Value is the regard, the quality, the importance, the worth, the usefulness or the price of something or someone.

Value indicates and reveals the kind and the level of regard we have for something.

Everything, every object, every entity has some level of value or worth attached to it. One of the most accurate means to determine the value of something is by its price. Price simply means: -The cost at which something is obtained, or -The quantity of one thing that is exchanged, or demanded for another, or -That which must be done, or must be given in order to obtain or acquire a thing.

The price paid for an object or an entity establishes its value. The price or cost of something, or someone, is a clear indication of the value and worth of that thing, or that person. The price of an object, or an entity, is the total calculation of all the factors and resources that go into the production and manufacture of the object or entity. Everything that it takes to present a product as complete is the cost of that product. The cost or price of a product is the value of the product.

Money and value –
Money was created and introduced when trade by barter began to prove cumbersome and restricting, and also when it became difficult to satisfy value for value in the exchange of goods and services. Money was thus created to function as a more effective measure of value, for goods and services.

Every product manufactured has a price. Every product costs something to put together. All the factors responsible to make a product ready for use, are considered as the cost of production of that product. Everything that it takes to make a product complete is – the cost of that product.

The price or cost of the production or the manufacture of a product is – the value of that product. When a product is purchased it has a price. The price is the value of the product – expressed in terms of money.

Money was created to act as a “measure of value” – for goods and services. Money expresses the value of material things. Money expresses the value of goods and services. Money functions as one of the best store of value for material things, even though it is subject to fluctuations in value from time to time.

Man and Money –
Man’s relationship with money started out with the aim of “ease of trade”. Man used money as a portable, durable, acceptable, and liquid medium of purchase, for the things that he believed he needed, but he could not produce on his own. He employed money to store value; to exchange, and to account for his goods. Man’s relationship with money started out as practical, and remained so for as long as his needs were basic and functional. As man’s needs moved farther from basic and functional, to cosmetic, luxurious and ostentatious; his relationship with money became increasingly dysfunctional. The employee gradually evolved to become the employer.

Jesus and Money –
Luke 16: 13-18 – Imagine you’re a servant and you have two masters giving you orders. What are you going to do when they have conflicting demands? You can’t serve both, so you’ll either hate the first and love the second, or you’ll faithfully serve the first and despise the second. One master is God and the other is money. You can’t serve them both. You can’t work for God and work for money.

14 The Pharisees overheard all this, and they started mocking Jesus because they really loved money.

Jesus (to the Pharisees): 15 You’ve made your choice. Your ambition is to look good in front of other people, not God. But God sees through to your hearts. He values things differently from the way you do. The goals you and your peers are reaching for God detests.

16 The law and the prophets had their role until the coming of John the Baptist. Since John’s arrival, the good news of the kingdom of God has been taught while people are clamouring to enter it. 17 That’s not to say that God’s rules for living are useless. The stars in the sky and the earth beneath your feet will pass away before one letter of God’s rules for living become worthless.

Man and Value –
Every person wants to be seen as a person of great value and worth. Man has been trying forever to find, and fix his value, and his worth, on the highest level possible. Man has been using different scales and various standards of measure to evaluate himself, so as to elevate himself in the eyes of the world, even to the loftiest heights ever.

God put the price tag on you.

Who, or what determines the total calculation of all that it took to present the complete entity called MAN? Who can determine the worth of the creation that was made in the image and likeness of The Almighty God? What parameters or standards would one use to evaluate the value of a human being? How upright, how unbiased, how unprejudiced would such parameters be? What authority does anyone have to evaluate the worth of himself, or of another?

The word ‘authority’ is derived from two words- ‘author’ and ‘ity’. Author means – originator or creator. ‘ity’ is a suffix that simply indicates a ‘state’, ( in this case) the state of being a creator.

“Author” + “ity” = ‘author’ity’. Authority meaning therefore – “the state of being a creator”.

God Almighty is “The Creator”.
“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” -Gen1:27.

GOD is the AUTHORITY on the life of man. He is the CREATOR and the ORIGINATOR of man. He is the one who can adequately and successfully evaluate the value and the worth of man.

In God’s word, Genesis 1:26-28 says you are made in the image and likeness of the greatest entity ever… God.

Genesis1:31 states that God looked at everything He made and as high as His standards must be, He commented on how good His creation was, and that is talking about you.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says you are beautiful through and through; a finished product of originality and uniqueness; You cannot be undone.

Zechariah 2:8 tells about you being the apple of God’s eye, and Isaiah 43:4 clearly says you are precious to God Almighty, and honourable and He loves you with a passion.

You mean more to God than every resource, every gem put together in the whole world. You are the worthiest and the most valuable of all His creation. Even the angels in heaven are made lower than you- Psalm 8. Jehovah the Living God calls you a King- Revelation1:6.

You are so valuable to the Lord and Master of all creation that He paid a huge price for you. As far back as when you did not even exist on the earth, when you were nothing to yourself and a non-entity to the whole world, He recognised you and placed a huge value on you – He gave up His Son to die for you. He sacrificed His only son for you, so as to release you from rottenness and condemnation; to establish excellence in you and to preserve your value in Him.

God put a price tag on you. The price tag on you is THE BLOOD OF JESUS – THE VERY LIFE OF THE ONE TRUE LIVING GOD. The price tag on Man is Jesus Christ the Living God. You were bought with a very high price. (Proverbs 31:10).

1Peter 1:18&19-“knowing, as you do, that it was not with a ransom of perishable wealth, such as silver or gold, that you were set free from your frivolous habits of life which had been handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ—as of an unblemished and spotless lamb.”
(ii)”You know that a price was paid to redeem you from following the empty ways handed on to you by your ancestors; it was not paid with things that perish (like silver and gold), but with the costly precious blood of the Anointed one – Jesus, that perfect and unblemished sacrificial lamb.”

How do you see you?
Your value is not based on material things that can perish. Your worth can never be determined by money, or houses, or garments, or any material acquisition or achievements. Money fails, houses burn down, garments wear out. The worth of a man can never be measured by things that can turn to nothing in an instant. Your value and worth in life is not determined by money or material things.

Luke 12:15-“And Jesus went on to say to them all, “Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because a person’s life is not about having a lot of possessions, no matter how rich you may be.”

Man was not designed to be evaluated by money. Money does not possess the power nor the capacity to determine the value or worth of man.

Money and riches can never increase you as a person, it can increase your bank balance but not your person. Material wealth can never fill the void inside a person.

Ecclesiastes 5:10- If you love money, you will never be satisfied; if you long to be rich, you will never get all you want. It is useless.”
(ii)”Whoever loves money will never have enough money. Whoever loves luxury will not be content with abundance. This also is pointless.”

Money is limited.
Money acts as a measure of value for “things”. Money is a measure of value for “goods”. Money purchases goods and services. Money’s capacity is limited, it can only purchase material things. Material things are coverings, they are drapes. They don’t wash away filth, or pain, or shame, or dissatisfaction or curses. Money cannot take away an inferiority complex or feelings of extreme inadequacy. Money can not give life. Abundance of money, affluence and riches can get a Godless man expensive clothing, big houses, fancy cars, accolades, medals and degrees, smooth skin and high seats in society, yet it will still be obvious to all that he is a complete non-entity. Nabal was such a one.

“There was a certain man in Maon who carried on his business in the region of Carmel. He was very prosperous—three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and it was sheep-shearing time in Carmel. The man’s name was Nabal (Fool), a Calebite, and his wife’s name was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and good-looking, the man brutish and mean”. – 1 Samuel 25: 2&3

His riches could not make him a person of value. Money is not a measure of value for man.

Money cannot add value to a person, nor can it determine the worth of a person; only God can. God is the measure of value for man. The blood of Jesus is the measure of value for man. The Life of God is the measure of value for you and I. When God purchased man at an invaluable price, it revealed God’s personal opinion regarding the value of what He purchased. By the price that God paid for you, He openly established your worth – priceless. That purchase was the beginning of an awesome work of validation in you. The more you open up to accept all that Jesus has done in you, and begin to see yourself as God sees you, the more your value manifests to you and to your world.

All that it takes to put a product together and make it complete is calculated to get the price of that product. You do not come cheap.

In the beginning, (Genesis 1:26) God brought you forth into existence as “His own kind”. Even when the enemy stole you away and drained you out; It took the Life of God to Redeem you and present you as complete. That is some heavy price. When Jesus closed that deal, He exclaimed, “It is finished!” Nothing more to add. Money can not add to what the Life of God has completed. You do not need money or material things to validate what God has proclaimed as complete. (Colossians 2:10)

Money does not have the power nor the capacity to determine or define your value or your worth.

It is an attack on the integrity of the finished work of Christ Jesus, for you or for anyone, to evaluate your life or the life of another human, based on human achievement and accomplishment, or on the amount of money, or of material wealth that the person possesses or does not possess. Luke 5:10-“Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”

We place too much emphasis on the material. We cut God out of the picture when we are so preoccupied with physical and material things. We live and walk in error, when we leave divinity out of humanity. When we lose focus on God and who He is, we become confused about who we are and why we are here on earth. The emptiness created from loss of focus on God is usually quite deep. The emptiness brings a sense of deprivation, a lack of content and purpose. It is a gnawing void that creates a rabid passion for material supremacy and material glory. We centre our entire existence on acquisition of material wealth and it’s attendant affluence, for we believe only then can our lives amount to much in the eyes of the world.

As humans, our systems of value can at best only be partial, broken and hold to a subjective when it is based on our background, our exposure, or our experience.

The socio-economic difficulties of our background and our environment should not permeate our psyche to the extent that it blocks us out of the truth of God.

Jesus spoke to the Pharisees regarding their love for money and their insatiable hunger for material wealth. He told them plainly that His measure of value was different from theirs.

We place value on things which serve our purposes or give us pleasure, but to agree with God is to value that which serves God’s purposes and gives God pleasure. It brings us into a completely different system of determining value.

In Conclusion – Your value and your worth is in the truth of God. The standard of determining value belongs to God. God alone sees the complete picture from the beginning to the end. He knows the times and seasons of all men; how we all start off and how we end. He alone can determine the accurate and absolute worth of an entity. When we agree with God’s standards and measures, we leave the temporal, myopic and biased realm and enter into the supernatural, the accurate and the true full picture.

You are worth much more than all the money, all the riches, all the wealth in creation. Your value is God.

“For God so dearly loved and prized us all that He gave His only Son so that all who believe in Him will not be lost, they will not be destroyed, they will not be insignificant, nor inconsequential, but they will become whole and have meaningful, boundless and everlasting life.”
– John 3:16

KJO.