We’re looking this week at how our views of money change as followers of Jesus. Here are the words of Paul, one of the first Christian leaders, to his protégé, Timothy.
But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1 Timothy 6:17-19 ESV)
A Christian author, NT Wright note that we give lip service to the maxim that “money can’t buy happiness” and then give life-service to the opposite.
We don’t need to prove it, we’ve all seen this kind of thing.
One example, when someone is quite wealthy, they might buy more homes. But since they can’t be everywhere at once, they need to get security systems or guards, repair people, landscapers and more.
With more wealth comes the need for lawyers, accountants, investment advisors, and all the work and stress of coordinating them properly.
A friend owns a home by the lake, which is beautiful. But the amazing view comes at a cost, as they are constantly replacing shingles after every windstorm.
Another example: Justin Bieber’s incredible success and wealth may also be his downfall. He is able to try and buy happiness in cars, drugs, and surround himself with friends so dazzled by it all that they won’t try to stop him. But we’ve seen recently, that it’s not working. His wealth has turned into a trap, a snare.
Is Paul saying money is bad? Or houses by the lake, or pop music? No, but money is also not good, or happiness, in and of itself.
This is why Paul says carefully, the love of money is the root of many evils.
Money isn’t the good to be loved. It represents the good, it’s just a piece of paper, metal or computer data used to exchange for actual goods and services. The further our modern currency gets from the actual goods it was meant to represent, the closer it gets to an idol for worship in and of itself. Money is a stand-in for actual goods, and becoming less and less grounded in reality since treasuries no longer actually have to have gold on hand for every dollar they print.
What are idols? They were things like statues worshipped for rain, sun, fertitility, whatever people wanted to control. They stand in for a real relationship with God who can’t be controlled. They allow us to become ungrounded from reality, since we elevate ourselves to the status of controlling nature through our gods.
If we pursue money alone, we are pursuing something at the whim of the markets that is ultimately meaningless. We can see this as the Canadian dollar recently plugned below 90 cents US. Manufacturers who signed contracts at $1.00, bought supplies at $0.95 and got paid at $0.90 have all seen just how subjective money can be when it’s unhinged from the actual goods it is meant to represent.
The risk is that we’ll pursue this kind of thing in life, and worship things in our lives whose value is constantly in flux, hardly eternal. They may not be little statues anymore, but idols are very much objects of worship today.
That’s why Paul states the obvious truth: we brought nothing into this world, we cannot take anything out. Despite that, we regularly treat money, possessions in life as if they are permanent and of eternal value.
Question: When have you seen someone’s love for money lead to evil?
Read the Bible in Sync Today
Loading Content...
Share a Link to this Message
The link has been copied to your clipboard; paste it anywhere you would like to share it.
Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, your host for the daily challenges. Normally, we follow a weekly rhythm that helps us explore a different topic, and how following Jesus impacts that topic. This week’s going to be a little different. We’re going to be taking an opportunity to just see where we are as a community. Now, you probably know us as a mobile app and website for busy commuters, but we’re also trying to become a church community. As we explore what it means to follow Jesus as individual people engaged in a busy lifestyle, we want to make sure that we’re not completely disconnected from one another, and that even though we’re usually quite scattered as a community, we want to take time to gather as well.
As a gathered community, we want to make sure that we are committed to some of the same things in common. That’s why through this week, this week alone, it’s going to be kind of a special week. We’re going to be looking at each of the things our community is committed to one by one, and see how we’re doing as a community, by hearing the stories of individuals who are a part of our growing online community or our in-person courses who are seeing their lives changed. We hope that will inspire you to see some transformation in your own life as well.
Now, the five things that we’re committed to as a community start with being committed to growth in discipleship. We have some common content to learn together. We also want to be committed to God in worship, committed to generosity in our resources, committed to grace in our lifestyles and witness, and finally, committed to groups and community. We’re going to be looking at each of those points one by one this week. Today, the Monday, we’re going to start by looking at growth in discipleship. Each day, we’re going to tell you the story of somebody, a real person, who is in one of our courses as a community or engaging in our online content.
The firs story we have is about somebody who came to us through our Christianity one on one course. After having discovered it online, and taken a few of the courses through the app, she decided that she wanted to come and try that in person when we offered a course in Whitby last fall. After the course was over, she met with me for coffee, and told me that she decided to do something really important in her life. Back when she was in her early 20s, she decided that she was an atheist. She very publically cut all ties that she had to the church, to her family’s Christian faith and to God himself.
She made it very clear that she was an atheist now. She said after taking the Christianity 101 course, she decided she wasn’t an atheist anymore, and is looking for a way to make that public, just as public as she made her atheism back in her 20s. What happened? What made her say those words and decide to take public action declaring such a significant change? Why would she go back on her words like that, and risk the embarrassment of letting everybody know that she was wrong?
Well, as a follower of Jesus, I believe that it’s the Holy Spirit who can grab hold of our hearts, and transform them to be open to hearing the good news of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit works behind the scenes, and sometimes very publically, in this kind of transformation in a story like the one I just told you. I’m sure the particular content of our courses had some impact, but through it all, the Holy Spirit was guiding, and directing, and teaching, and helping just open her ears to hear the good news, and opening her heart to actually be transformed by it. The Holy Spirit is behind every story of transformation that we hear from in the Bible or in life today.
The Holy Spirit uses all sorts of resources in his work. That includes things like routine and just learning some habits of discipleship. One of those that we use in our community is this daily, weekly rhythm of discipleship that our daily challenges follow. Every Monday, we introduce a new idea. Every Tuesday, we study the Bible. Every Wednesday, we allow it to grab our hearts and transform us in some way. If we’re trying to live differently on Thursday, and Friday is our day of reflection, this whole rhythm and routine comes from the way monks and nuns used to order their lives as a community.
Even if they were a part, even if they were traveling, they knew they were in sync with the rest of their community because they had this regular rhythm of prayer and learning that they were engaged in, whether they were gathered or in scattered mode. Now, the story I told you today is just one story that I happen to know because I met her in person, but there have got to be other amazing stories out there. What’s your story? We know that the mobile app for Redeem the Commute has been installed on mobile phones and tablets over 1,200 times. We know that hundreds of you are using and accessing our content each month.
We’d love to hear from you and hear your story. How is God speaking to you? How is God’s Holy Spirit working in your heart, in and through the rhythm we’ve developed as a community, or through the content that you’ve been hearing, or watching or reading on Redeem the Commute? Well, I’d love to hear your story. There are a number of ways you can communicate that. One, come out and meet me at the Coffee Hours, or check the app or website live events listings to see when our next Coffee Hours are. It’s a great opportunity to just connect with me, tell me what you’ve been experiencing, see if I can have any help or advice for you.
Another way would be to fill in some of the one-question surveys we’ve got going on right now. When you open the app, it’s going to be asking you a simple question. I’d love to hear your answer because we’re trying to get a bit of a read on our community, our people being transformed by the contents that they’re hearing. We’d love to hear what you’ve learned, and what questions you still have to see if I can help you find answers to any of those questions still. We’d love to hear if this is content that you’re hearing and exploring for the first time in your life, or maybe if you’ve explored Christianity before, and you’re just looking at it in a new way at a later point in your life.
We’re not trying to become a church community that gathers together people from other churches. We truly want to become a community of people who are exploring Christian faith for the first time, and those who are committed to helping other have that kind of experience. We’d love to know if you’ve been part of a church community before, or if maybe this is your first time being part of a church community, outside of maybe attending a wedding or a funeral. Each day in this one-week series, we’re going to have a challenge for you to take on. Like I said, we’ve got some one-question surveys going on right now, where you can answer all those questions at once in the survey that you’ll find at the bottom of today’s challenge posting.
Please, answer some questions for us. Tell us how we’re doing in developing as a community of people learning to follow Jesus, and how we can help you take the next step. Make sure you leave your email address, so we can follow up if you’d like a bit of coaching. Have a great time putting that into practice. If you are working with a group of people who are learning alongside you, maybe share with them your answers to the survey questions that we’ve put at the bottom of today’s post. Well, have a great discussion. Don’t forget, we’re reading the Bible in sync as a community. The way to really get connected in our community would be to take our parenting course that we’re offering just at the end of April.
It’s going to be held at the Ajax Public Library, and costs just $50. It includes a delicious dinner each night for five weeks. You can find more information in the live event listings in the app or website. I hope to see you there. Bye for now.
