Easy Money Can’t Deliver Community

Not only does easy money fail to keep its promise of security; it also can’t deliver on community.

My son, do not walk in the way with them;
Hold back your foot from their paths,
For their feet run to evil,
And they make haste to shed blood.
For in vain is a net spread
In the sight of any bird,
But these men lie in wait for their own blood;
They set an ambush for their own lives (Prov 1:15-18, ESV).

One hint of this failure to provide community comes in Prov 1:15: “My son, do not walk in the way with them.”  When I trample on others to gain wealth, they’ll eventually withdraw to avoid my folly.

People will catch on to my selfishness and run away: “for in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird” (Prov 1:17).  If I come to you with a proposition for easy money, and you have the wisdom to see through the empty promises, you will fly like a sparrow.  I can lay the net out to catch you, but, unless you are blind to reality, I’ll never gain your confidence.

That last fact gets at the heart of the matter.  How often am I willfully blind to reality?  I hear the promises of easy money, and I want to believe them!  Gaining wealth, by hard work over a long time, in order to serve others, doesn’t sound like much fun.  It sure doesn’t give me much hope that my stress will go away.  So I spend more money, get nicer things, go further into debt, and leave it to my next of kin to pick up the pieces.  This plan of action does not build community with those I love the most!

Next week we’ll see that easy money not only fails to deliver on its promises but also is self-destructive.