Money: Thoughts for God's Stewards

by Andrew Murray

Without being exactly guilty of the sin of Judas, or Caiaphas, or Pilate in crucifying our Lord, a believer may yet partake with them in the spirit in which he acts. Even so we may be grieving the Holy Ghost, even while we condemn the sin of Ananias, by giving way to the spirit in which he acted, and withholding from God what we have professed to give Him. Nothing can save us from this danger, but the holy fear of ourselves, the very full and honest surrender of all our opinions, and arguments, about how much we may possess, and how much we may give, to the testing and searching of the Holy Spirit. Our giving must be in the light, if it is to be in the joy of the Holy Ghost.

And what was it that led Ananias to this sin? Most probably the example of Barnabas, the wish not to be outdone by another. Alas! how much there is of asking what men will expect from us. The thought of the judgment of men is present to us more than the judgment of God. And we forget that our gifts are accounted of God, only by what the heart gives: it is the whole-hearted giver that meets Him. How much has the Church done to foster the worldly spirit that values gifts by what they are in men's sight, in forgetfulness of what they are to Him that searches the heart.

May the Holy Spirit teach us to make every gift part and parcel of a life of entire consecration to God. This cannot be till we be filled with the Spirit: this can be, for God will fill us with His Spirit.

4. There is still a lesson, no less needful, no less solemn than that of Ananias (Acts viii. 19). The Holy Ghost rejecting Money.

"Simon offered them money, saying, 'Give me also this power.' But Peter said to him, 'Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought to obtain the gift of God with money.'" The attempt to gain power or influence in the Church of God by money brings perdition.

Here, more than with Ananias, it was simple ignorance of the spiritual and unworldly character of the Kingdom of Christ. How little Simon understood the men he dealt with. They needed money, they could well use it for themselves and for others. But the Holy Spirit, with the powers and treasures of the unseen world, had taken such possession of them, and so filled them, that money was as nothing. Let it perish rather than have anything to say in God's Church. Let it perish rather than for one moment encourage the thought that the rich man can acquire a place or a power which a poor man has not.

Has the Church been faithful to this truth in her solemn protest against the claims of wealth? Alas! for the answer its history gives. There have been noble instances of true Apostolic succession in the maintenance of the superiority of the gift of God to every earthly consideration. But too often the rich have had an honor and an influence given them, apart from grace or godliness, which has surely grieved the Spirit and injured the Church.

The personal application is here again the matter of chief importance. Our nature has been so brought under the power of the spirit of this world, our fleshly mind, with its dispositions and habits of thought and feeling, is so subtle in its influence, that nothing can deliver us from the mighty spell that money exacts but a very full and abiding enjoyment of the Spirit's presence and working. To be entirely dead to all worldly ways of thinking, the Holy Spirit alone can give us. And He can only give it as He fills us with the very presence and power of the life of God.

Let us pray that we may have such a faith in the transcendent glory, in the absolute claim and sufficiency of the Holy Spirit as God's gift to the Church to be her strength and riches, that money may be ever kept under Christ's feet and under ours, recognizing its only worth to be for His heavenly ministry.

Blessed Lord Jesus! teach and keep us that, like Barnabas, we may lay our money all at Thy feet, and hold it all at Thy disposal. Teach and keep us that like Peter, we may rejoice in the poverty that teaches us to prove our trust in the power of Thy Spirit. Teach and keep us, lest, like Ananias, our profession of living entirely for Thee be belied, by our giving to Thee. Teach and keep us, lest, like Simon, we think that the gifts of God or power over men can be obtained by money.