God Over Career

Reevaluating Work as Your Top Priority - Acts 19

When your career and love of money disrupts your obedience to God, it may be time to reevaluate.

I was reading in Acts 19 today and there was a man named Demetrius who was a silversmith. He made silver shrines of the false goddess Artemis (aka Diana of the Ephesians). He heard that Paul was in the area preaching the gospel and convincing people that gods made with hands were not actual gods (Acts 19:26).

Demetrius saw this as a threat to his wealth and business and as a result he rallied up the men around him in similar trades and enraged them against Paul. As a result, the city was filled with confusion and and a crowd formed (some not even knowing why they were there according to Acts 19:32) and they began shouting for 2 hours, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians."

Demetrius influenced this entire scene. His heart was driven by the fear of losing his career and by the love of money.

This is a very different response than the ones that occurred earlier in this same chapter.

Earlier in this same chapter, we read that God was doing great miracles through Paul and as a result, those who witnessed the power of living in the name of Jesus, repented and turned from anything holding them back. Scripture says they confessed and told their deeds and then went as far as to burn their magic books that were worth 50 thousand pieces of silver (Acts 19:17-19).

They were willing to abandon their wealth and profession for the name of Jesus.

Now, I am not saying you need to abandon your profession and wealth to effectively preach the name of Jesus.

But here is what I do know: we are in spiritual danger when our career and love of money dampen our fire and obedience to Jesus.

Money is not evil.

Having a career is not evil.

Charging for services is not evil.

There were many faithful, wealthy people in the Bible.

But the love of money is evil.

This could even be the love of a career that is costing time with your family, destroying your body and mind due to the amount of stress it puts on you.

It is not always just about money!

Whatever it is, the love of money or the love of a profession, or anything else that causes you to put your faith on hold or sacrifice your obedience is dangerous for your soul and needs to be reevaluated if you claim to be a child of God.

I don’t know what that looks like for you. Only you know that!

I do know Paul writes in the book of Ephesians about walking in obedience and it is a great place to start when it comes to evaluating your spiritual life.

And I do know I actively search out those things in my life and do my best to uproot them. And when I read stories like this, it pierces my heart with even greater conviction to pray for the blind spots I may have and be able to tune in and change them. I long to be like those that uprooted and burned the things that got in the way of their obedience to the Lord, even when it was painful or uncomfortable.

And I hope maybe this challenges you to long for that too.