Rich Fools
April 28, 2021•344 words
“You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?” [Luke 12:20]
Foolishness, He bids us to learn, nothing less than foolishness is the right word by which to describe the conduct of the man who thinks of nothing but his money. The man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God is the man whom God declares to be a fool!
It is a solemn thought that the character which Jesus brings before us in this parable is far from being uncommon. Thousands in every age of the world have lived continually doing the very things which are here condemned! Thousands are doing them at this very day! They are laying up treasure upon earth and thinking of nothing but how to increase it. They are continually adding to their hoards as if they were to enjoy them forever and as if there were no death, no judgment, and no world to come!
And yet these are the men who are called clever and prudent and wise! These are the men who are commended and flattered and held up to admiration! Truly the Lord sees not as man sees! The Lord declares that rich men who live only for this world are utter fools!
Let us pray for rich men. Their souls are in great danger!
“Heaven,” said a great man on his deathbed, “is a place to which few kings and rich men come.”
Even when converted, the rich carry a great weight and run the race to heaven under great disadvantages. The possession of money has a most hardening effect upon the conscience. We never know what we might do if we were to become rich. The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs (1 Timothy 6:10).
Poverty has many disadvantages, but riches destroy far more souls than poverty!
—J.C. Ryle, ‘Expository Thoughts on Luke’