Is simplicity Godly? How do we do it?
Seems like last week's topic hit a bit of a nerve. Good -- that's exactly the kind of dialogue we're hoping to see. We need these diverse perspectives to challenge and refine our collective search for truth. If you haven't read the comments from last week, take a minute to do so. There are some interesting perspectives on all sides of the discussion about consumerism. Because it seems to be a bit of a raw topic, we hope to dedicate at least a few more weeks to the issues related to our role as consumers.
Last week we touched on questions of affecting change, personal money management, and obedience but those are topics for other weeks. I hope we can focus strictly on one side of this discussion this week: simplicity.
In the context of Godly behavior, there seem to be two antonyms of simplicity: accumulation and extravagance:
Last week we touched on questions of affecting change, personal money management, and obedience but those are topics for other weeks. I hope we can focus strictly on one side of this discussion this week: simplicity.
In the context of Godly behavior, there seem to be two antonyms of simplicity: accumulation and extravagance:
- Accumulation -- Exodus 16 records the amazing story of God providing manna (bread) from heaven. There are so many elements of this story that reveal pieces of God's character, but a particularly compelling lesson resides in the condition that if anyone gathered more than one day's worth of bread, it would spoil (v. 19-21). God specifically said He was testing their obedience (v. 4). It was a system by which God required the Israelites to trust Him daily for provision. Each day, every family had more than enough, but God destroyed the excess. Each day was a new test of trust. Our pastor said recently he hoped we would be a people who didn't have storage units; that we wouldn't have so much crap (that we don't even use) that we can't even fit it in our house and garage so we pay to store it somewhere else.
- Extravagance -- Tonight, I went to dinner with some people from work. When I arrived, they were discussing the home theaters in their houses and debated the merits of a $3000 HD projector versus a mere 60" plasma TV. I sat there thinking about what I could say but just about everything that came to mind was arrogant and judgmental, so I kept my mouth shut and came home frustrated. My silence indicated my approval at worst and my indifference at best to extravagant self-centered consumption. I shared my frustration with The Dude and he suggested that I could have countered with a statement as simple as, "Isn't the abundance we enjoy in America amazing?" Maybe that leads to conversation about the distribution of wealth across the world. Maybe that leads nowhere. But it's better than silence, right?
So my questions this week are these:
1) Do you accumulate excess at the expense of trusting God's provision?
2) What luxuries do you own that would make you ashamed if a poor villager from Africa came to your house?
3) What can we do today, in our current situations, about accumulation and extravagance? Is it just modeling it ourselves? What steps will you take? Is it speaking out in the name of simplicity? How can we actually do that in a way that is both effective and filled with grace and truth?
posted by Matthew at 11:40 PM
9 Comments:
This is Robby Grabow ...
One thing to take into account when attempting to discern when abundance is too extravagant is to view the possessions of the patriarchs of God's chosen people, Israel. I will let you all check up on the possessions of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, and David and see that they had at least the equivalent to Matt's discussion of flat screen or projector HD TV's and these were men of extreme righteousness (at least for the bulk of their lives). Thus, having more possessions than one could ever use in one lifetime is not a prima facie that the practice is ungodly.
But, on the other hand, John the Baptist, Jesus and the disciples, and the widow who gave all she had probably died with hardly a penny to spare. My point is that this is a an extremely difficult topic and we need to avoid simply stating that living below are means is a prerequisite to godliness. Just wanted to get us started in the discussion.
Robby,
I'm not so sure that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, and David had "at least the equivalent" of the things Matt is referring to. I see what you are trying to say, that they had wealth, but you have to put their wealth and ours in context. Culturally speaking, it is just not the same thing at all.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Bible is not necessarily endorsing the lives of its characters. Just because it describes their lives does not always mean it approves of them. That is where are discernment comes in. Polygamy, slavery, and even wealth can be shown to be 'OK' in the Old Testament(if you were to take some liberty with the broader text). Today, for at least 2 of these, we would rightly say that they go against the Judeo-Chrsitian ethic. But what of extreme personal wealth? What of using that wealth to purchase a really nice TV while people in our own community have no food, clothes, or other basic neccessities? What would a biblical attitude towards this be taking into account creation, covenant, Jubilee, wisdom literature, the prophetic books (which have a shitload to say on this very topic), and all of the New Testament?
Be careful to make direct connections from the times when scripture is describing to our current situation without going through the hard work of taking all of scripture into account. Which means (as you rightly noted) we must take seriously the words and life of Jesus while reading the Old Testament.
The same can be said of war and nonviolence. The bible should not be a tool for justifying a certain lifestyle.
I'll also jump in on this -- Robby, I think you picked some interesting examples. I'd also add Solomon to that list. Talk about excess...and God obviously had favor on him (at first). But consider these examples from those men's lives:
- Abraham: God promised him great blessing and then Abraham left his family and his home (Genesis 12:1-3) and finally had Isaac 25 years after that first promise (21:5). He then obeyed when God asked him to sacrifice this son he so desparately wanted (22). I'm not sure Abraham would consider homeless and childless at the age of 100 wealthy. But Abraham did receive God's blessing (the sparing of his son and the resulting lineage, not great wealth) after proving his willingness to sacrifice everything.
- Jacob: Greed drove him to extort his brother (Genesis 25:29-34) and deceive his father (27).
- David: Instead of going to fight with his army, David stayed in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 11:1), slept in, and walked around on the roof of the palace to admire "his" kingdom (11:2). And he decided while he was up there he needed more: Bathsheba.
- Solomon: just about all of Ecclesiastes and 1 Kings 4-11 talk about his ridiculous wealth, but I think there are two important things to draw from his life for this discussion: 1) God gave him excessive wealth to teach us of its dangers (go here to listen to the first of a great series of sermons on Ecclesiastes), and 2) excess ended up driving him away from God (1 Kings 11).
- Job: he didn't seek to accumulate or to be extravagant. He praised God when his friends told him God caused him to lose everything. And in Job 31 he says lots of cool stuff like: "If I have made gold my trust or called fine gold my confidence, if I have rejoiced because my wealth was abundant...this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I would have been false to God above" (31:24-28).
I don't think these guys (except maybe David and Solomon) had the Old Testament version of HD. The guys that did have lots of stuff were driven to sin by it. The other guys suffered God-ordained poverty. I think your point was that wealth isn't necessarily bad -- these texts never condemn wealth itself. But they warn that the temptations of wealth and power often end badly. "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life" (Mark 8:36).
Robby again ... the Dude ... as far as taking wealth into context discussion ... that only goes so far. Eventually great wealth is great wealth no matter what day or age. That was my point by stating the equivalent of HD TV's. (Take Job 42:12 4,000 sheep 6,000 camels 1,000 oxen and 1,000 donkeys ... Anytime the bible bothers to list possessions it does so to delineate from common accumulation ... i.e. the listing of the artifacts in the temple). By the way Job's great wealth never led him astray, neither before the tragedies beset upon him allowed directly by God or after when God blessed him "beyond any measure he had acquired previously".
I don't know that you want to really try to explain away the wealth these guys had through culture because that argument won't go very far. The way that you determined a man's standing was not through large homes, it was through your livestock, wives and concubines, and children. It's not too far of a stretch to see that we do very similar things to determine prestige in our time; it's just that the methods of keeping score have been altered to size of homes, brand of cars, etc.
My point simply was that while it's beyond obvious that "it's harder for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle" it's way too intellectually dishonest to draw an inference that we should all live in 2 bedroom houses, drive cars from 1992 and eat leftovers every other meal. I'm simply saying the topic is loaded because any amount of accumulation I have is going to be beyond extravagant compared to folks in the 3rd world so I was attempting to drive at the issue of the heart before we stated unequivocally that wealth is ungodly. Wealth obviously brings with it amazing responsibilities and chances to sin evidenced by Chirst discussing it more than any other topic and how it contributed to destroying the purity of a "man after God's own heart" in David, but let's not make the leap without more deliberation that wealth means that your heart is straying from your first love of Christ.
I won't have time to respond completely to this due to finals coming up and papers that need to be written. But i will say one thing and perhaps we can continue this conversation in a week or so.
In your own words: any amount of accumulation I have is going to be beyond extravagant compared to folks in the 3rd world.
How do you feel about that? How do your Christian brothers and sisters in the 3rd world feel about that? How do your Christians brothers and sisters 2 miles away from you on the street feel about that?
Simplicity, not poverty or asceticism. No one has advocated that we should only drive cars from 1992 (a luxury in most countries), eat leftovers for every meal (some could only be so lucky), and live in 2-bedroom houses (any house in general would be a blessing to many in the world), those were all your ideas. The conversation should be about simplicity and we should probably turn our attention away from the pros/cons, righteousness/sinfulness of wealth and figure out how to hold in tension our great wealth and luxury with the great poverty and need in the world.
Hey guys...it is Shaddix.
I am glad to see us challenging each other because I think honest and open dialogue helps us all get closer to the truth.
On the subject of simplicity, I would like to offer a slightly different view point. When we think about wealth and material posssessions, we have all been blessed.
I belive part of authentic simplicity is our ability to live a life in which our ultimate trust is in Jesus Christ, not the "stuff" we accumulate around us. I don't think there is a silver bullet for this one (to borrow a consulting term). Second, a practical first step in my life would be to be much more deliberate and prayerful about how I use the financial resources God has blessed me with. Do our purchases glorify God? How much of the money we spend is on stuff we "want" vs. "need"?
I feel strongly that being a good steward of God's resources is central to the life of Christ follower. For most of us we have been out of school 3-4 years now and are beginning to fully appreciate the challenges of stewardship.
That is all for now, hope you guys are doing well.
Great comments Shaddix.
This is a topic I really wanted to spend some thought on and post a comment. I think Shaddix really brought up a good point on putting our hope and trust in Christ as opposed to our wealth or possessions.
This is a big problem that I struggle with and I will admit it openly. I don't feel that I have a desire to own nice things but more of a need to be comfortable. This ties in to a topic we discussed several weeks ago on one's calling and putting your trust in God to provide in your job and life.
I know that I need to continue to make a conscious effort to put trust in God that He will be the provider He promises to be. I struggle with the unknown and worry about providing for my family. I think a lot of people get "trapped" in this mentality and wind up in situations where they have lost all faith in God as a provider so that they can be in control of thier financial destiny.
I think the first step towards making a thoughtful effort to a life of simplicity is realizing that it is feasible with an honest faith in Christ as a provider. From there, a little devotion and prayerful consideration of life decisions will lay the foundation for this idea of simlicity we are searching for.
I think there have been many great points brought up. I feel that we could debate these points back and fourth until kingdom come, but I do want to pop in and just say a couple of quick things. 1 Samuel 16:7 says ".....man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." This seems to speak to me and say, don't worry if you have an abbundance or a little, the only true thing that matters is how we are convicted in our hearts. For one brother in Christ, his faith allows him to drive the BMW and for another brother, a 1992 piece of junk. Point is either way is fine if your heart is right with God. We all come from a different backgrounds so wealth is all realative, we shouldn't compare apples to oranges. My point I am trying to make is, we need to use what we have, a lot or a little, to help others and not abuse the privlages God has given us. I think JB and Shaddix hit it on the head, we need to put our trust in the Lord to provide, and if we have more than others, it is our duty to help them out.
anonymous...
I hear so often that "the only true thing that matters is how we are convicted in our hearts. For one brother in Christ, his faith allows him to drive the BMW and for another brother, a 1992 piece of junk. Point is either way is fine if your heart is right with God." Fine. But your comment at the end seems to contradict this, or at least fails to take this conversation to the lenghts we want to take it, "we need to put our trust in the Lord to provide, and if we have more than others, it is our duty to help them out." If we have more than others before or after we purchase that BMW?
One of the main questions of this post is: are you truly 'helping your brother out' if you drop X amount of money on a (seemingly) selfish purchase like a luxury automobile? Would not the way we spend our money display where our hearts are? The prophets also knew the book of Samuel, yet they often call out the Israelites for their lavish lifestyles while the poor suffer.
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