The problem with partiality is that it violates right values

In James 2:1-7 James is reinforcing that all people are created equal and should be given equal place in assembling before God. When we fail lo do this it indicates that we value ourselves more than (in this case) the poor.

It also indicates that we have failed to value money correctly and have used it as a differentiator between men.

The command to love your neighbor as yourself (James 2:8) is dependant on us living and understanding the principle of love the Lord your God with all your heart, as fulfilling this command means that our basic values are right which flows to the rest of our values.

According he the new testament there is only one differentiator in the way we one to treat people-are they in Christ or not (1 Cor 5:12)?

The last aspect of giving that is interesting is what it does to the people.

In 2 Cor 8:3-4 we read that the believers in Macedonia begged Paul to take part in the relief of the saints. What was it that led to this attitude?  What could possibly drive people to be so desperate to part with their money in exchange for no return?

The clue we get is in 2 Cor 9:2 where we read that the zeal of the Corinthians for the relief of the saints had stirred up most of the Macedonians. Enthusiasm is infectious, and when believers act with zeal for other believers this can be infectious too. 

What resulted from all this? Simple – churches from both these areas were united in cause.  While they had probably never met and never fellowshiped together, through the news of this one cause conveyed by Paul they were united.

The act of giving itself within the principle of abundance and need also unites.  It ensures that all believers have the same resources which removes barriers in the church to following hard after Christ.

In addition the party receiving the gift turns to give glory to God for the gift (see 2 Cor 9:13), while the party giving the gift ought to be doing it in recognition of the glory of God.

Finally, when we receive a gift from someone, it is natural that our affections for that person be increased.  Paul also indicated that this would be the case in 2 Cor 9:14 when he said that those in Jerusalem would long for them (i.e. desire to see them) and pray for them.

Again, we see that giving causes unity rather than division.  Even in the circumstances where the churches may have nothing else in common giving can break down the walls and draw them back to each other.  In 2 Cor 9:14 the reason for the unity is that the receiver rejoices in the grace of God toward the giver.  This unity transcends the differences these churches may have had.

Giving is a powerful way to break down walls between churches and believers. 

What about tithing?  Is tithing something that believers should be doing today? I believe that the Bible clearly teaches not.  Having said that, if you are pleased to give a tenth, there is nothing to condemn you for doing so.  Tithing is not wrong, but it is not necessary either.

Firstly, in the Old Testament the Israelites were told to tithe to support the Levites – who had no inheritance in the land (Numbers 18:20-24).  Secondly they were to tithe the produce of the land (Lev 27:30,32, Deut 14:22).  Why?  Because they were to give of the increase of the Land that the Lord had given to them (Lev 26:3-4, Lev 26:14-16,20) - not that which was gained through cunning or craft.  Since God had given the land to the Israelites, he was specifically interested in “the tithe of the land” (Lev 27:30). 

The tithe of the land was to be taken to where the Levite’s were and given to them where they were.  Interestingly if the way was too long, God gave a command to work around it.  If you were not able to go to the town due to distance and the size of the tithe, God directed the person to convert the tithe to money and take the money, but rather than give the money to the Levite’s he commanded the Israelite to put the money toward a feast to the Lord along with your household and any Levite’s who were around (Deut 14:22-27).

Today’s church is under attack from within with regards to money.  There is nothing wrong with living off the giving of the church.  Paul received gifts from the churches he visited and/or planted (see Phli 4:16), and scripture clearly says that those who labor are worthy to be paid (1 Tim 5:17-18).   Furthermore there is nothing wrong with asking for offerings for a specific need (including needs of pastors and leaders, but also any other needs) as people desire to give.

However, this is not the attitude of many “teachers”, “leaders” and “ministers”. Any pastor or leader who mandates giving to the church is just in the wrong to do so.  Sadly, I believe many church leaders simply have a problem with money.  We live in a world where people are heckled from the pulpit by leaders who know how much is given to the church compared to the amount of wealth in the congregation, where tithing is mandated and people are taught that failing to tithe brings judgement from God and where teaching ministries require money before letting teaching on the word go out the door.

The word deals with these in severe language.  Paul says that he is not like many who are “peddling the word of God” (2 Cor 2:17) – exchanging the word for money.  Peter said that one of the signs of false teachers is that follow their sensuality and exploit believers “in their greed” (2 Peter 2:1-3).  Paul also teaches that those who teach false doctrine imagine “that godliness is a means of gain” (1 Tim 6:5). 

The principle of abundance and need is apparent in the New Testament.  This principle tells us that in some places there is an abundance and in some places there is need.  It falls upon those in abundance to provide for those in need where necessary.

In 2 Cor 8:8-15 this principle is referred to by Paul as “fairness” (v14 ESV) or “equality” (v14 NASB).   During the time that Paul wrote Philippians and 2 Corinthians there was a famine that was severe in Judea at the time.  It is recorded by Josephus (Antiquities, Book 20, Chapter 2) and is predicted by Agabus in Acts 11:28.

In these days of course there were not the aid agencies we have today, so to support those in need in the day was often difficult.  In this case, Paul served as the link between churches, traveling often between churches and carrying news between them of each others news and needs. Later Paul would take the collected money to Jerusalem on the behalf of the gentile churches (Rom 15:25-27) as a trusted courier.

In this case the Corinthians had heard about the plight of the believers in Jerusalem and had been saving up their money for around 12 months (2 Cor 8:10, 2 Cor 9:2).  Paul had told this to the churches of Macedonia and they had responded by begging him to allow them to help in this collection (2 Cor 8:3-5). 

We get some interesting insights by comparing these two people groups.

The circumstances of the saints in Achaia and Macedonia were very different.  The Macedonians were in extreme poverty (2 Cor 8:2), where the Corinthians were in a state of abundance (2 Cor 8:14).  One had the means to put resources aside, where the other didn’t.  But both gave to the cause.

The methods they by which they gave were different.  The Macedonians seemed to simply take what they had and give it to Paul to give to the Jerusalem saints.  The saints in Achaia on the other hand saved their money for months – possibly even years – in order to have something for Paul to collect.

There are three lessons here as far as I see it (and there are bound to be others).  Firstly the amount we give is not important.  Second the way we give is not important and thirdly the purpose of our giving is important.  Lets start with the third point and then come back to the first two.

In both Macedonia and Achaia they responded to a real need.  Their hearts were moved and their pockets emptied in response to a need that fellow saints had.  It is likely they were saints that they had never met, but the condition of being in Christ was unifying in and of itself (I’ll go into why I think this is not the case in a future post).

If you compare this to the way many churches ask their congregations to give today, there is a distinct difference.  Sadly, in many evangelical churches people are cajoled and coerced and pressured into giving percentages or minimum amounts of money to the churches or even “ministers”.  Believers should never give under external compulsion or reluctantly (2 Cor 9:7) – if this describes you, stop giving.  God doesn’t need your money (see the first article in this series for more on why), and you are not doing yourself any favors by giving legalistically any more than you would be if you set your mind to do any specific good work each day. 

God wants our giving to be cheerful – the Macedonians offer a fantastic example of this.  They obviously found something more valuable than money and gave their money toward this cause - they gave themselves to the Lord first, and then to Paul and his work (2 Cor 8:5) – their hearts were upward focused, not inward or outward.  They gave themselves to Paul by the will of God (2 Cor 8:5), not by pressure or coercion.

Next, we see that the two groups had significantly different resources at their disposal and gave different amounts.  This reminds me of the old widow who put the two copper coins into the temple offering (Mark 12:41-44).  In this passage Christ indicates that it is not the amount that is contributed, but the amount relative to the resources available. Paul repeats this in 2 Cor 8:12 - “it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have”.

Nor is it a matter of giving until it hurts.  Paul was not expecting the saints at Macedonia to give as they did (2 Cor 8:5), and he explicitly told the Corinthians that it was not to make them burdened and the Jerusalem saints were eased, but as a matter of fairness (2 Cor 8:13) – that is – it was simply a matter of redistributing the excess resources that the Corinthians had that they wanted to contribute, not a matter of reversing the situation.

Finally the way the Corinthians gave was quite different.  Today most people give mechanically (that is regularly).  While there is nothing wrong with this, neither church did this in this case.  In Macedonia, they gave opportunistically – that is they came across an opportunity and gave themselves to it quickly and decisively.  In Corinth it was quite different – they saved their resources for a point in time collection.  My point here is dont be lured into thinking that you have to give something every week or month.  The regularity is not the point – the heart is the issue.

So what are the signs of discontentment?  Here are some common ones – there may be others that I haven’t put down here.  Each of us should consider these before the Lord – he is the one who judges our intentions (Heb 4:12).

Constantly purchasing new things.  This is a weakness I have – shopping. This is a sign that we are looking for satisfaction in material possessions.  Even “window shopping” can be a symptom here.  We feel we want something more, and look to something other than Christ to fill that want.

Debt is another indicator, and I’m not talking so much about a debt for a house (i.e. a mortgage), however I would argue that a cycle of upgrading from one home to another with the accumulation of debt along the way is a symptom of discontentment.  Why not be content with the first/second home?  Why continually upgrade if not for discontentment?

 Whining and complaining is also an indication of discontentment.  These indicate a focus on my wants or felt needs rather than a focus on the glory of the Lord.  It also implies that we have a lack of reliance on the Lord to affect change both in ourselves and in the circumstances around us.

Worrying is also a sign of discontent as it focuses on us and our needs not on the Lord and his sufficiency and ability to provide.

Perfectionism can indicate a lack of contentment with things “the way they are”, and in many cases we fail to realize that things are what they are because that is the way the Lord has made them.

Depression can be caused by lack of contentment, again, this is generally self focused – the grieving for something we lack.

Self assertion or the tenancy to manipulate or control circumstances and people for your own end is also a sign of discontentment.

How do we resolve these issues?  In reality it is not likely that we will be free from these things while we are here on earth as our sin will constantly be dragging us back to the same old battle grounds time after time, but through these things we must develop a dependency on the sufficiency of God to make us righteous before him – we must trust the justification Christ finished for us on the cross.

We read in Ps 37:4 ”Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart”.  This verse is cyclical.  As we make the Lord the delight of our lives, he will give us the desires of our heart.  What will the desires of our heart be?  Him - he is our delight – and the only thing we will find desirable.

Only God satisfies – seeking him brings more joy than any other created thing – and He made us to enjoy him while giving him glory and honour.

When we look at some of the passages that mention the word contentment in the New Testament we see something interesting. 

Take for instance the following two passages: Phil 4:11-13 and Heb 13:5.

Phil 4:11-13 says “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.  In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

So what was the “secret” Paul talks about in this passage?  Whatever it was it was able to satisfy every need he had in his ministry, regardless of his status and financial circumstances.  The secret is verse 13 – “I can do all things through him who strengthens me”.  Paul was content because all the needs he had were taken care by Christ.  The underlying truth here is that Christ is the core and the backbone of the ministry of any believer.  Money is not the issue – faith in Christ is the issue.

We read something similar in Heb 13:5. Here we are exhorted to “Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’”.  Again, the word “for” here means because.  The reason we are to be content is that we have something we can never lose in Christ – and not only is it just “something” we can never lose it is the most valuable something anyone could ever have – Christ.

Lets see why Christ is the most valuable thing we could have.

When Jesus died on the cross at Calvary, the last thing he said before He died was “It is finished” (John 19:30).  What was finished?  Heb 12:2 calls Jesus the “author and finisher” of our faith (in the NKJV – other versions read “perfecter” instead of finisher).  It was our faith that was perfected or finished by Christ – but how?  Heb 10:14 helps us understand this: “For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified”.  What Christ accomplished or finished at the cross was the justification of those who are being sanctified (or changed into His likeness).

What does this mean?  “Therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” (Rom 5:9).  One would think that of all the things in the universe, something you’d want to be saved from would be the wrath of God. 

Surely this is the most terrifying prospect one can face – not to die, but to be suffer justly at the hands of the God of the universe for the rest of eternity.  Therefore to be saved from this is the best thing that can happen to any of us.  Christ is all we need for this.

Not only this but Christ is all we need for everything in life.  God has “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing” (Eph 1:3).  Paul found that even though he had difficulties (in this case probably a physical problem, but we can’t be too sure), he was taught that “my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:7-9).

Lets take a look at this in action.  Job was a God fearing man who had been given great wealth by God and was the “greatest of all the people of the east” (Job 1:1-5).

One day Satan was granted permission to take everything that he had, and on one day he lost all his livestock (totaling around 11,000 heads), all his servants but four (of which we are told there were “very many”) as well as his seven sons and three daughters (Job 1:13-19).

How would you react to losing everything in one day. Many could not bear to part with their wealth (see the story of the rich young ruler in Luke 18:18-27 as an example).  Some would ask “why has God done this?”, others might just blame God and feel unjustly treated. 

Jobs response is remarkable.  In Job 1:20-22 his response is recorded as “Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return.  The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.’”.

Clearly Jobs life did not consist in his possessions (Luke 12:15), nor was Job worried about his next meal.

Job didn’t blame God – rather he justified him.  How could he do this?  We get a hint of the reason in other passages in scripture.  For example the Psalmist says “You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you” (Ps 16:2).  Paul similarly said “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil 3:8-9).

The reality for Job, the Psalmist and Paul was that Christ, and salvation was infinitely more valuable than anything we have on earth.  The responses of Paul and Job tell us that their prime concern was living for the honour of the God who created them.  This alone is of value.  As Job said – we come into the world with nothing and we leave with nothing, however “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgement” (Heb 9:27).  Correct preparation for judgement is more valuable than anything in this life, and Jesus is all we need to prepare for this judgement.

This week we spent time looking at contentment, and to start with we asked “what is contentment?”.

The answer that most people give is that contentment is being happy with what you have.  In many ways this is true, however, it is a little too broad.  If we are happy with what we have got, then we would not want to grow and we would be content with every aspect of our lives.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not content with all aspects of my life – and I shouldn’t be either.  I should never be content that I have a sufficient relationship with Christ - I should always want more of the Lord. The Psalmist said “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God” (Ps 42:1).  Clearly we should desire God – which would indicate that we should never be content with our love of Him or the depth of our knowledge of Him.

So how do we define contentment?  Contentment is the fruit of having our values right.  We’ve looked at values – the Bible says “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:36).  The question is (once again) where is your treasure?  The answer to this question will determine whether you are content or not.

There are a couple of key passages in the new testament on contentment.  The first is in Phil 4:11-13 where Paul explains that he has learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need and remain content. He follows this statement by saying that “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).  The secret to Paul doing what he does in his ministry is not a league of financial supporters but faith in an all powerful God who is working for the same causes as Paul.  Paul’s contentment is based in his faith.

We see something similar in Heb 13:5 where the author says “Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave your nor forsake you”".  The author also links contentment and Christ together here – we are to be content because we have Christ who will never leave us.

What both of these passages point at is that Christ is infinitely more valuable than anything we could have on earth.  If we value God appropriately, we will be focused on him, not money and not the world around us.  Thus we will be content – not because we see that we have all we need on this world (we may not) but we have all that we need – and indeed all that is valuable in the universe.

If we understand the value of God, then if we have him we are wealthy beyond our wildest dreams – even if we have nothing on earth, but have Him, we are still more wealthy than we understand.

The love of money is quite simply a valuing of money over and above what it should be valued.

There are warnings about the love of money in particular throughout scripture.  Specifically here we will look a two passages that deal specifically with the phrase “love of money”.

1 Tim 6:9-10 talks about “those who desire to be rich” – stating that they “fall into temptation, into a snare and into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction”.  Why does the desire to be rich do this?  Verse 10 follows by saying “for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils”.  The word “for” is the same as the word “because” in meaning.  In other words what Paul describes as “those who desire to be rich” is the same as “the love of money” – Paul is using a different phrase to describe the same thing.

Similarly Eccles 5:10 lists more characteristics of loving money – “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this is vanity”.

Consistently in these two passages we read that loving money is characterized by a desire to grow ones income or financial base. 

Ecclesiastes calls this “vanity” which means worthless.  As we’ve already seen we come into the world with nothing and leave with nothing, so indeed this would seem to be a waste of time with regards to the way one conducts their life.

Paul says that people who love money fall into temptation, a snare (trap), and a plethora of senseless and harmful desires.  The end of these things is that they end in ruin or destruction – or as it says in 1 Tim 6:10 wandering away from the faith.

In Matt 13:18-23 Jesus explains the parable of the sower.  In this parable there are four types of results.  Three of these results are with respect to the unsaved, and one is the character of those who are saved.  One of the unsaved perish because “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful” (v22).

If the covetous perish due to their idolatry (Eph 5:3-5), how will those who love money escape?  Yet this sin is almost unchecked in the western world.

Let me put a finer point on it – not only is it largely unchecked, it is also something which many pastors and teachers are guilty of.  Again scripture warns against this (Tit 1:11, 2 Pet 2:3) – but many today are simply “peddling the word of God” (2 Cor 2:17 NASB).  That is that they are on a mission to gain from the word of God rather than share the word of God and the gifts they’ve been given freely.  More on this in another post…

Don’t wait for your spiritual leaders to lead you with regards to thinking about wealth and the love of money.  Chances are they suffer from the same problem and are just as blind to it as you are.  Instead “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Phil 2:12-13).

There is a link between desire and value.  The things we value the most are the things that are most desirable to us.  So a good litmus test of what we value would be to observe what the things we desire are.  We also find that the things that are desirable are often the things that we strive or work for.  Again, we can test ourselves by asking what our goals are for work, family, and even our social life.

The Bible is clear about what is a legitimate thing to want and what is not.  In the Bible the word “covet” is used to mean something that is desirable – and specifically something that is wrongly or immoderately desirable.  (Where immoderately means exceeding what is right).

This definition alone warrants careful thought.  We find it exceedingly easy to justify ourselves and our desires.  Using the above definition we would justify ourselves by saying “I don’t desire these things more than I should”, rather than first evaluating what is right and then assessing ourselves.

Thus the “love of money” (1 Tim 6:10) is extremely deceptive and hard to see in oneself, yet we are to be on our guard against it as it is the top destroyer of godliness in the western world.

The Bible starts by saying “You shall not covet your neighbors house, you shall not covet your neighbors wife, or his male servant, or female servant, or his ox, or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor’s” (Ex 20:17).

Who is my neighbor? Jesus once affirmed to a lawyer that the two greatest commandments are to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” and was met by a self justifying question – “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:27-37).  Jesus answered with the parable of the good Samaritan which illustrated that being a neighbor is about how we behave – not about who our neighbor is.

So when we are told not to covet anything that is our neighbor’s we are being told not to want that which is anyone else’s, and given pretty much everything we don’t have belongs to someone else that makes this a hard statement to swallow.

God is clear about this in other places.  In Deuteronomy 7:24-25 God tells the Israelites that when they come into the lands of the nations that they would dispossess, they were not to even regard the gold and silver on their idols as desirable, but to destroy it.  A graphic illustration of this is the golden calf that Aaron made in Exodus 32 - Moses when he came down from the mountain took the calf (made entirely of gold) and burned it with fire and ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it (Ex 32:20).  The gold and silver had less than no value as far as God was concerned.  It was considered an abomination and therefore should be destroyed.

In addition, scripture says that the covetous will not inherit the kingdom of God (Eph 5:3-5). 

So why is covetousness so offensive to God?

Lets start in Romans 1:19-21.  Here we see that God has shown himself to us, but instead of valuing him, we value created things.  We don’t see God as desirable, but instead we see ourselves and created things as desirable.

How can I draw the connection between worshipping and valuing? In Romans 1:24 we read the conclusion of changing from worshipping God to the creation… “God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity”.  Lust is a strong form of desire – rather than desiring God, they desired creation – ultimately for their own pleasure.

The switch is from desiring or valuing God to valuing ourselves or our own pleasure or something else that has been created.

So coveting is essentially switching from desiring God to something else.

We read this quite explicitly in Eph 5:3-5 that coveting amounts to idolatry – “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God”. 

Thus covetousness is a migration from considering God as most valuable and myself as equal to everyone else to making myself more important that both God and others (if not just others), and in doing so committing idolatry – that is making up a God of our own choosing – namely ourselves.

Next up we’ll deal with the love of money specifically.

In Luke 12:13-40 we have a series of parables which may on the surface seem to be isolated.  However, upon closer study we find that there is a progression through out these parables that tells us about how Jesus viewed material wealth and possessions.

In Luke 12:13-21 we read about a man who asked Jesus to intervene in a financial matter between him and his brother.  Jesus warns that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. 

He further warns those listening that we should be rich toward God and not lay up treasure for ourselves.  This is a clear warning against storing up wealth on earth for our own use. 

Many people who say they believe the Bible will justify themselves by saying that they are simply storing wealth so that they can work for God in some manner without requiring a paid job to support them.  Generally, this is just an attempt to ease their conscience. Most of these people dont specify when they will stop collecting and start the so called ministry they are considering.

The second section in Luke 12:22-34 builds on this.theme and even works against this self justification. 

In Luke 12:22-34 Jesus tells the disciples not to be anxious about the things that we need (i.e. food and clothing).  His encouragement in this passage is to “seek His kingdom and these things will be added to you” (Luke 12:31).

So, we are not to store up wealth for ourselves on earth and in the case where we can’t do that we shouldn’t be concerned about the things we need as God will provide them.

If we go back to our first objection – that we might be storing up wealth so we can serve the Lord – doesn’t that just go to show that we are anxious about what we might eat and wear while we are working for him?  God takes care of all that – so wealth is not a requirement for ministry (despite what some modern missionary agencies say).

Another interesting facet of this passage is that we are told in verse 31 that we should seek Gods kingdom, while in verse 32 we are told that it is Gods pleasure to give us the kingdom.  The kingdom is ours for the taking (or leaving).  We are not to be concerned about what we need, and we should not gather store up wealth – rather Jesus encourages us in verses 33-34 to sell all that we have and give it to the poor in order to get true wealth.

The last section is Luke 12:35-40, which is a parable that commends servants who are concerned about doing what their master wants – they stay awake to wait for the bridegroom to return so that they can welcome him appropriately.  The point here is clear – the servants were working for the master, not for themselves or their own gain.  This is the way Jesus wants us to be when he returns.

Its easy to get distracted by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches (Matt 13:22), but we must not. 

I’ll close this section with a thought from Henry Scougal and an example from scripture.  Henry Scougal said “The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love”.  What is it that we love?  What is the most treasured thing we have?

Job was a classic example.  We read in Job 1 about how in one day he lost his oxen and donkeys, sheep and camels, servants and children to various calamaties.  For most of us, in such cases we would be devastated, but Jobs reaction reveals much about his heart.  In Job 1:20-21 we read “Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.  And he said ‘Naked I came from my mothers womb, and naked shall I return.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord’”.

What was it that Job loved the most?  It was obviously the Lord.  All the things he had were as nothing compared to the value of God. 

So may we be.