You may have noticed a recent investment guide called Trade Like Chuck. According to an advertisement on cable TV, a retired pilot applied his intellectual prowess to develop an investment strategy that enabled him to attain an income of fifty thousand dollars per month. Now he wants to share his secrets with you. For a small fee, you can buy his book and learn to Trade Like Chuck.
Advertising is a means to communicate a value proposition, seeking to attract the attention of potential customers or clients. The objective is to invite people to focus on a product or service offered by the advertiser. The communication is presented in such a way that it appears the advertiser’s interest is benevolently aligned with the customer or client. But perhaps that is not the case. Could it be that the communication cloaks the real motive, which is to make money for the advertiser? In other words, advertisers seek to get the focus of the customers or clients for their own benefit and, therefore, hide their real agenda of making money. I don’t know if Trade Like Chuck is legitimate or a scam. But given the greed that seems prevalent in people, appealing to greed makes them easy marks for these types of schemes whether they are legitimate or not.
Money seems to be the ubiquitous focus for people because money is perceived to be the key to security, significance, and success. For atheists the assumption is that after death there is nothing. Consequently, current physical reality is the only reality and, therefore, money represents the key to life. But for theists, death is not the end; there will be accountability after death for one’s life. Therefore, the key to life can’t simply be money; rather, it must be something greater—something that transcends death. Money does not transcend death; it is simply a temporal tool. We bring nothing of tangible value into the world and we will take nothing of tangible value out of the world.1 The key to life must be something that has value to the One to whom we will give an account. Biblically, there is only one judge,2 the God revealed in the Bible. The question is, what does the God of the Bible value?
Jesus addressed this question in his message commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'”3
The idea of entering the “kingdom of heaven” was Jesus’ way of talking about Judgment Day. He addressed theists who claimed to be his followers in this life and explained that doing religious activities does not satisfy God. The Father’s standard is obedience to his will, which requires a proper motive.
To be clear, Jesus is not talking about our works as a basis for acceptance with the Father. A major lesson from the Old Testament is that humans are incapable of doing enough good works to be acceptable with God. Humans are acceptable with God based on the work of Christ alone. The apostle Paul made this very clear.4 Those who have received the free gift of eternal life from God did nothing to earn it or deserve it.5 But how does a person know that he or she has received the free gift? Our works of obedience to God reveal if we have received eternal life.6 True followers of Christ love him and therefore obey him.7 They don’t just do religious activities, they live a life of obedience to the will of God. Not that their obedience is perfect, but they should be progressively growing and maturing in their ability to live aligned with God’s will. The focus of true disciples of Jesus is and should be discerning and aligning with the will of God.
The challenge for many who profess to be followers of Christ is the proclivity to think like the world. This means that, instead of putting their focus on discerning and aligning with the will of God, they focus on things like money. Some even try to justify their focus by claiming they want to be wealthy to support God’s kingdom. Such statements are a cloak for mammon worship. Scripture is clear that we cannot serve God and money (mammon); it is impossible.8
The folly of focusing on money can be seen by considering an example from the construction industry. Suppose you were part of a team that had a contract to construct a building. At a pre-construction meeting, all the contractors gathered to discuss the project but everyone was focused on the tools that would be needed. What were the best tools to use? How much would they cost? How would they be used? How would they be maintained, stored, cleaned, and repaired? There might be, in fact probably would be, much excitement generated by the tool discussion. Consequently, the focus of the meeting was not on the building, which represented the will of the project’s owner. If the contractors continued to focus on the tools, the building would never be built. To build the building, the contractors must focus on the building, which is an expression of the will of the owner. The tools were simply a means to help accomplish the owner’s will.
Hopefully you can readily see the folly of the misplaced focus on tools. This illustrates how people can easily be distracted by money. Money is simply a temporal tool to enable mankind to fulfill the will of God. Money does not define security, success, or significance. And if we focus on money, we will never fulfill the will of God. We will never live as true disciples of Christ; there will be no evidence that we have been born again. Focusing on money distracts us from the real objective of life both personally and organizationally, that is, to do the will of God.
For individuals and organizations, we must learn to focus on the right things. Money is never the right thing to focus on; money should not drive us or define us. It should not consume our thoughts or define our actions. If it does, we will be focused on money and not on the will of God.
One of the markers that we are focused on the will of God is when money is no longer the objective of work. When we focus on God’s will, work will be about delivering excellent products and services that God has ordained for us to deliver. When we advertise, our motives will not be cloaked. We will genuinely and transparently want God’s will for our customers and/or clients. Our focus will be to do the will of God in every situation. This is the only right focus and the only focus that will bear the fruit God values.
Don’t become distracted by schemes such as Trade Like Chuck. Focus on alignment with the will and ways of God, knowing that God funds his will.9 This means that God provides the requisite resources to do his will. This is the way to live a life well pleasing to God. May we all have grace to so live.
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1.
Timothy 6:6–7.
2. James 4:12.
3.
Matthew 7:21–23 (ESV).
4.
Romans 1–3.
5.
Ephesians 2:8–9.
6.
Matthew 7:20.
7.
John 14:15.
8.
Matthew 6:24.
9.
Matthew 6:33. 
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