Photo Credit: Victor1558 via cc

I once asked one of the little kids at church to do me a favor. I just needed her to walk across the auditorium and tell someone not to leave before I had the chance to talk with him. I was tied up talking to someone else at the moment, but I really needed to talk to this other person as well. What happened next caught me off guard. She looked at me and asked, “What will you give me?” This little girl was willing to do whatever I asked as long as she got something in return.

Before Judas ever betrayed Jesus, he went to the chief priests and asked them, “What will you give me if I deliver him (Jesus) over to you?” (Matt. 26:15). Judas did not betray Jesus for no reason at all. He betrayed Jesus to get something in return.

It is easy for us to look at Judas and think, “What was he thinking? How could he betray his friend and Lord?” We are even so bold to think we would never do what Judas did; we would never betray Jesus for something like silver. However, I’m afraid we have more in common with Judas than we realize. While we might not betray Jesus for a certain sum of money, we betray Him in other ways.

Every day we wake up Satan comes after us with some type of sweet looking deal. He promises to give us happiness, fame, pleasure, riches, popularity or acceptance if we will just betray Jesus and bow down to the devil and his ways. Sadly, many of us do this without even realizing what we are doing. We give up a faithful and obedient relationship with Jesus just so we can enjoy whatever Satan and the world are offering us at that moment.

Friends, as we go throughout our daily lives, be careful about betraying Jesus for the mortal things around us. Let’s not stop and ask, “What will you give me?” because things of the world are never truly worth it in the end…just ask Judas.

Now that’s Something to Think About!