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If we allow them to have so much importance, they will choke out spiritual growth and progress so that we cannot fully appreciate what God has for us in the Kingdom. Likewise, we are not supposed to worry about money and whether or not God will supply us with the things we need. Jesus said, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." In other words when we focus on living the life God wants us to live and treat others as He wants us to treat them -- with honesty, fairness, justice, love, forgiveness, etc. -- God supplies our needs. Jesus tells us to concentrate on the Kingdom.
That doesn't mean we should be lazy, but we are not supposed to concentrate on accumulating a lot of personal wealth either. If we do have wealth, we are supposed to share it with others less fortunate. If your heart is in the Kingdom, money won't attract you that much anyway. If you are rich and do not share, you are not expressing God's love in your daily life and are showing that you are far from the spirituality that should be your goal. ("He who lays up treasure for himself...is not rich...
God has forgiven us, so we are to forgive our neighbor and our enemies. God is merciful and we are to be merciful. God liberated us by bringing us out of slavery in Egypt, and we are to liberate those who are indebted to us or enslaved by the social system. He was friends with sinners and showed them love and compassion. We should do the same in our daily lives.
For me, this raises the issue of crime in our modern society. How can we show compassion for child molesters, for example? Does God's love extend to drug dealers? I suppose that it does, since he loves all. But how can we as fellow human beings show love for people that do terrible things and are a danger to society? Another issue is what our country does -- when we give from our treasury to third world countries, is that enough, or should we be doing something else to help the people in the world that have so much less than we do?
References
Kraybill, D.B. (1990). The upside-down kingdom. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
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