There’s a lot of evil that happens on this earth. Violence against the innocent. Domestic abuse. Bullying. Sexual assault. The list can go and on. I don’t often think about the connection between money and evil.
Look at Ecclesiastes 5:13 – 14…
There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand.
Solomon, the wealthiest and wisest man alive at the time says that there is a grievous evil happening on the earth. And it’s not the kind of evil we would naturally think of. The evil that causes Solomon grief is the hording and foolish investment of wealth.
It’s not bad to save up money. And it’s not bad to invest our wealth. But hording wealth and foolishly investing money in our own self-interests is evil. It’s evil because it leaves our loved ones and future generations with nothing.
So the teaching of Solomon here is that we should not hoard up our wealth and we should not invest our money in mere self-interest. We need to be wise with our wealth and we need to invest our riches in ways that will benefit future generations.
Ultimately we are called to invest our time, our talent and our treasure in the Kingdom of God as an act of sacrificial worship. This kind of giving away of ourselves means that we invest beyond ourselves and we invest beyond what we can see right now.
Every time you and I give our time, our talent and our treasure to the poor around us and to faithful Bible believing gospel-preaching ministries we are investing ourselves in the kingdom of God. We are called to worship God in the giving of our time, our talent and our treasure.