Thirty Pieces of Silver!

by Terry Ivy
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We all know the price. If we are familiar with the betrayal of Jesus the amount of money is burned into our minds. Thirty pieces of silver! That is the price Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus for. Thirty man-made pieces of silver! Why did he do it? What did he gain? What did he give up? What is the end of the story? What about you and me?

The Scriptures teach us that the love for money is the root of all evil. (I Tim. 6:10) If you ever want to find the shady, cutthroat and underhanded reasons men do harm to others, just follow the trail of money. Jesus distilled the servitude of man down to two options: God or money. He taught that these two are mutually exclusive. It is an either/or option! One of these two options will master us!

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." (Matthew 6:24)

The greek word for mammon literally means, "wealth or riches." This goes with the teaching of the Apostle Paul, where he used the term "the love for money." Having money or wealth is not, in and of itself, sin. However, when the drive for riches has us, it is sin! How do we know if it has us? When our life is a constant pursuit of stuff, stuff and more stuff, or money, money and more money, it has us! Most in our society are slaves to the 'almighty dollar.' Selling the spirtual health of their marriage, their children and their personal lives just to get another dollar. Why another dollar? So they can get more stuff. It is like feeding a fire in a wood burning stove; the flame never gets enough!