RICHES AND SPIRITUALITY: A CALL TO FOCUS ON THE ETERNAL

Focus on the Eternal and Discover Lasting Joy Beyond Material Possessions

By Jun P. Espina | 07/18/2023 | 5 min read | Updated: 09/18/2025

Focus on the Eternal

If you are interested in yourself, it is strange that you are disinterested in the assurance of your destiny after this life. Why not focus also on the eternal? Steve Jobs discovered this on his deathbed. He reflected on how his millions couldn’t save him from the power of death. Alexander the Great also experienced spiritual emptiness at the end of his 32 years on earth. One of his orders for his own funeral was: “Keep my hands outside [the coffin] so that the world knows that the person who won the whole world had nothing in his hand while dying.”

Your Desire for Wealth is Not Wrong

Your desire to gain wealth is not biblically wrong. God wants us to live in a place “flowing with milk and honey.” The problem is “the love of money,” which is “a root of all sorts of evil” (1 Tim. 6:10).

Concerning the rich, the apostle Paul said, “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God… so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed” (1 Tim. 6:17a, 19b).

Prominent people such as Martha, Mary, Lazarus, Matthew, Zaccheus, and Luke were part of our Lord’s “circle,” if it is proper to use that term. Rich people like Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus buried Jesus. I became a Christian because of an American-funded preacher. Let’s not be hypocrites. The Lord’s work to save souls needs financial support from those believers who have resources.

But We Need to Focus on the Eternal—Our Life After Death

The issue is that our focus must be on our life after death, not on wealth accumulation. I remember a preacher who said that focus means that if you chase that red chicken, chase it until you have caught it. Paul said, “I focus on this one thing.” (Phil. 3:13, NLT)

I like this rendering of 1 John 5:20 by GW Translation: “We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we know the real God. We are in the one who is real, his Son Jesus Christ. This Jesus Christ is the real God and eternal life.” That is our focus: “Jesus Christ is the real God and eternal life.”

Focus on the Eternal, Not the Material

The advent of AI and the Internet as a whole has certainly stolen our focus away from what is eternal so that “we may take hold of that which is life indeed,” to borrow from Apostle Paul. I’ve been thinking a lot about how technology—especially AI and the Internet—has completely reshaped our attention. It’s like we’re constantly being pulled away from what really matters.

I have a grandson whom I have predicted to become my clan’s “intelligent man.” He started researching on the Internet at a very young age. But as online games have seized his attention, he rarely speaks about facts and figures he used to show off to the family now that he has advanced in age. From a high IQ to a reduced IQ (as a recent research study has found), he has deteriorated in real knowledge. He was addicted to excitement more than the things that can help improve his educational growth and maturity. Proverbs 23:23 says, “Buy truth, and do not sell it, Get wisdom, instruction, and understanding.” It is God’s blueprint on how to focus on what is lasting and eternal. Do not sell truth; don’t replace real knowledge with pointless gaming. Study the Bible, and let the Internet help you in understanding it.

Focus on Eternal Life

I met a highly successful but unbelieving person who could recount his success story for hours. But life seemed harsh toward him at 60. He lost everything, including his wife. As it was written, God said to the rich man, “You fool! This very night your soul is demanded of you; and as for all that you have prepared, who will own it now?” (Luke 12:20) It is how the accumulation of money and focus on material things become completely meaningless without God’s loving presence in our storms. You can be wealthy today, and that’s okay, but without faith in Christ’s atoning blood that cleanses away all our sins, that life of yours is just a breathing hollowness that the Scripture describes as “a way which seems right to a person, But its end is the way of death.” (Prov. 14:12)

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Focus on the Eternal and Discover Lasting Joy Beyond Material Possessions

If I were to give counsel to a confused (or anyone needing help!) person, I would say, “Focus on the eternal.” But how do we do it, you may ask? How do we emphasize what is unseen in the normal course of our daily existence in this world?

I read somewhere about taking a grain of natural salt with your water regularly to mineralize your body, and it is not difficult to do if you’re convinced that it may help maintain your health. In the same manner, the apostle Paul said, “We look … at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:18) Paul did not say that we should stop working or doing what we love to do and be a hermit or a monk instead. No. He did not say that. He just admonishes us to “look…at the things which are unseen.” In the Scriptures, we discover the word “look” or “looking” as equivalent to believing. (See Numbers 21:9.)

To focus on the eternal is to live by faith—on what is unseen! As Christ has well stated, “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” (John 20:29) In this journey of faith, it is essential to believe in Christ and trust in Him for your salvation. He offers hope, purpose, and eternal life to all who come to Him. Embrace this truth and allow His love to transform your life. Focus on your faith in Him, our Savior and Lord—forgiver of sins and giver of eternal life—if you are keen to discover joy beyond material possessions.

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