What would you do with all the money if you were on a salary of £300,000? No not £300,000 a year, but that much every week! That equals almost £30 a minute, every minute, whether you are working or not, indeed even when you are asleep. That was a question posed by some of the newspapers a week or so ago.
Gareth Bale, a footballer originally from South Wales, had been transferred to a team in Spain for £85 million, and as well as getting a cut of that fee, those are reported to be his wages. Reaction ranged from anger - that someone could be paid such wages for doing something so ultimately unimportant - to a more relaxed ‘good for him’ response. Either way, it’s difficult to work out how you could ever spend that much money every week.
Is a footballer worth so much money? Is anybody? How can you judge the value of someone’s contribution to society? Asking those questions gets us into difficult territory. Though the Bible, our final authority on all questions of life, because it is God’s Word, doesn’t answer a question like that, it does have much to say on the subject of wages. It was the first book ever to establish the right of a worker to a fair wage. Way back in the Old Testament the truth that a worker is worthy of his hire was established and legislation in Old Testament Israel was framed to ensure the worker was never exploited, and always received his wage at the end of the day. The Bible also has much to say about money, and especially riches. Though money itself is not sinful, or being rich, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and riches are a snare which ultimately can cost us eternity if we are not careful.
Though the word ‘wages’ is used rarely in the New Testament, it is used in one of its most famous verses. The Apostle Paul once wrote “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Gareth Bale will no doubt say that he receives those wages because he deserves them. They are not a gift but what he has earned. The Bible tells us that because we sin – say, think and do things that are contrary to God and His holiness – we are due the consequences. That is why ultimately we all must die. But the good news of the Gospel is that we can escape what we do deserve and instead have what we don’t. Instead of wages, what is rightfully ours, we can receive a gift from God. That is eternal life, a life which has a unique fullness here on earth, and continues for ever in God’s presence in Heaven. None of us can earn that because of our sin. But through Jesus Christ, and only through Him, we can receive this wonderful present.
One day Gareth Bale’s footballing days will be over, and with it his ability to earn such sums. However much we earn on earth, or however much we can build up in our bank accounts, one day we must leave it all behind too. But if we are trusting in Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross, our treasure will not be what we leave behind at death, but what we go to!
