This will be part one of the series I mentioned in my post on Bill Muehlenberg's look at materialism in the church.
Casting our eyes back to to the sagely words of 1 Timothy 6, that tell us godliness is not a means of gain, but rather godliness with contentment is great gain, it is disturbing to note the trend of materialism amongst Christians today.
The real issue I am tackling here is that the church, in the West at least, has stopped short of drawing any line between Christian and pagan attitudes towards money, material gain and modern luxuries.
Since we are talking about Christian versus pagan attitudes it is worth calling to remembrance that worshipping God in a correct manner (as we define godliness in one sense) is largely dependant upon our attitude toward Him.
Simply speaking, should pastors be encouraging their congregants to "get ahead in life" or exhorting worldly material ambitions within those in their care?
It appears to me that the Bible does speak very clearly about God's desire for financial management in a range of situations. For instance, off the top of my head I know the Word forbade Israelites to lend money for interest (usury) and that it is probably not very godly to charge interest from fellow believers in light of other passages. We also see forgiveness of debt in the theme of the jubilee year and that Jesus told us, "Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away" (Matthew 5:42 NKJV).
This last concept would, I would suggest, be discouraged by many churches today. I myself am guilty of being asked for a loan of some money and hesitating because I questioned the wisdom of doing so, but when the person offered to pay interest I quickly declared I could not lend for profit to a Christian! The issue here I think is that we often expect people to take advantage of our kindness in the future if we are generous in the present.
I suppose a bit more faith in God would go a long way in this area. And in regard to material wealth in general, a lot more faith is needed.
The aim of this series is more or less to look at where the culture of the church and the culture of the world need to take different paths for the sake of godliness. In the case of materialism there is a huge chasm that needs to be created rather than crossed.
Our goal should be to identify how our attitude towards money/possessions affects our relationship with God and how we can subject our lives to His Word in this area. We must learn how to be content with food and clothing and give thanks to God for making simple provision to us.
And what better time to resolve this material dilemma affecting Christian culture than Christmas?
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