The Danger of Riches
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul” (Mark 8:36-37)?
As ridiculous as it may seem, the following account is true. Some years ago a fire broke out in a building in the state of New Jersey, in which a man and his wife occupied an apartment. They initially made their escape to the street below, but then the man missed his wife. At first he was not too concerned until he remembered that they had $350 in a drawer up there, and thought she might have gone back for it. He went to see, but was driven back by the flames and smoke, but not until he had seen her lying helpless on the stairs. The next day her charred body was recovered and the burned fragments of the money tightly grasped in her hand.
We shake our heads at a story like that, but how many there are who are headed for the eternal fire of judgment because they are holding on to the temporal things of this world. “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17). What are you trusting in?
