“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal … for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also … No one can serve two masters … You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:19, 21, 24, ESV).

If you ask someone the purpose of education, you are likely to get some answer like, “to get a degree so I can get a job and make money.” This is a rather low standard—one that only works if money is our supreme goal. There must be more to education. In Martin Luther’s words:

What help to the emperor are his great treasures and riches when the hour comes that he must die? Money is a disgraceful, hateful, and powerless god who cannot help you even with one of your little sores and cannot even protect himself. There he lies in his box and must be waited on … taking care that he is not destroyed by fire or any other calamity. If this treasure or god consists of rich clothing or fabrics, he must also become an object of special care and guarded against the tiniest of worms and moths who might so easily spoil him and eat him up. What a shocking and accursed thing is unbelief! (Luther for the Busy Man)

It seems absurd to talk to prospective college students about the love of money. Most of them don’t have much of it to love. But the love of money is not isolated to those who have it or have more of it. God may well bless you in life with abundant financial resources. But if you are beginning your college career with wealth in mind, you have already begun to build your life on the idolatry of money.

But there is hope for the lover of money—kicking the habit is as easy as giving it away. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:26) Start here. Go anywhere. Grounded in God’s Word.

Dr.  Wade Mobley [FLBCS President]

Luther for the Busy Man devotional can be found at lutherforthebusyman.org and ambassadorpublications.org.