The Consistency of Life, Luke 12:15-23

¹⁵And He said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. ¹⁶And He spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: ¹⁷And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? ¹⁸And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater: and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. ¹⁹And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
²⁰But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? ²¹So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. ²²And He said unto His disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; netiehr for the body, what ye shall put on. ²³The life is more than met, and the body is more than raiment.

     This man, whose ground produced an abundance of crops, made one mistake: He was not rich toward God. He was not condemned for being wealthy, nor for having an abundance of food. He was condemned because he took no thought of God, and instead sought to please himself only.
     We can learn a lesson from this man, however, even if we do know the Lord. One thing that this man did was that instead of sharing his overabundance with others in need, he chose to save it all for himself. But his days were guaranteed to be long-- And that night he had to stand before God. He could have realized that his overabundance was God pouring out blessing upon him and shared with those in need, for he had more than enough. Instead he chose to let others suffer lack and delight himself in ease and comfort. He sought a comfortable life on earth at the expense of others, when God had blessed him so abundantly that he could have shared and still had plenty.

     Jesus said that a man's life doesn't consist in the abundance of his possessions: life is more than clothing, more than food. Life consists solely in our relationship with Jesus Christ. When we find this out, when we surrender our lives to Him, we will come to know the joy of fulfilling the very purpose for which we were created: to worship God and bring Him glory.
     Jesus went on to say, later in chapter 12, not to worry about your life, what you will eat and what you will wear, but to seek the kingdom of God and all those things will be added unto you. God knows you have need of these things, and He loves you; He will provide all you need. So we needn't focus our minds and hearts on providing for ourselves. After all, if we were to store up an abundance of wealth for ourselves, when we leave this earth it will still remain and go to someone else. Solomon realized this, and it brought him much grief; he had to leave his fortune to his foolish son, Rahoboam. All that he had worked for and toiled for was left to be squandered by someone who would not appreciate it as Solomon had. Thus attaining wealth is not to be our goal in life, nor is attaining ease and comfort.

     A man's life consists of his heart toward God, not of the abundance of that which he possesses. And when a man's heart is right toward God, he will give out of his abundance (which he realizes is an unearned blessing from God: freely you have received, freely give). When the heart is focused on God, the love of God will flow through that life unto others, which, in this case, displays itself in the act of giving.
     How could we, who say we have the love of God shining through us and the Spirit of God living in us, gain from God's blessings and selfishly keep it all to ourselves? No, when we are blessed we must, out of love, bless others. This is not legalism, but it is something that will happen simply because this is who God is: Love. Love realizes another's need and gives out of what it has for itself, not considering that it will be poorer for having done so, but knowing it will be richer toward God for having done so. Thus in giving away what we have, we gain eternal reward, treasure in heaven which moth and theif cannot touch.