We’re all familiar with the guy who wants to get rich and enjoy all the benefits money can afford. He’s the guy who’ll go to any length to get the money he wants, even if, like Bernie Madoff, he cons and swindles people out of their money in order to line his own pockets.

But there are also people with money – lots of money – who come by it honestly and use it commendably. They have a great idea, invent something extremely useful, or demonstrate skills that others consider to be so valuable they’re willing to pay large sums for their advice. Here we think of people like Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or the various political advisors hired by presidential candidates.

I doubt that any of these people would have continued to do what they did, or do, unless they believed that, sooner or later, big chunks of money were going to come their way.

Then there are those in the movement known as “extreme altruism” who want to make as much money as they can in order to give away as much as possible to meet pressing needs worldwide. Young people in this movement make as much, and often more, than most of us, but they also give away as much as 50% of their income to care for the poor. Making money is their sole passion. They have few friends, are reluctant to marry and have a family, and think only of how they can live smaller in order to give more.

Then there’s the rest of us, whose pursuit of money serves as a default priority in how we manage our time, not because we hope to become fabulously rich, but just because one needs a certain amount of money to get by in the world.

Time and money

We’ve all heard it said that “Time is money.” This is the language of an economy driven by money, an economy of getting-and-spending, and it reminds us that time is the framework in which we make money, so we’d better learn to make the most of our time in order to gain or save the most money we can.

Jesus understood this mindset when He told the parable of the talents in Matthew 25.14-30. He knew that people think in terms of money, that money is the “currency” of the secular economy, and that getting and making and enjoying money is pretty much on everyone’s mind, at least at some level.

But Jesus used that parable, not to encourage people in their getting-and-spending aspirations. Rather, He used their understanding of money to challenge them with the larger question of how they use their time, talents, and treasure before the watchful eye of God. God is the giver of every good and perfect gift, and He gives His gifts for a purpose.

God gives each person the gift of time – and all the gifts, abilities, opportunities, and responsibilities that fill that time – not so that we might spend our time merely on ourselves, knocking ourselves out in pursuit of things that cannot last. God is seeking a return on investment from the time He invests in us, and the return He’s seeking is not monetary.

Living in and for glory

God’s purpose in creation is to glorify Himself. The unfathomable scope, wondrous diversity, glorious beauty, and mysterious power of the creation all testify to the glory of God. Creation witnesses to God and declares to us something of what He is like and what He expects for and of His creation.

This includes the time God invests in us – the time in which we establish and pursue the priorities of our lives. As Jesus explained, in the Kingdom of God, making money is not the driving force. We cannot serve God and mammon. The driving force, the number one priority in the Kingdom of God is knowing, enjoying, growing in, and making known the glory of the infinite, eternal, wise, and loving God.

Those who have made the Kingdom turn live in this economy first, and in our secular economy only second. Their passion to know and love God drives them each day to consider how best to use the time of their lives so as to experience and exhibit the glory of God. They understand that God’s declared intention is that the knowledge of His glory should cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2.14), and they make it their point, in all the time of their lives, to seek and to refract the presence, power, and promises of God to the people around them (1 Cor. 10.31).

In the Kingdom of God, our first priority lines up exactly with God’s, and with what Jesus prayed for us in that garden long ago: To know the glory of God, and to make that glory known in everything we do.

Next steps

What does it mean to “know” the glory of God? In what ways do you know God’s glory? How do you approach the use of your time so that the glory of God is your top priority at all times? Talk with a Christian friend about these questions.

Additional Resources

Download this week’s study, The Kingdom Turn.

T. M. has written two books to complement this eight-part series. You can order The Kingship of Jesus by clicking here, and The Gospel of the Kingdom by clicking here.For a brief study of what it means to pursue culture every day for the glory of God, order T. M.’s book, Christians on the Front Lines of the Culture Wars by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.