Luxury, part two

In Luxury, part one, yesterday’s post, I talked about a general worldview for how a compassionate Christian in a rich culture can live at peace with God and his money. The conclusion of that post was that I am a selfish person, in my opinion, if more of my income goes towards luxuries than it does toward giving generously to those who need it.

I ending that post without completing my thought and really fleshing it out. I will now try and go into detail about some of the potential questions that are bound to arise.

Question #1 - What exactly is a luxury, then? - I would call a luxury anything that goes well beyond the necessities of life (food, water, shelter, love) and also brings no benefit to anyone outside of my self or my family, excluding times of celebration.

An important note is needed here: money spent that serves as a means to an end to fulfilling a calling of God or any God-ordained activity, such as work, travel, being in community with other believers, encouragement, worship, prayer - this is not luxury. It’s when something doesn’t fall under these lines or excessively does so, that’s a luxury.

Remember. Luxuries are not in themselves bad!!!!!1 It’s when we get a perspective that they are what we should spend the vast majority of our money on, that’s what I take issue with.

Question #2 - What about people who give more than they spend on luxuries, but have a heart of ice and hate who they give to? - Eeek. I’d say those people would have missed the point, and found themselves in a place no better or worse than someone who has a inward detachment to their possessions and money, but is not generous with how he spends it whatsoever (if that paradox is even possible.)

Of course, a person who has a seething and hateful heart, a greedy heart, who gives sacrificially is not living where God would have them live. They are going to be miserable. But I think this question gets at a root problem I anticipate people will have with my approach. Put simply, that this approach is far too legalistic and doesn’t allow for any breathing room, or freedom. It’s too formulatic, it chokes the soul, and will only lead to fear and a heavy burden.

To that I would say… what the church preaches on money is far too on the freedom side, leaving no form of responsibility. We don’t ask, we don’t tell, no one knows, and eventually, no one cares. I mean, look at sexual temptation as a comparison here. The church widely holds that freedom is the path to overcoming sexual temptation, let’s say for example in the context of temptation to have an affair while in a married relationship. It’s fairly well understood that rules, no matter how tight or strong, won’t have what it takes to prevent falling into sin given certain sets of circumstances.

And nevertheless, rules exist. Lots of rules, many which are intuitive, many which aren’t so much. For example:

- Never put yourself into a situation you can avoid where temptation, though it may not exist now, can snowball/flourish.
- Don’t share a meal with a member of the opposite sex alone.
- Flee from sexual temptation at the first hint of it, even by distraction or other means.

No one calls these rules legalistic. They call them wisdom. I’m just asking why there can’t be some spiritual rules about money that may not be true 100% of the time to 100% of the people, but at least true to most of the people who have much, most of the time.

Questions #3 and 4 - What about if God tells me not to give anything away, does that mean you or God is wrong? AND How does the prompting of the Holy Spirit fit into all this? - Again, not trying to make some new spiritual reality. What I’ve discussed seems to jive with how reality should be if we want to be compassionate and generous Christians in a messed up world. If it doesn’t work for you, or even more strongly, God tells you otherwise, feel free to disregard anything I’m sayin.

Tomorrow, I’m gonna try and make this practical, and look at how this could actually look in real life livin’.

FL: Toilets/Urinals that stay clean - incredibly awesome, one of the funnier FL’s I’ve seen in a few weeks.