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

Ryan Sim - March 24, 2014

Monday - A New Idea - Reset Society

Hi. Welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, your host for the daily challenges. We’re in the middle of a series right now called Reset, where we look at how following Jesus resets our thinking about various topics in life. This week we’re thinking about how Jesus resets our view of society’s divisions. The daily challenges are meant to help us explore what it means to follow Jesus, even in the midst of a busy commuting lifestyle. We have a rhythm that we follow each week to help us explore our topic. We introduce the idea on Monday, then Tuesday’s we study it in the Bible. Wednesday’s we try to let the Bible’s teaching sink in, and change and transform our thinking. Thursday’s we try to act out what we’ve been learning. Friday’s a day for prayer and reflection, and then Saturday’s a day for rest. Sunday is a day for community, because even when we are scattered and busy, it is important that we come together as one community to explore Jesus and what it means to follow him in one place. That’s why this Fall we’re planning to launch a new worshiping community in Ajax called Redeemer Church. Stay tuned for more information. Shortly after moving to GTA, my wife and I had dinner with some new friends. We had just moved from a small community in eastern Ontario, a mostly monocultural community where a handful of people had been to university. We found ourselves at dinner with two people from South Asia, one from Finland, and one from east Asia. 3 of the 4 had PhD’s and the fourth had an MBA. After dinner we realized we really had arrived in the most multicultural city in the world – meeting men and women from every continent, of every class and education. Ajax is this in microcosm. Ajax has the highest number of culturally visible population; 32,005 residents or 36%. Also, 17,055 who speak another mother tongue. We may be used to such diversity here, but think big picture. We have a daily experience that would have required a lifetime of travel just 100 years ago. Whether we were born here or moved here, we encounter people who look different, sound different, have different traditions and cultures than ourselves every single day, and may not even notice. Sure, it’s not all harmony. There are divisions here and elsewhere in the GTA, but by and large in Canada there is little tolerance for discrimination based on race, gender and social class. It still happens, but when it comes to light, most Canadians react with disgust. It hasn’t always been this way, and isn’t this way everywhere in Canada or in the world. Just look at the divisions in Ukraine between those who identify with Russia, those who identify with Ukraine. Examples abound like this one. North American history was quite different just decades ago – with segregated schools, buses, and not long before, slavery. Add in gender, class discrimination around the world, in our recent history, and still today in Canada, and we can see there are many divisions in our world. What does a follower of Jesus do with these divisions? Is Christian just one of those divisions? To be Christian, do we say we are nothing else? Does becoming a Christian mean every culture that doesn’t have a long Christian history is suspect? Some missionary efforts have indeed gone this way – bringing western culture with Christian faith as one package with no distinction, to which others must conform. That’s been terribly damaging, and doesn’t even take seriously Christianity’s history as a global and multicultural phenomenon. Question: When you picture a Christian, what kind of person comes to mind? Do they have a certain ethnicity, social class or gender? What experiences led to that?

From Series: "Reset"

When our computers get bogged down and unmanageable, we know to hit a reset button to simply start over. Wouldn't a reset button be great in life? We know it would be complicated, with all our responsibilities and routines to consider, but imagine the freedom and refreshment of a new start in life! What would you do differently? What would you pay more attention to, and what would you ignore? How would you avoid getting bogged down and broken again? The great news is, in coming to earth as Jesus Christ, God has begun to "reset" our universe, our world, and even us. We're invited to start over with him, in what he calls his kingdom. We're invited to start a new life with a clean slate. What gets wiped clean, and lived differently, when God resets our lives? We'll explore how God resets these key areas of our lives: Reset: Goals Reset: Time Reset: Money Reset: Work Reset: Body & Food Reset: Sex & Marriage Reset: Family Reset: Compassion Reset: Nature Reset: Society Reset: Death Join us for the next several weeks, and invite God to reset your life.

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