“You cannot serve God and mammon.” Mat 6:24b
The Ammonites were thorns in Israel’s side since the time of Joshua. King Saul fought against them. Solomon married one of their daughters, and “became a follower of Milcom the abhorrent idol of the Ammonites” (1 Ki 11:5). Hundreds of years later they aggressively opposed and subverted Nehemiah’s rebuilding the temple walls in Jerusalem.
Lots of “-ites” have come against the people of God through the ages—Amorites, Amalekites, Canaanites—but none is stronger, more persistent, and more insidious than the “Mammonites”. In fact, undoubtedly one of the most cruel and effective enemies arrayed against us is…the love of money.
Greed is not a very popular subject. If a pastor announces his next sermon series is going to be about our wanton pursuit of more things, he’s bound to wind up in front of a dwindling congregation and seated across a disgruntled deacon board.
Isaiah did not let becoming unpopular hold him back. He called out the leaders of his day, saying “they are greedy dogs which never have enough…they all look to their own way, every one for his own gain” (Is 56:11).
It makes you wonder if Paul could have kept gainfully employed in our churches today. Can you imagine the reaction to this admonition? “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money* is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Tim 6:9,10 NIV/NKJV).
How about Jesus’ brother James. He agonized: “Come now, your rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!” (5:1) Parts of chapters 2 and 5 of his epistle are so scathing towards the upper crust so as to give people a strong motivation to question Biblical authority! Which may explain why so many do!!
Or Jesus Himself. In Matt 23 he rebuked the Pharisees for devouring widow’s houses, describing these leaders as “full of extortion [greed, CSB] and self-indulgence” (v.25). The only thing that infuriated him enough to make a whip of cords was when swindlers turned His Father’s house into a marketplace.
For all the well-earned reverence the first Century church has inspired through the centuries, a careful reading of scripture reveals a war against greed was raging in their ranks. One of Jesus’ chosen twelve, Judas, fell on avarice’s sword. Ananias and Sapphira literally dropped dead when they lied to the Holy Spirit over money. When Simon the sorcerer thought he could buy power and influence over people through the laying on of hands, Peter castigated him harshly, saying “your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased!” (Acts 8:20)
Enter Elon Musk and DOGE. Last week his team uncovered $300 million in loans the Small Business Administration has given to people under the age of 11, the youngest of whom was nine months old. Precocious child! They also found more than $300 million had been handed out to people over the age of 120. I have some grave concerns about that! They also reported that no less than 40% of the phone calls to Social Security were from fraudsters. In fact, the average amount of waste and fraud they have exposed is more than $4 billion—every day, seven days a week. Anyone who does not think the love of money is a problem in our society needs a serious reality check.
Truth is, we all need to do some soul-, and likely some wallet-, searching. Although this scandalous unveiling of massive corruption is being led by a team of patriotic CEOs and their nerdy team of computer geeks, Peter’s exhortation was that “the time has come for judgment to begin in the house of God” (1 Pet 4:17). Maybe we need to institute our own DOCE (Department of CHURCH Efficiency) before it is too late.
Jesus is coming soon. It’s time to root out the “Mammonites” among us.
*Do not interpret me as meaning that wealthy people are ipso facto miserly. Many are prudent, vigilant, good stewards, generous, and blessed by God! This verse has been famously misquoted for two thousand years to mean money is evil, and people who have it are necessarily so. It is the blind pursuit of riches for personal gain and out of misplaced affection that must be diligently guarded against.