“Ill-gotten treasures have no lasting value, but righteousness delivers from death.”

R. Allen Stanford, Enron, Rita Crundwell, the 2011 Bank of Iran case, WorldCom—you might not know what all these have in common, but when I add Bernie Madoff to the list, I’m willing to guess most of us have a pretty good idea. Ok, Enron might have given it away too. These have been identified as some of the largest cases of embezzlement in recorded history. Stanford is currently serving a 110-year prison sentence. Rita went to jail and has to pay millions in restitution and fines. Neither Enron nor WorldCom exist today. You can imagine what happened to those involved in the Iranian bank embezzlement. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison and died there 12 years later. These are extreme examples. I was made aware the other day of a leader of a ministry who gives out their own Venmo account for people to make donations. Ill-gotten treasure isn’t just found in big cases like the ones I listed; it includes anyone who takes anything that’s not theirs—and it’s not always monetary. It can be stealing ideas and taking credit. It can be misrepresenting others in the workplace. It can be anything that we perceive as bringing value to our life while diminishing the value of someone else’s. When Solomon talks about righteousness, we can understand that as the righteousness God bestows on us through His Son’s sacrifice. That is the ultimate deliverance from death—eternal life. Today, leave others’ treasure to them and live rightly for God. #BeTheEdge

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” James 4:1 NIV