Week 23—Tuesday Philippians 4:6-7
Week 23—TUESDAY
THERE IS NOTHING BEHIND MAMMON
EXCEPT MAMMON
Jesus goes on in the process of closing the gaps that grow up in the spiritual life and, in so doing, unified the life. The last one was the gap between God and mammon. God is the Lord of the spiritual and the material, and when we truly serve God they become one. Now an illuminating passage comes in: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. . . . Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well” (Matt. 6:25, 32-33). The word “therefore” is important. It points back to the attempt to serve God and mammon. And the moment you try to serve both, you thereby serve one—mammon. And the moment you begin to serve mammon, anxiety about your material needs sets in, hence the word “therefore.” It points back to “mammon.” The moment you make mammon central, anxiety possesses you. For there is nothing behind mammon except mammon. You and your mammon have to hold your world together. If mammon goes, your world of security goes.
But if you seek first the kingdom of God, then all that you need of material things is guaranteed—everything is behind you—you have a cosmic guarantee for your way of life. Anxiety drops away. You are basically secure.
Anxiety over material things is the most devastating thing in the spiritual life. Jesus says so: “And others are the ones sown among thorns; they are those who hear the word, but the cares of world, and the delight in riches, and the desire for other things, enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful” (Mark 4:18-19). It is the sin of otherwise good people. Anxiety is more devastating than adultery, because it is more widespread.
O Jesus Lord, you are the Master Surgeon. You put your finger on our sore spots and say, “You are ailing here and here.” And your finger is upon our anxiety. Save us from this most corroding of ailments. For if you are within, anxiety is not; but if anxiety is within, you are not. Save us. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”