Jesus said - ‘what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose [or forfeit] his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’.
· The top ten companies in the world have combined revenues of
about £2000 billion per year.
· All the gold above-ground in the world could be worth as much as
£1000 billion.
· The British government’s annual income is around £600 billion and
· The ten richest people in the world have about £300 billion between
them.
These enormous figures are way beyond our understanding. The nearest some of us can get to this in our understanding is that the average wage earner in the UK might earn about £1,000,000 in a working lifetime, and the average UK house price is currently around a quarter of a million pounds.
Compared with anything we can assign a monetary value to, the value of a soul is immense, but Jesus taught that the soul can be forfeited in exchange for material things. What kind of exchange is it if we had all that could be got? Even to have all the wealth in the world for a limited amount of time can bear no comparison to losing one’s soul for all eternity. Jesus spoke about Him ransoming our souls by giving His life as a voluntary sacrifice. He was prepared to give His all – His life – so we could go free: free from the eternal consequences of our sins.
Many years after Jesus spoke these words, the apostle Paul wrote about the rich and the would-be rich. He said that those who want to be rich ‘fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which plunge people into destruction and utter ruin. For the love of money is the root of all [kinds of] evils: which while some coveted after, they have veered off from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows’. An overriding passion to be rich can divert people from the Christian faith. This is quite different from doing one’s best and ending up rich. Paul also had a word for those who are rich. ‘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; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to share . . . that they may lay hold on eternal life.’ ‘Laying hold’ of or ‘getting a good hold of’ the spiritual values connected with eternal life is paramount. This involves the proper use and enjoyment of wealth, especially a willingness to share what we’ve got with the less privileged.
If we draw up a profit-and-loss account of our lives, we should take into account when the books are going to be made up. The Bible says, ‘it is appointed unto man once to die and after death the judgement’. Judgement, like death, awaits us all, but Christians have had their sins forgiven, so there is no judgement for them.
So there is a proper Christian perspective to profit. On the one hand, money shouldn’t be the prime occupation of our time and interest to the exclusion of the health of our souls. However, once we have put things right with our souls in getting our sins forgiven if by dint of hard work, or maybe by inheritance, we are or end up rich, there is a proper Christian attitude to wealth – not to trust in it to the exclusion of trust in God, and to share with those who are less fortunate than you are.
‘What should a man give in exchange for his soul?’, said Jesus. What would you give? The only price possible was paid by Jesus on the cross when He died as a ransom for all.
Why not do a soul valuation for yourself – make up your mind now what your soul is worth. You can’t earn the salvation of your soul, but you can receive it free: because ‘the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’.
Written by a Guest Blogger
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