Some thoughts about money on Black Friday

Ah, money. Our old friend. I have been thinking a lot about this topic yet again. There is a lot going on in our lives. I have a new job that pays me substantially more than the prior one and we are trying to be very careful not to “spend up” to the new income level. We are also in the market for a new house, one to buy instead of rent which is a major decision and one that has stewardship implications. What is important in buying a home, is it convenience and aesthetics or is it the way a home can be used for ministry? A big master bedroom with a separate master bath and walk in closets might be great for me but a large, simple, open living room where we can have Christians and other people come into our home to minister to them is more important.

Money is one of those things that Christians, at least in America, are really squirrelly about. We can talk about some sins all day long, even our own sins like a bad temper, but when the topic is money we clam up. It is weird because the Bible has so much to say about money and the hold it has on people. It is oh so easy to rail against “gay marriage” but start asking Christians to examine not just their giving to the local church but also how they spend all of their money and you are going to get yourself in trouble. This is especially pronounced in America where we have taken the love of money to new extremes and the church has been playing right along.

Perhaps this is again one of those topics that are harder to talk about because it hits so close to home. There are not tons of homosexual couples in most evangelical churches. Speaking out against gay marriage is not going to get you glared at from the pews, it probably will get somber head nodding and perhaps an “Amen!” or two. Start questioning the way American Christians treat money and you might get an ugly look from the well to do Christian with a new Cadillac parked outside. It is just odd that we have such a phobia when it comes to speaking about money especially because the way we deal with money has far more impact on the witness of the church than dealing with “gay marriage”. Maybe we should talk about our money, our spending. Maybe we should... gulp ...confess our sin where this is concerned.

The way we deal (or don’t address) money damages the witness of the church. Even people who know very little about the Bible probably know that Jesus had a lot to say about caring for the poor and yet those who follow Him seem oblivious to this. Not that we don’t care for the poor but our actions sometimes seem counter-productive when it comes to pouring money into the maintenance of our local church and the lifestyles that Christians live. Let me say this bluntly: most American Christians treat money as something that is none of God's business and take affront at any suggestion that we are accountable to God for every single penny we spend, even on "necessities"

Yeah, I went there.

I will be open here. There are lots of things I spend my money on that I don’t need to. I need to change that. For example, we have a membership with Netflix. Granted we have the cheapest level, something like $9 per month for hours of mindless and unedifying entertainment, but it is flat out unnecessary and I am going to get rid of it. I already stopped playing an online game that I really enjoyed, it only cost $14.95 per month but it adds up and was a major time stealer. We have a ton of money sitting in narrow boxes holding shining silver discs, some with movies and some with video games. I am afraid to calculate it but I am sure it is in the thousands of dollars. No more of that. I have shelves full of books, many of which are great books and quite edifying. They also cost a lot of money (except the “free” and unread books I got at Together for the Gospel in 2008). Many Christians think nothing of spending untold sums of money on books because reading good Christian books is such a pious thing to do. It is great during a conversation to airily remark “I was just reading a book by Jeremiah Burroughs the other day”. Other Christians will be impressed by your piety and knowledge but the starving child or the single mother doesn't care how many times you can quote Calvin in a sentence.

It certainly is true that money, in and of itself, is not evil. It serves a purpose in the facilitating of commerce, the exchange of goods and services. We all spend money on things that are not strictly necessary but that is not of necessity an evil act. It also is also true that money is perhaps the most addictive substance in the world, one that seems to cloud minds in a far greater way than drugs or alcohol and is more addictive than pornography. Almost all societies love money for what it can buy and it is doubly bad in the west where we love money not just for what it can buy but in many ways simply for the sake of loving it.

We are every single bit as accountable to God for how we spend every penny of our money as we are about our sexual behavior, our prayer life, our participation in the Body of Christ and everything else we focus on in the church. If you don't believe me, be a Berean and search the Scriptures for what it has to say about money, greed, the love of money, class distinctions in the church, stewardship, etc. and then tell me that attendance at a religious ceremony on Sunday morning is fair game for rebuke but my personal spending habits are off limits. Saying “I don’t murder people on Sundays but the rest of the week is fair game” is inane but so is “I give X% of my money to the church but the rest of my money is my business”. I don’t see that there is a pot of money that is “my money” and a pot that is “God’s money” implied anywhere in Scripture but in spite of all of the rhetoric regarding “it’s all His money”, we function as if the Bride of Christ has a separate checkbook from the Bridegroom. I think it is healthy that we examine on a regular basis our spending habits and our view of money and I think we need to be accountable to God and to one another for how we treat money because it frankly is an important Scriptural doctrine and the way we treat money has a major impact on the witness of the Church to the lost in the world.

One can be content in Christ but one can never be content in money.