Luke 12:13-21 - Be rich toward God

Covetousness divides. It does. Luke 12:13 says so. Here a dissatisfied brother came to Jesus almost commanding Him to act on his behalf. He expected the Lord to ask his brother to share the family inheritance with him. The way Jesus responded showed that He would not take sides. Instead of granting his request, Jesus used the situation to warn against greed, every form of greed. 

Greed is wanting more than what one is due. It is not being contented with what one has. Greed often drives one inordinately beyond the bound of propriety. Furthermore, we should know that life is not all about wealth. Most people look to wealth to provide their status symbol. They consider it to be their security. So they just want more of it. Very often wealth is pursued at the expense of health and other more critical matters of life. It can detrimentally take the place of God in one's life. Hence, one should approach wealth and possession with a right attitude.

Wealth, when not rightly viewed and handled can be a curse instead of a blessing. That's the reason the Lord took the opportunity in Luke 12:15 to warn against it. And with that, He launched into telling the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:16-21.

The problem with the rich fool is that he was so taken up with the things of this life that he had no time to consider the ultimate future. Jesus called him a fool because he did not consider the shortness and frailty of life. Also because he did not consider the eventuality of earthly living.  A person could think only about physical existence to the exclusion of the eternal.

Jesus wasn't discouraging that one should plan for the future. He was more concerned with one's perspective on life. Total life is not just about living comfortably here and now. It is also about what would happen when the physical life ends. When a person's entire focus is merely on acquiring wealth, and the “here and now,” he inevitably fails to see the “there and then” and the importance of having God. That would spell his disastrous outcome.

What is our priority in life? Work and wealth have their places in our lives. But life is not entirely about work and wealth. God should be factored into one's life whether in work or in wealth. It’s foolhardy to go for wealth at the expense of one’s health, only to spend one’s wealth to get back to health. Just bear in mind what Jesus so rightly asked, "What would it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?"