The Lure of Luxury — Andrew Forrest

REVELATION 18:4-8

4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,
“Come out of her, my people,
lest you take part in her sins,
lest you share in her plagues;
5 for her sins are heaped high as heaven,
and God has remembered her iniquities.
6 Pay her back as she herself has paid back others,
and repay her double for her deeds;
mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.
7 As she glorified herself and lived in luxury,
so give her a like measure of torment and mourning,
since in her heart she says,
‘I sit as a queen,
I am no widow,
and mourning I shall never see.’
8 For this reason her plagues will come in a single day,
death and mourning and famine,
and she will be burned up with fire;
for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.”

In Chapter 3, Jesus warns the church in Sardis not to be self-satisfied or corrupted by wealth. Here we see that one of the ways that the woman (i.e., Rome) maintained power was through the corrupting influence of luxury and wealth.

Remember the warning of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel: “where your treasure is, there your heart will be.” [Matthew 6:21]

In what way do you and I need to repent from loving luxury and wealth more than God today?