When The Only Motivation Is Lucre

1 Samuel 8:1 – When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders.

1 Samuel 8:2 – The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba.

1 Samuel 8:3 – But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

1 Samuel 8:3 – But his sons didn’t take after him; they were out for what they could get for themselves, taking bribes, corrupting justice.(Message Bible)

1 Samuel 8:3 – And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.(KJV)

1 Samuel 8:3 – But they did not follow their father’s example; they were interested only in making money, so they accepted bribes and did not decide cases honestly.(Good News Translation)

Lucre is generally money but specifically money in a negative sense. Lucre is dirty money. Stolen money. Dishonestly gained money. Money you get in exchange for services you poorly offered. When you don’t do your best and you get paid, the money you are paid is lucre.

God called Samuel when he was a little boy serving Eli in the temple. Samuel grew up serving God for the sake of serving God. Even if he wasn’t paid anything he would still serve God. Samuel was attending to a God given assignment and that is all that matters.

Samuel was satisfied everyday knowing he had served God that day. Samuel found pleasure and comfort in knowing God was pleased with him. Samuel went beyond the call of duty to serve God and God’s people.

Samuel was so focused on serving God that he didn’t notice the material things that came with the money. Samuel served the rich and poor the same. Samuel wasn’t inspired by what he was paid but by what God wanted him to do.

The people knew Samuel was a servant of God. The people knew money didn’t move Samuel. The people knew that Samuel was motivated by God’s approval and nothing else. Therefore around Samuel the presence of God was felt.

When Samuel grew old, he introduced his sons to the service of God. The sons were different. The only motivation the sons had was lucre.

Matthew 6:24 – “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

According to Jesus, no one can genuinely do it for God’s sake and for money. Either you serve God and make money a by the way or you serve for money and make the interests of God a by the way. When you work for money, what you do doesn’t matter, what you get blurs out the focus on what matters.

When your only motivation is lucre, you hurt the people you should serve. When your only motivation is lucre you disrespect the things of God and irreverence becomes trivial. When your only motivation is lucre, you find no satisfaction in getting the work well done but in making money.

When lucre is your only motivation you would not even notice when you hurt people around you. When lucre is your only motivation you would steal with ease from your work place because you have no moral connection to your duties. When lucre is your only motivation you will become insecure and will feel anyone doing their best around you wants to take your job, because you falsely think everyone is motivated by lucre.

1 Samuel 8:4 – So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.

1 Samuel 8:5 – They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

The Israelites leaders rejected Samuel’s sons because their work motivated by lucre was so bad they couldn’t bear. People who are motivated by lucre stay in office by force, because everyone is fed up by their poor uncaring services. People motivated by lucre mercilessly crash any opposition and destroy people even on unconfirmed allegations.

May God save us from lucre motivated people around us. May God save us from being motivated by lucre. May we find pleasure in service, in Jesus’s name, Amen!

Someone you know will only know about this article if you share with them. Someone you know needs this article. Share this with one more person. Don’t copy the text. Copy THE LINK or send the website address which is reikesis.com so that they too read the word of God FROM THE WEBSITE and access more. YOU CAN COMMENT on this article at the bottom of the article. Also remember this author has a YouTube channel @ReiKesis which has hundreds of videos for you! Thanks for your loyal support of this ministry!