Study 52 (Part 2) "Jesus, Lord of my money". And QC session
We finished the study this week
I was sharing that I used to think that all that 1 Ti 6:9-10 meant was that money caused many kinds of evil, but that other kinds of evil had nothing to do with money. But we now understand that valuing/treasuring money as a representation of what the world can offer is completely opposed to valuing/treasuring God (making us unable to serve both). We can see (c.f. John Piper), that all the evils of this world eventually arise from hearts that love and treasure money.
The desire for money leads to ruin and destruction, loss of faith and many griefs. Conversely, if we treasure God rather money, we will have hearts (our inmost beings, the seat of our wills and emotions) placed on what we value. So Mt 6:21 is a call to choose our values right, because our hearts will inevitably follow that which we treasure. If we love God we will not be anxious about our basic needs. God knows all our tomorrows. We are told that it is none of our business to be anxious about the future. The future can handle its own worries :)
We who are rich are asked to be generous in giving, ready to show hospitality and always open to meeting the needs of fellow Christians. We are to be content with basics. And we discussed briefly if it was wrong to desire and spend money on more than the basics. I said that I did not see our possible purchases as: 1) allowable basics 2) neutral stuff 3) sinful indulgences. Rather, the four principles we mentioned in Study 51 should be guiding our use of money just as they guide all of our actions.
It is easy to feel pride in riches (1 Ti 6: 17) because we can compare ourselves with others and feel superior, because society sees the wealthy as being superior to the poor, and because we can take pride in our own achievements. The rich have many resources of their own. The poor have none. That is why the poor trust God more easily and why God is biased towards the poor. "How hard it is for the rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven"!
We then discussed tithing (the giving of 10%). I said that the blessings of Malachi 3:8-10 were not literally applicable to Christians today because this is a promise given to national Israel, like most promises and curses in the OT. Nevertheless, giving does carry its own blessing. We who live in this side of the New Covenant have so much more blessing that those in the Old, so we should be ever willing to give more than 10%. It is not always a simple matter to compute 10% (gross? nett? pre-CPF?, post-expenses?). I said I learned in my varsity days from a speaker who said "Do you want nett blessings or gross blessings?"
We then came to the last matter of discussion - the matter of assurance of salvation. I shared that I felt I had been not been clear enough when we last discussed the topic as a cell. I said that we must be able to feel confident that, should any of us die tonight, we will go to heaven. I was reminded of this when listening to the Evangelism Explosion simulated witnessing session where the Christian asked the non-Christian "Do you know if you will go to heaven if you die?", and it struck me that, if we don't have this assurance ourselves, how can we then share the gospel with confidence? Scripture is full of references to assurances. We who have felt God's hand on our lives in the past must be able to be sure that He will never fail or forsake us in the future. It is possible to have complete trust in God and in our relationship with Him despite an incomplete knowledge of His ways. Joshua shared this link: http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/can-i-be-sure-i-m-saved-if-persevering-is-the-proof. And I concluded by saying that since we are all called to "Make our calling and election sure" (2 Pe 1:10), those of us who lack certainty should be seeking it.
Then we celebrated Eugene's birthday!
I was sharing that I used to think that all that 1 Ti 6:9-10 meant was that money caused many kinds of evil, but that other kinds of evil had nothing to do with money. But we now understand that valuing/treasuring money as a representation of what the world can offer is completely opposed to valuing/treasuring God (making us unable to serve both). We can see (c.f. John Piper), that all the evils of this world eventually arise from hearts that love and treasure money.
The desire for money leads to ruin and destruction, loss of faith and many griefs. Conversely, if we treasure God rather money, we will have hearts (our inmost beings, the seat of our wills and emotions) placed on what we value. So Mt 6:21 is a call to choose our values right, because our hearts will inevitably follow that which we treasure. If we love God we will not be anxious about our basic needs. God knows all our tomorrows. We are told that it is none of our business to be anxious about the future. The future can handle its own worries :)
We who are rich are asked to be generous in giving, ready to show hospitality and always open to meeting the needs of fellow Christians. We are to be content with basics. And we discussed briefly if it was wrong to desire and spend money on more than the basics. I said that I did not see our possible purchases as: 1) allowable basics 2) neutral stuff 3) sinful indulgences. Rather, the four principles we mentioned in Study 51 should be guiding our use of money just as they guide all of our actions.
It is easy to feel pride in riches (1 Ti 6: 17) because we can compare ourselves with others and feel superior, because society sees the wealthy as being superior to the poor, and because we can take pride in our own achievements. The rich have many resources of their own. The poor have none. That is why the poor trust God more easily and why God is biased towards the poor. "How hard it is for the rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven"!
We then discussed tithing (the giving of 10%). I said that the blessings of Malachi 3:8-10 were not literally applicable to Christians today because this is a promise given to national Israel, like most promises and curses in the OT. Nevertheless, giving does carry its own blessing. We who live in this side of the New Covenant have so much more blessing that those in the Old, so we should be ever willing to give more than 10%. It is not always a simple matter to compute 10% (gross? nett? pre-CPF?, post-expenses?). I said I learned in my varsity days from a speaker who said "Do you want nett blessings or gross blessings?"
We then came to the last matter of discussion - the matter of assurance of salvation. I shared that I felt I had been not been clear enough when we last discussed the topic as a cell. I said that we must be able to feel confident that, should any of us die tonight, we will go to heaven. I was reminded of this when listening to the Evangelism Explosion simulated witnessing session where the Christian asked the non-Christian "Do you know if you will go to heaven if you die?", and it struck me that, if we don't have this assurance ourselves, how can we then share the gospel with confidence? Scripture is full of references to assurances. We who have felt God's hand on our lives in the past must be able to be sure that He will never fail or forsake us in the future. It is possible to have complete trust in God and in our relationship with Him despite an incomplete knowledge of His ways. Joshua shared this link: http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/can-i-be-sure-i-m-saved-if-persevering-is-the-proof. And I concluded by saying that since we are all called to "Make our calling and election sure" (2 Pe 1:10), those of us who lack certainty should be seeking it.
Then we celebrated Eugene's birthday!
Comments
Post a Comment