We are dealing with the temptations that face us as Christian leaders in relationship to money. The third temptation is to yield to the power that is inherent in all dealings with money. The apostle Paul warned his young colleague Timothy, “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” (1 Timothy 6:10) What tempts us is not the love of a neutral medium of exchange but the desire for the power that comes from the accumulation of wealth. With money comes power and with power comes control, and it is the power to control that we find so intoxicating.
Leaders who seek to govern by exercising control are ripe for this temptation. The power behind money brings any leader al the control they need. As leaders, the opportunity to increase control is a never-ending siren song that calls to us, promising us success and stature if we will but grasp it. Of course what happens is that it grasps us and soon our thirst for power that comes through the pursuing of wealth ends up controlling us.
As Christian leaders we must fight every day this temptation to grasp at the power that comes from the accumulation of financial resources. The key again is the freedom we can know as steward leaders. When our hearts are transformed from owners to stewards, our need and desire for control is likewise transformed into joyful obedience. Nothing destroys the drive for control than a steward’s heart. And nothing will defuse in you the temptation to seek and use money as a means of control than the freedom we know only in Jesus Christ. Seek first him and his kingdom, and your heart will rely peacefully in him for all else.