Lifestyles

Paul talks to the new Christian communities in his epistles and teaches them a radical attitude toward money and possessions as they lived with their families in their homes and operated businesses.

Try your best to live quietly, to mind your own business, and to work hard, just as we taught you to do. Then you will be respected by people who are not followers of the Lord, and you won’t have to depend on anyone. - 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

Christians needed steady employment to provide for their families.

 So, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, we ask and beg these people to settle down and start working for a living. - 2 Thessalonians 3:12

Jesus called His first four disciples to leave their fishing business to follow Him. Abandoning their possessions was part of answering the call, because Christ's ministry was itinerant, requiring almost constant travel, mostly on foot.

  Peter replied, “Remember, we left everything to be your followers!” - Mark 10:28

 As he walked along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus. Levi was sitting at the place for paying taxes, and Jesus said to him, “Come with me!” So he got up and went with Jesus - Mark 2:14

In the following verses we see a man not only willing but eager, nearly desperate, to leave all else behind and follow Christ.  Christ called him not to leave everything behind, but instead to settle into his community - with all that implies as to shelter, possessions, and vocation - and to us his home and possessions to further the kingdom.  Was this an inferior calling?

 When Jesus was getting into the boat, the man begged to go with him.  But Jesus would not let him. Instead, he said, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how good he has been to you.”
 The man went away into the region near the ten cities known as Decapolis^[a] and began telling everyone how much Jesus had done for him. Everyone who heard what had happened was amazed. - Mark 5:18-20

The disciples were to stay in houses and be fed by those who were receptive to their message.

 He told them, “You may take along a walking stick. But don’t carry food or a travelling bag or any money.  It’s all right to wear sandals, but don’t take along a change of clothes.  When you are welcomed into a home, stay there until you leave that town.  If any place won’t welcome you or listen to your message, leave and shake the dust from your feet^[a] as a warning to them. - Mark 6:8-11

Later on Jesus tells the apostles were to take a purse, bag and even a sword.

Two kingdoms

"I have held many things in my hands and I have lost them all. But whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess." - Martin Luther

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

In the greatest message ever preached, Jesus addresses the believer's proper relationship to money and possessions --

“Do not store up for yourselves [material] treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal;  for where your treasure is, there your heart [your wishes, your desires; that on which your life centers] will be also.

 “The eye is the lamp of the body; so if your eye is clear [spiritually perceptive], your whole body will be full of light [benefiting from God’s precepts].  But if your eye is bad [spiritually blind], your whole body will be full of darkness [devoid of God’s precepts]. So if the [very] light inside you [your inner self, your heart, your conscience] is darkness, how great and terrible is that darkness!

 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [money, possessions, fame, status, or whatever is valued more than the Lord]. - Matthew 6:19-24

Jesus had two kingdoms in mind.  Two options and they demand one choice.  There is a default choice if "no choice" is made.  Unless the right choice is deliberately made and tenaciously clung to, the wrong choice will naturally be implemented.

 

Life Library — Two Kingdoms

Prosperity: Is it gospel?

Whether a message be proclaimed by an angel, a television evangelist, a pastor, or a fund-raising letter, Scripture makes it clear what our response must be to any gospel other than the true one --

I am astonished and extremely irritated that you are so quickly shifting your allegiance and deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different [even contrary] gospel;  which is really not another [gospel]; but there are [obviously] [a]some [people masquerading as teachers] who are disturbing and confusing you [with a misleading, counterfeit teaching] and want to distort the gospel of Christ [twisting it into something which it absolutely is not].  But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we [originally] preached to you, let him be condemned to destruction!  As we have said before, so I now say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel different from that which you received [from us], let him be condemned to destruction! Am I now [b]trying to win the favor and approval of men, or of God? Or am I seeking to please someone? If I were still trying to be popular with men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.   Galatians 1:6-10

5 Errors of the Prosperity Gospel

Materialism: Scriptural History

This picture of Balaam would represent the OT well, but the NT it probably would be Simon Magus.  When he saw the power of the Holy Spirit he saw dollar signs. 

Once Simon began to lose followers to Philip, he became interested in 'buying into' the Christian faith, which looked like a promising venture.  Although he initially appeared to be a genuine convert, Simon's attitude toward God and money gave him away.  Peter said to Simon --

“May your money be destroyed with you for thinking God’s gift can be bought!"  -  Acts 8:20

The message was clear then as it was with Balaam -- God is not selling anything, and He Himself is not for sale.





Haggai: The Problem Of Being Greedy For Things