How to Become Rich

Luke 12:13-21 (New International Version)

 ¹³Someone in the crowd said to him, 

"Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."

 ¹⁴Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 

¹⁵Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; 
a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

 ¹⁶And he told them this parable: 
"The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.  
¹⁷He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'

 ¹⁸"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. 
I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there 
I will store all my grain and my goods.  

¹⁹And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. 
Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '

 ²⁰"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. 
Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

 ²¹"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself 
but is not rich toward God."

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How to Become Rich

I find it interesting that Jesus taught more about money than anything else. And He wasn’t trying to ratchet up the treasury. As far as we know, He never even asked for an offering. The reason He taught extensively on the subject is that nothing clogs our spiritual arteries more quickly than money – either working to have a lot of it or wishing that we had.

Think of the man who brazenly asked Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me” (Luke 12:13). Amazing! He had an opportunity to “go deep” with Jesus, but instead he wanted deep pockets.

Jesus responded with a stunning, counterintuitive statement: "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (Luke 12:15). He then went on to tell the parable of a rich man who was wildly successful from a worldly standpoint – having so many crops that he had to keep building bigger barns – but who, in God’s eyes, was actually a “fool.” Not because he was rich, but because he was not rich toward God.

You’ll hear a lot of advice about how to become rich. But only Jesus tells it to us straight. It’s not about the money. It’s about the richness of our relationship with Him and the joy of turning our greed into generosity.

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The riches of this world are vain,

They vanish in a day;

But sweet the treasures of God’s love,

They never pass away.

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Learning how to be rich toward God

Yields eternal dividends.