During September and October, we’ll be stepping into our next Jesus-Centred-Life term looking this time at Money, Possessions and Eternity. Bunyan raises the same issue as Hopeful and Christian pass within sight of the silver mine, dug into the hill, Lucre (meaning greedy for gain in money, profits or goods, often in an ill or dishonest sense). Their would-be guide is aptly named ‘Demas’ (II Tim.4:10), who claims there is no danger, ‘except to those who are careless’. Though Bunyan notes that ‘he blushed as spake’.
But for Hopeful and Christian to visit the mine, they would need to turn off the Path. Christian - perhaps still stung by the memory of Evangelist’s words after being persuaded to turn from the path by Mr. Worldy-Wiseman, counsels against it. By-ends and his fellowship, on the other hand, are happy to do so at the earliest opportunity. Their end wasn’t seen, but it was nonetheless real because of that.
We may feel Bunyan is a bit ‘strict’ in his portrayal of the silver mine. Placing it as he does off the Way, describing the ground as deceitful under them, depicting others as slain, maimed or enslaved. It hinders Pilgrims; and Demas - though he claims to be a Pilgrim who would join them if they would tarry a little - is lined up with Gehazi (II Kings 5:20), and Judas (Matt.26:14-15), both noted for their greed, and willingness to betray their Lord for personal gain. But Bunyan is unapologetic. Standing next to the path is a monument with the tag: Remember Lot’s wife. The warning is clear, for she had been turned into a pillar of salt (a symbol of judgement), ‘for her looking back with a covetous heart’.
This is the issue Bunyan is warning us about. Bunyan, and Christians generally (as we’ll see next term), are not advocates of asceticism, nor are they per se against money, or finance. They aren’t against well-run businesses that create profit. But with one voice we cry against the love of money, and the pursuit of it and all that it can buy, without regard to the effects on our discipleship, and the calling of God on our lives. Christ warns us that we cannot serve both God and money (Matt.6:24). A century before Bunyan published Pilgrim’s Progress, the vicar of Epping (Essex) Samuel Hieron, taught his congregation to pray:
‘Oh let not mine eyes be dazzled, nor my heart bewitched with the glory and sweetness of these worldly treasures … Draw my affection to the love of that durable riches, and to that fruit of heavenly wisdom which is better than gold, and the revenues whereof do surpass the silver, that my chief care may be to have a soul enriched and furnished with Thy grace’.
Another contemporary, William Perkins, wrote that ‘The end of man’s calling is not to gather riches for himself … but to serve God in the serving of man, and in the seeking the good of all men … They which have riches are to consider that God is not only the sovereign Lord, but the Lord of their riches, and that they themselves are but stewards of God, to employ and dispense them according to His will. Yea further, that they are to give an account unto Him, both for the having and the using of those riches, which they have and use’.
Within these parameters, money has always been seen as a blessing and a social good. The hill being mined by the Path is not called ‘Money’ but ‘Lucre’. And when the love of money takes root in our hearts, and gives birth to greed, selfishness, jealousy, pride and avarice, then we court spiritual death. This is Bunyan’s warning, and it is worth heeding yet. After all, it was Jesus who said: ‘where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’ (Matt.6:21).
Questions to ponder:
How would I know if I loved money, and served it rather than God?
What would I do about it if I did?
