Skip to main content

Ill-Gotten Treasures


Ill-gotten treasures have no lasting value, but righteousness delivers from death. (Proverbs 10:2)

          First, sorry about not having this ready yesterday. Life sometimes gets in the way.
         As I look at the American economy, and even more at economies around the world, with my flawed human eyes, I get frustrated. It seems to me that there are a lot of ill-gotten treasures that have high value. I know that it’s a matter of perspective. And I know folks who will jeer “Pie in the sky by-and-by” if someone suggests the eternal perspective. They’re probably the same people who scoff about our prayers being with those who are facing a crisis.
          What if our focus in this passage isn’t where it should be? We like to get angry about ill-gotten gains. It’s not fair. They shouldn’t have that treasure! I’m not disagreeing with you. They shouldn’t have it. But what if the treasure, or their having the treasure, is not what this passage is about? What if it’s about our reaction. That person shouldn’t have that treasure! True, but what about your righteousness as you protest? No, I’m not asking about your self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is the problem here. As we look down our noses at those folks who have ill-gotten treasures, are we loving them? Or are we taking God’s place as their judges? Are we focusing so much on the wickedness of others that we don’t have time to practice righteousness? 
         That ill-gotten treasure about which we are obsessing will be destroyed. Why does it matter so much to us?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more