Money is not the point. You can have a little and are OK--or not; you can have a lot, and worry more. Jesus comments that riches can make it harder to have the right heart.
The point is the place that money or "stuff" has on your priorities. What do you really want, and what are you willing to do? I've known people who will go hungry rather than compromise a principle; I've know people that will do whatever it takes to bring in the bucks. Sometimes these people are married to each other. in both cases, it can become a giant source of criticism and conflict.
We can become "hoarders", wanting more stuff--sometimes needing to "have" money but live poor while it piles up; sometimes spending it on things that don't do anything but get in the way. We can spend it on trying to impress people, or obsess over what other people have. How much of our conversation concerns how much we have, how much we need, how much do the neighbors have?
Even giving away money can be good or bad--are we doing it to gain "points" with the world, or with God? Are we giving with "strings" attached; insisting on it being used in ways that we think others ought to want, and promoting our own agenda whether or not it actually has healthy results? Are we buying influence behind the scenes, or using it to throw our own weight around? Are we "doing
good" to make ourselves feel good?
Money, or what it buys, shows what it really important to us--our own self-interest, or God. It's not easy to give up our own fascination with ourselves. We live in a world that is increasingly self-absorbed, and it's not good for us spiritually. Look at the 10 commandments: most of them warn about putting ourselves, our wants, ahead of what God says is His design for us.
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