Seduced by Success

Christ4Ever · Mar 29, 2019

"But woe to you who are rich, For you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full, For you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, For you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets. Luke 6:24-26

Woe to you" is not a phrase used much today. It literally means, grief upon you. Jesus used the term to warn people who had become seduced by success. The apostle John offers a parallel warning: "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them" (1 John 2:15).

It would be hard to find any society in history that didn't value the four things Jesus points out in these verses--particularly ours today.

So, does Jesus condemn those things in and of themselves? Should we pursue poverty, starvation, sorrow, and contempt to be more "spiritual"? Of course not. But just as it's better to pluck out an eye if it causes you to sin (Mark 9:47), it would be better to be an abject failure by this world's standards than to be seduced by the false salvation it offers.

Prayer: Father, show me where I might be headed for "woe" in my own life. Help me to use all that I have and succeed only for Your kingdom.

Dave M · Mar 29, 2019

you know the book of revelations Jesus condemns who? the wealthy that have prospered, and think they need nothing because they rely on there wealth, but Jesus tells them that they are poor spiritually. Almost sounds like he scolding these prosperity gospel teachers that are all over the tv stations :smile:

Revelation 3:17
For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

Brad Huber · Mar 30, 2019

The "love" of money and that which it brings, makes ppl worship wealth instead of the true God. Wealth itself is not evil.

Dave M · Mar 30, 2019

Brad Huber said:
Wealth itself is not evil

Nope sure is not, lot of good can be done with it. But man what a great barometer God has supplied us with, we can look at ones check book and almost instantly see where a persons heart is.

So money is not evil, the love of money is,
----then the real question becomes so what do you love to do with your money????

Br. Bear · Mar 30, 2019

Christ4Ever said:
"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them" (1 John 2:15).

Seduction

My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
Proverbs 5:1-14

Christ4Ever · Mar 30, 2019

@Br. Bear
Hello Brother,
Thanks for sharing those words of Scripture.
For the very reason I pray for Wisdom, knowledge, understanding, but mostly especially for the Love of God and the ability to share it with others.

Many blessings to you my brother.
With the Love of Christ Jesus.
YBIC
Nick
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