I think that American Christians would care much more about issues such as illegal immigration, abortion, poverty, discrimination, etc. if we simply did not have the luxuries that we currently have. We cannot seem to handle them! It can be a consuming venture to decide which flat-screen to purchase or which car dealer to talk into letting us trade-in on our current vehicle. Things such as TVs and cars are not evil in themselves, but my point is that America has certainly become a consumer society. We revolve around our upgrades and general luxuries, all while the Church and the state are being taken by radical scum-cultures and liberal activists.
John Calvin says this:
“Yea, prosperity not only intoxicates many, as to carry them beyond all bounds in their mirth, but it also engenders insolence, which makes them proudly rise up and break forth against God. Accordingly there is scarcely is a hundredth part of those who enjoy in abundance the good things of God, who keep themselves in his fear, and live in the exercise of humility and temperance, which would be so becoming.”
Not many, as Calvin says, can live in rich abundance and still remain humble. Not only can material gain cause us to commit covetousness and idolatry with the items themselves, but there is also the very ethic that God calls us to redeem our time. There simply is not enough time in the day for us to focus on constant material upgrade and adrenaline-filled events if one is sold as a slave to Christ!
Our modern society draws us more toward the ego, regarding what is available for enjoyment, than it does draw us toward humility and peace. We can simply look at modern architecture to see the lack of hospitable and “heavenly” design. Homes and buildings now are built to accommodate our toys rather than our friends and neighbors, and they say nothing about who God is in the way they are shaped and designed.
Comments
Hey Mike. Thank you very much for the comments and the quote from Calvin.
This caught my eye.
” Not only does material gain cause us to commit covetousness and idolatry with the items themselves, but there is also the very ethic that God calls us to redeem our time.”
It seems though that not material gain, but the lack of material gain could just as well cause us to commit covetousness and idolatry. It would seem that out of all the candidates likely to covet, it would be those who do not have. Similarly, a person without material gain may idolize that which his neighbor has.
Furthermore, do we want to suggest that items, physical objects of whatever sort in the world, actually possess qualities that could cause us to sin? While it is certainly true that not all objects in the world are helpful or for good use, it doesn’t mean that such objects have such sin producing properties (with the lone exception of poison ivy :)).
Since we cannot blame these sins on material gain or the stuff, how should we conceive of our relationship to the physical world and in particular, some of its seemingly useful and good objects?
b.
Mark, I’ll change “does” to “can.” It’s funny you mention about being poor. I almost included this Proverb:
Give me neither poverty nor riches —Feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You, And say, “Who is the LORD?” Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God. Proverbs 30:8-9
I believe we lack in the area of stewardship in Protestantism. Because we really do not have a doctrine (vow) of poverty of any sort, we many times fail to be humbled in these areas of stewardship. Monastic vows such as poverty echo throughout the entire church (those that believe in them) and thus acts as a guard/border to those outside these vows. When a godly one comes to realize that many of his superiors are living in poverty they can easily think twice about embracing materialism.
The Scriptures do not imply, of course, that all are called to “poverty.” There is a book on my shelf called Protestant Monasticism that I intend to read fully one day! It covers the history of thought on this subject. Perhaps I will post on this subject in the near future.
Notice my additional last paragraph;)