had acquired and exchange it for something that has universal value, and that is what he was to give to the poor, the money, not the things he acquired, how awesome is that for a perfect example of "Universalism". We are not to give away what we acquired before we asked the question, "What must I do to be saved?" we give away what we have, what is of universal value (or everlasting value), "AFTER" we have sold everything we bought in the first place that we "thought" had universal/everlasting value.

     I hope and pray that this revelation finds its way into the hearts of many.

Love .... Jugghead

[rosered]

Appreciate your sharing  Jugghead !

The Word is  full of so  many ''treasures  of truth ''   Made  me remember  many  scripture studies  and those connections !
We are His ''possessions ''    we are not our own  and faith is   precious like ''gold ''  tried in the fire   or compared to  ''rich in faith''  ...
Making your heavenly Father proud , faith , hope and Love  , love being the greatest ,,,  Be  perfect in Love  , like your Father in heaven is perfect /complete      , WHOLE IN LOVE  , GOD IS LOVE   Matt 5 . practice makes perfect   , the  testing is many experiences that  prove TRUTH , BY THE SPIRIT  OF TRUTH working within us

And these trials will prove that your faith is worth much more than gold that can be destroyed. They will show that you will be given praise and honor and glory when Jesus Christ returns. 

  Jesus Christ  is the great fruit inspector , pruning us  of the  unnecessary excess and making the ''root '' grounded in Christ / Love   unseen but vital for  an abundant  Life , the tree of Life  bearing fruits of the Spirit .

Jesus said buy of ME  that gold / faith that has been tried in the fire already  ,THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH Rev3 17You say, 'I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

18I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

19Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.... changing our minds  from the carnal  one   that death reigns  over to  HIS MIND  THAT LIFE   reigns supreme ,  Giving life  to so many  more by those seeds of faith ,  planted in hope  and  Love being nurtured by the Fathers  increase  of grace to us all .
   Proverbs 23


...22Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old.

23Buy truth, and do not sell it, Get wisdom and instruction and understanding.

24The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who sires a wise son will be glad in him....

I know giving freely   what God has already  given us , making rich in faith , hope and Love , a powerful   force   moving  across the barren and scorched  land , our  earthly bodies   , The Spirit of Truth    setting a seed planted  by the Father  , JESUS  CHRIST  BEING THE PROPHECY   AND PROMISE OF GODS LOVE  AND FAVOR  established in the earth  IS  THE TREE OF LIFE giving Life to those whom are asking  for HIM to come !  Hebrews  9     receiving the covering of praise   by the Redemption through His Blood!! 

...27Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,

28so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him.

Isaiah 61 [He has sent me] to provide for all those who grieve in Zion, to give them crowns instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of [tears of] grief, and clothes of praise instead of a spirit of weakness. They will be called Oaks of Righteousness, the Plantings of the LORD, so that he might display his glory.

GLORY TO GOD!!!   FOR HIS LOVE SHOWN TOWARDS US ALL ..

COME LORD COME FILL US WITH YOUR  GLORY !!!!

Nothing May Be Added
...19And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

20He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!


21The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen....

[sheila]

   THE ORGANIZATION MAN by E.B.White..is a good book associated with the greed behind the monetary system.  cost of living should

  be very reasonable...but due to greed..is not.   Love of money the root of all evil...the reason the early Christians said 'God willing

  we will do business"   Our monetary system is in danger of collapsing due to greed...and  become worthless. His 'word' is never vain.

   Had a dream last night about robbers of wallets...those who rob the poor...and it was a racket. Then they're those who have a

  hole in their purse d/t God trying to get them centered on the important things.


    Don't know if your OP is what triggered my dream.   Money can't buy life eternal...though their giving it a good try with some of

   their scientific inventions!   a head transplant.....and transhuman-botics in the works!

[Dandelion]

This is what I understand that passage in the Bible to mean.

As Christians, we must be willing to open our hand and let go of ANYTHING, at any moment, to embrace what God is asking of us....His Will for us....to do what we are asked for His Kingdom. We cannot value anything, more than His Will for us and His Kingdom. It is the pearl of great price; what we are asked to even leave our family, wealth, and our ways for. Nothing can stand between us and God. He also says, He does not want us to be lukewarm, or He will spit us out. Once Jesus tells someone to come and follow Him, and do not even be concerned about burying the dead. Those are powerful words. Some of the most emphatic verses of the Bible are about putting God, and God alone, first in our lives.

This is what God asks of us. Only then, can we be transformed into His likeness, because to be transformed, we must live in the Spirit, not in the flesh.

D.

[rosered]

   

   Great thoughts all  around     .

  I just  believe that if you cannot be honest with your self , you will never be honest with anyone or anything else .

  and the wise in your own eyes does not really serve the TRUE AND LIVING GOD  , but the god in your own  mind that is a far  cry  from the God of truth     .
So to me the pure motives   is this,  do everything as if you are doing it to the Lord and only the Lord  needs to know about it ...

  Gal 6 ...2Carry one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the Law of Christ. 3If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

4Each one should test his own work.


Then he will have reason to boast in himself alone, and not in someone else....

I do believe this comparing ourselves to one another  as if it is some kind of competition   is still  walking in the flesh and not the Spirit , the unity of the Spirit is   thinking , to me any  ways is,    All for one and one for all   ... 

All is Gods  and it is though Jesus Christ   LIVING Body ,that any good thing comes  to anyone ever ,   period ,   this being those whom are  already preceded  in  a natural death  of mortality   and made immortal   as to  living  for Christ while still mortal ,

    and those whom have died and made alive though Jesus Christ   as  becoming ONE  IN HIM    ,  GOD know whom are His   ,some are
actually    living in the Spirit while still in mortal bodies and some   are still dead to Him   , spiritually speaking , but  He raises them up   as He so chooses to do so ...   
We are tested by the TRUTH ,   THIS STANDARD  /LAW ,   to me  anyways  , is if you are found faithful in a few things  ,   and  trying to    do good  with the unrighteous mammon    as you have believed  He commanded  us to do in Love
  Love for God first and also you suffering fellow man   


God will grant the righteous mammon , ''true treasures of truth'' This law of love  established in our hearts to guide  us though  anything   and that gives a peace and joy and Love  that will surpass all understanding  it .

Our true connection is with LIVING THINGS that move and breath by the Living Sprint of Life    and not those dead ,  material things that make one look  as if they are blessed and status    is blessed of God

GODS LAW  , This set up   ROCK SOLID  standard  ,    is  testing  those spirits   and patient and kind  towards them  and  not wanting any to perish ,  Thus the need to pray for one another   and especially      our enemies and enemies of the cross .

  The Cross is the   place where we  go from  death to Life  in Christ , and forgiveness is key ,  to running the race  and making that goal   our own reality ,  as LOVE [blood of Christ ] covers the multitude of sins / error.......... these are my thoughts    this morning .

 

[marie glen]

Amen..! These posts, especially the op, remind me of "the pearl of great price".. Jesus, Himself - the kingdom - is comparable to the pearl of greatest price, which if one sees, they will sell all they have in order to buy that pearl..

That's interesting, Jugghead, about "money is universal".. that's true! And how it wasn't a passing on of the possessions, but they were sold and money, the universal was what was given/shared..

...and I very much agree, Sheila about the world's money system.. and all its many towers.. all castles in the air.. especially when it involves robbery and abuses! Unfortunately is most often run by self interest, rather than love (the universal) - one flows outward, and the other inward? like a vacuum or black hole? One way works, the other can only crash and burn.. (as the saying goes)

    :Chinscratch: :thumbsup:

[jugghead]

That's interesting, Jugghead, about "money is universal".. that's true! And how it wasn't a passing on of the possessions, but they were sold and money, the universal was what was given/shared..

And that is what I meant by my OP,

Everyone is given a measure of faith, (a measure of being convinced of something), faith, like money, is universal, it can buy (or buy into) any religion (any way of thinking) ...... but the matter always remains ..... which "way of thinking" are we going to invest in?

I myself (and I know all of you also) invest in "that which will benefit ALL" not just some.

Bless you all brothers and sisters

[marie glen]

 :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Amen! :gsmile:

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: I was shown some things on this. Mammon = self enrichment of the flesh and it goes all the way back into the garden, along with respect of persons. Eve desired that which she could see and touch (natural kingdom/mammon), not that which she couldn't (spiritual kingdom/spiritual riches). This is why we can't serve God AND mammon/fleshly things, because we will love one and despise the other. Pretty strong words, eh? Peace

[marie glen]

I read (somewhere) that Babylon was the first financial system.
Tower Babel - in Book of Revelation has gone global.. and one day will be said "..is fallen! fallen!".."great hail.." (debris?)

G3126 mammōnás – a Semitic term for "the treasure a person trusts in"

"mam·mon
noun
wealth regarded as an evil influence or false object of worship and devotion. It was taken by medieval writers as the name of the devil of covetousness, and revived in this sense by Milton."

Definition of Mammon by Merriam-Webster - "material wealth or possessions especially as having a debasing influence"

Matthew 6:24, we can't serve two masters.. can't rely on both God and money to be our security, comfort, etc..

mamónas G3126 - Short Definition: riches, money, possessions
Definition: (Aramaic), riches, money, possessions, property.

Four verses "mammon" - Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:9, Luke 16:11, Luke 16:13 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew6:24;Luke16:9;Luke16:11;Luke16:13&version=NKJV

Can't serve God and mammon - money/love of

Just think! In His Kingdom.. no money! No bills! No spending so much of ones time working in order to pay 'the man'.. the bills... no more everything costing us money! money, money money, for everything.. I hate the whole money thing!

"will love One and hate the other.."

Revelation 21:1-5  :banana: :dsunny:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth did pass away, and the sea is not any more; and I, John, saw the holy city -- new Jerusalem -- coming down from God out of the heaven... and I heard a great voice out of the heaven, saying, `Lo, the tabernacle of God [is] with men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them -- their God and shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and the death shall not be any more, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor shall there be any more pain, because the first things did go away.' And He who is sitting upon the throne said, `Lo, new I make all things; and He saith to me, `Write, because these words are true and stedfast;'

"The lion will eat straw like the ox, and the bear will graze with the cow.." Isaiah 11:7

"Each man under his vine and fig/fruit tree, and none shall bother them" :banana: Micah 4:4

Thanks for the reminder! :thumbsup:

[jugghead]

:cloud9: I was shown some things on this. Mammon = self enrichment of the flesh and it goes all the way back into the garden, along with respect of persons. Eve desired that which she could see and touch (natural kingdom/mammon), not that which she couldn't (spiritual kingdom/spiritual riches). This is why we can't serve God AND mammon/fleshly things, because we will love one and despise the other. Pretty strong words, eh? Peace

Excellent point Card

Even wisdom in the idea of self enrichment is of the flesh, but if the wisdom that we acquire produces the fruit of the Spirit which we freely give to others (like Love, forgiveness and compassion) then the wisdom has life, other wise it becomes like stagnant waters

Knowledge, understanding and wisdom are seeds to grow the tree of life which bears the fruit of love, forgiveness and compassion, otherwise it is just the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

[eaglesway]

 :iagree: :goodpost:

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: Just to clarify my post....wisdom that is from above is not tainted by self enrichment because it isn't from the same kingdom, and a wrong motive of the heart will neither release access to it, nor keep the flow of it coming.

We saw this principle in reverse in the garden when the wrong choice and wrong motive for attaining wisdom negated the ability to apprehend the true wisdom, and they found their access to it blocked.

Thank God that He now judges the hearts of men. Blessings....

[marie glen]

I've had mammon on my mind.. not as the carnal nature, per se, though it's definitely a product of it.. but in relation to the book of revelation and the maturity of wickedness.. that perhaps to see the world the way God sees it, if it were possible :doh: but city Babylon, which began as a single tower, but now fills much of the world, and seeks to fill the rest (Monsanto?).. city where carnal nature seems to run rampant.. crime.. dark alleys and streets.. where even children are ...? victims.. the buying and selling, the last on the list of products of the city.. which is ruining the earth and sits on seven continents.. what a contrast to God's glorious and verdant creation where all the richness is in the seeds of all the earth's bounty. The two harvests.. the crystalline diamond like radiant spiritual fruit, and the dark shadow and pit of the 'apart from God' (carnal, called flesh in the KJ) nature and character.

When all is said and done, what a happy contrast. :gsmile:

A city radiant like jewels with trees of life and crystal rivers of water. Where "the lion will eat straw like the ox, the bear will graze with the cow, and the small child will be able to play at the entrance of the poisonous snake's den." (Isaiah 11:7) So subdued shall it all be.. And every heart right with God :thumbsup: forever putting others first, love as also a river.. river of life and healing waters.

[marie glen]

P.S- not that anyone who happens to live in the city is any more wicked than anyone else, it's just that it's a different garden.. not the garden God created..

[eaglesway]

The New Jerusalem comes down out of the heavens. Babylon arises out of the earth. The heart that is rooted in the Spirit is in the New Jerusalem, the Bride. The heart rooted in the earth(flesh, carnal) is in Babylon, which means "confusion", drinking blood out of a golden cup.

"Come out of her, and be a clean and separate people....."

[marie glen]

..and I think a cup of side effects.. foaming over.. (results and consequences of wayward ways..)

[jugghead]

Here is one to think about .....

When Christ told Peter to go and get the money out of the mouth of the fish for the tax ..... is Jonah out of the belly of the fish the same picture?

Do they (Pharisees/religion) demand a tax? Jonah was sent to a people who needed the news of the grace of God, Is the money out of the mouth of the fish a picture of grace given onto the wicked? Do they turn it into a tax of works rather than something that is freely given?

Simply because out of the mouth of the Father comes the mammon (money) from above

A comparison of money to mammon:
that which has value to God (mammon from above)
that which has value to man (money from below)