Matthew 6:19-21, “19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
First things first, why work to earn wages? Is it to take care of basic needs or is it for the love of money? In economics there is the theory of diminishing returns, a situation in which less and less is achieved despite the use of increasing amounts of effort or money. Somewhere between working to take care of basic needs to the preoccupation of storing up money is the love of money.
The Parable of the Rich Fool is an example of putting his wages in “A purse with holes in it.” Jesus tells of a rich man who had such great "fruits and goods" that he had no room for them. His solution; Luke 12:18, "And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods." However, God had other plans; Luke 12:20, "But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?"
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is relevant today as many people/ countries have not accomplished the first level.
Physiological Needs
Our biological needs: The need for oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs due to mans need to survive.
Safety Needs
When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no longer controlling thoughts and behaviors, the needs for security can become active.
Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness
When the needs for safety and for physiological well-being are satisfied, the next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness emerge.
Needs for Esteem
When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others.
Needs for Self-Actualization
When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do."
[http://economicrot.blogspot.com/2006/01/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-and-us.html]
Here in the United States many have reached the pinnacle of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. What self-actualization is to one person may be foreign to another. The new Ager's often speak of reaching a higher vibration and/or dimension. Another example of storing wages in a purse with holes in it. A relationship with Jesus seals our eternity in his presence.
Luke 16:13, “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Luke 12: 21, “So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
What will it be? Working for the short time wages that expire with our physical death? While it is indeed necessary to be productive and take care of our families in this incarnation, what of laying up treasures in our eternal home?
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