Matthew 6:24-34, 18:16-30
7. Simplicity; detachment
Think about your income. What would you like it to be? I’m not talking about winning the lottery. I’m talking about your regular, weekly income.
Is the figure you’re thinking of more than your present income? How much more?
If you were to earn that much, what would you do with it?
Buy stuff for yourself? Buy stuff for family or someone else? Spend it on experiences for yourself and/or others? Give it away?
Some time ago someone surveyed a number of people across the whole income range, asking them how much they needed to make ends meet – the amount of income they’d be happy with – and, no matter how much or little they were getting, they all said, “Just a little bit more.” Just a little bit more than what they were getting would be enough. Doesn’t that tell you something? It tells me a lot about our satisfaction levels and our contentment. But not all our aspirations are selfish.
Once a rich young man asked Jesus what he needed to do to get right with God. And Jesus replied, “Keep the commandments.” And the man said he had been keeping them all his life.” So Jesus said he had only one thing left to do: “Sell your possessions and give to the poor, and come follow me.” (Matthew 18:21)
Jesus was saying, “Simplify your life, get rid of your accumulation of stuff that is holding your heart, shift your wealth into heaven and totally serve the Lord.”
At another time Jesus said, “None of you can be my disciple unless you give up everything you have.” (Luke 14:33)
In these statements, Jesus was teaching us what really matters.
Up until the 1960s, or thereabouts, the word ‘priority’ was always singular. The plural form was never used. These days we have multiple priorities and we list them in order of importance or urgency or some such thing. In Jesus’ mind there is one priority in our lives and that is our loving and serving our God.
Jesus makes this quite plain in his Sermon on the Mount – see Mathew 6. His summary: “But seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be yours as well.” (Matt 6:33).
How do we simplify our lives so as to devote ourselves to God? My friend Viv. Grigg has come up with this easily memorised set of maxims: “Earn much, consume little, hoard nothing, give generously, celebrate life.” (Viv Grigg 1984)
Earn much
Didn’t expect that one did you? Given what I’ve just said, we aren’t to go hard out for money; no striving after the big dollars. That’s the way to wreck your faith. It’s more like when you have opportunity for a higher income, accept it. Why would you get a higher income? Could be because you’ve done such a good job. And that’s because we do our best as we serve the Lord with all our hearts.
As we considered at the beginning, the more we get the more we can do with it. God expects us to be able to handle whatever income we get and with the principles in this series we are equipped to do just that. One’s income is one’s income, whatever it be. As long as it is gained honestly and justly we are to enjoy it and use it rightly.
Consume little
Two famous examples: John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, and Robert Laidlaw, founder of The Farmers stores in New Zealand. Both started on smallish incomes giving 10% and living on 90%. Both ended on larger incomes living on 10% and giving 90%. Their consumption didn’t rise with their income but stayed low, at the level of need, not greed. This speaks of contentment.
The Apostle Paul, writing to his protege, Timothy, said, “Well, religion does make us very rich, if we are satisfied with what we have. What did we bring into the world? Nothing! What can we take out of the world? Nothing! So then, if we have food and clothes, that should be enough for us. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull them down to ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:6-10).
Hoard nothing
Jesus told his disciples, “Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because your true life is not made up of the things you own, no matter how rich you may be.”
Then Jesus told them this parable: “There was once a rich man who had land which bore good crops. He began to think to himself, ‘I don’t have a place to keep all my crops. What can I do? This is what I will do,’ he told himself; ‘I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I will store the grain and all my other goods. Then I will say to myself, Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night you will have to give up your life; then who will get all these things you have kept for yourself?’” (Luke 12:15-20)
There’s no point in hoarding. It is a form of idolatry. Back in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “Do not store up riches for yourselves here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal. Instead, store up riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal. For your heart will always be where your riches are. (Matthew 6:19-21) And in our reading he reminded us not to worry about how our basic needs will be met as he would provide.
Give generously
So, while we are earning much, spending little and not hoarding, we can afford to be generous with what we aren’t needing for ourselves. Let’s always bear in mind that it is not ours anyway. Everything we have was given us by God. There is great joy in giving as indeed there is great blessing. There is blessing in receiving and there is blessing in giving, for God has made it so.
Celebrate life
The plan is that we devote ourselves to God’s service and God provides for us so that we have what we need. We don’t hoard because we don’t need to and we share what we have with others. So we rejoice in our God and celebrate life.
So, earn much, consume little, hoard nothing, give generously, celebrate life. Sounds like a plan? Let’s do it.