Becoming Richer

"Without love, what are we worth? Eighty-nine cents! Eighty-nine cents worth of chemicals walking around lonely." So said Hawkeye (Laurence Marks) on M*A*S*H. No one enjoys being a pauper. We struggle for a better job so we can have a better income. We think we need the better income in order to have better 'stuff'. However, we usually discover that our lives still are not richer as a result. True riches are not found in the things we have but in the kind of person we are.

In Ephesians 5:1-2 we are enjoined to be "imitators of God" and to "walk in love." Later in the chapter we find that men are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. In what way did Christ love the church? He invested himself in it. We always have greater affection for something in which we have an investment. Our investment in others needs to be patterned after Christ's investment in us. In our text we find that Christ "has loved us and given himself for us." In Hebrews 12:2 the Bible says that Jesus "for the joy that was set before him endured the cross." If loving us enriched Christ then certainly when we love others we will be enriched also. Our text also declares that Christ was "an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. The love Jesus expressed was not only for the joy of seeing us become his children, but also for the joy of pleasing his Father.

What greater riches could there be? If we are pleasing the one we love most and our love expressed to others is changing their lives as well what more could we desire. I may never be rich in money or possessions but to the extent I love others and my Father in heaven I am rich. When I was a child my family used to watch the TV show The Millionaire. In it Michael Anthony gave away a million dollars to someone in each episode and its affect on the person was depicted. Those who were selfish invariable met disaster while those who shared were enriched. We are not going to get a check for a million dollars from anyone today but God has given us something worth more than a million. He has given us his love. We can either become richer by giving it away or become lonely, eighty-nine cent bodies by not giving it away. We must make the right choice each day.