Honoring Our Parents
In my last article I wrote about the unholy trinity comprised of the world, the flesh and the devil. With this article I would like to pursue more in-depth the world that Sacred Scripture warns of and the mammon that keeps it spinning.
We know that spiritual evil exists, in the form of Satan as the temporary ruler of this world and those angels (now demons) who accompanied him in his fall from heaven. The goal of spiritual evil is the destruction of what is good. Satan is the adversary of God and man (I Peter 5:8) and this world is his playground.
Unfortunately for the creature Satan, his desire to achieve a throne above God’s failed, but that was not the end. His attention then turned toward this world and its destruction; something he cannot accomplish on his own. The help he found was in the human creature with whom he has had great success. Appearing as good, with stealth and cunning, he encouraged the fall of Adam and Eve. Presenting something as good, which was not, he dangled a lovely apple in the face of Eve, and that was that; our human parents chose to disobey God’s direct command. With this success, the devil was pleased; he had found the Achilles heel of God’s beautiful creation.
Dangling shiny objects in front of humans and encouraging them to pursue mammon has become a primary tool in his wicked little box.
The Greek word μαμων? (transliterated mamona or mammon) used in Matthew 6:24 has often been poorly translated as “money,” which dilutes the meaning. Mammon was the name of the Syrian god of riches, akin to the Greek god Plutus, who was worshipped for material gain. Money is not the root of all evil; the worship of it is.
Sacred Scripture has nothing good to say about those who salivate over wealth. When Jesus observed the rich, he said that it is easier for a “Camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” The Apostle James minced no words in his harsh warnings to the rich (Chapter 5). But why is the pursuit of mammon (wealth, assets, fame, whatever) so contrary to God’s will? There are several reasons, so let’s break it down.
Beginning with “money” it is safe to say that a wad of twenty-dollar bills has nominal value. It is just paper. The value comes with our ability to exchange (by law) this paper for material goods, such as food, clothing and other necessities. The more paper a person has, the more material they can purchase, and this is where evil gets a foot in the door. When avarice (greed) for paper (whether to buy stuff or pile up) supplants the necessity of it. Mammon means a desire for more.
More is a bait with which the devil has hooked humanity. The character Gorden Gekko in the film Wall Street encapsulated this with the phrase, “The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” Sacred Scripture, however, advocates against the pursuit of material riches, and here are four reasons why:
Idolatry. This is probably the one we are most familiar with, as God says we cannot worship both him and mammon. The reason is that Christians are monotheists, not polytheists. Our God is a jealous God, he wants our love and devotion and to focus in this life on laying up treasures in heaven where neither moths nor rust corrupt. God is always to come first in our affection.
Slavery. Mammon enslaves us. It first seduces us with promises, then traps us with a false sense of security were we think we no longer need God. The world encourages us to chase after the “latest and best” in the pursuit of happiness, (which is just a load of marketing crap to distract us from our spiritual poverty). The truth is that when the spirit overcomes the flesh’s desire for more, we are liberated and easily forfeit that $2,800 Prada handbag.
Sorrow. This one seems an odd observation, but as it turns out many wealthy people are miserable. They never have enough. They live in fear of losing what they have, and for some, they often realize – perhaps too late - that worshipping mammon solves few of life’s problems. Joy, however, comes with resisting the temptation for mammon in its various guises because it increases our spiritual strength, making us “mature and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Temptation to further evil. The first three deal mostly with the individual, but this last one expands to hurt others. When the worship of mammon produces wealth, that wealth has the ability to manifest in power. And power, when abused, leads to total destruction. Power is a dangerous consequence of wealth. Julius Caesar pursued wealth – in the form of plunder – to gain tyrannical power, and for that he was assassinated within two years. Worship of mammon empowers a person to risk crossing their own Rubicon. Skilling (Enron) and Madoff crossed their Rubicon at the ruination of thousands of investors (and billions of dollars). Epstein, Weinstein and Cosby crossed their Rubicon to sexually exploit other humans. Temptation itself is an enemy which God has enabled us to flee, not only for ourselves, but to avoid hurting others.
I am not anti-money, but I am anti-mammon. Though I spent decades increasing the shareholder wealth of others, many years ago I adopted Proverbs 30:8-9 as my motto. Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
True godliness with contentment is great profit; for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we will take nothing out of it. (St. Paul)