So,
whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give
no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to
please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of
many, that they may be saved.
If you
return, O Israel, declares the Lord, to me you should return. If you remove
your detestable things from my presence, and do not waver, and if you swear,
'As the Lord lives,' in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then nations
shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
1 Corinthians 10:31-33 & Jeremiah 4:1-2
All our lifestyle choices should be ‘to the glory
of God’ and without giving offence to people. This is an inevitable consequence
of loving God with our entire beings and of loving our neighbours, even our
enemies, as ourselves and of cooperating with Jesus Christ as he works to
redeem and reconcile creation.
St Paul identifies three groups he tries hard not
to offend: he adds to the historic distinction of Jews and Gentiles (that is,
non-Jews) the church of God, which is the community of Jesus’s disciples drawn
from among both Jews and Gentiles. Paul saw enough difficulty in people
accepting the good news about Jesus without adding unnecessary difficulty.
Earlier in the letter, he had written, 'we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling
block to Jews and folly to Gentiles’. But he quickly adds, ‘to those who are
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God’ (1
Corinthian 1:23-24).
More than this, I think Paul had in mind that, in
the fullness of time, the church will expand, drawing in more and more Jews and
Gentiles, to eventually replace those two categories. If that sounds unduly
optimistic, we should remember that God established the ancient nation of
Israel not for their own benefit alone but as a means of blessing other nations
and a way for them to come into communion with God: Moses alluded to this and
the prophets looked ahead to it happening, as in the second passage at the
start of today’s Reflection. But singular loyalty to God was essential to this mission
and idolatry defeated it.
The Israelites repeatedly sank into idolatry. After
their exile, it was more subtle, so that they no longer had pagan altars and Asherah
trees planted alongside altars to the true God, or placed poles dedicated to Asherah in
their fields, but one of the occasions when Jesus said that it is impossible to
serve both God and money was as he confronted the religious leaders about their
love of money (see Luke 16)
As we consider our own dependence on money, and the
ways it might compromise our allegiance to God, we should remember that Jesus
began life on the run. When he was born, his family were away from home in a
city where they had to stay in accommodation usually reserved for animals. The
authorities wanted the child dead! Then wealthy strangers arrived and gave them
expensive gifts – gifts that could pay for their exile in Egypt and, later,
perhaps, establishing a family home and business in Nazareth.
On at least two occasions during his ministry,
Jesus multiplied a few loaves and fishes to feed the large crowds of people who
had gathered to hear him. On another occasion, after using Peter’s fishing boat
as a pulpit, Jesus told him to let down the nets: although Peter had worked all
night without catching anything, at this unlikely time he netted a mammoth
haul. In order to pay the Temple Tax, Jesus once told Peter to catch a single
fish and, when he did so, Peter found a coin to pay in the fish’s mouth. God is
committed to looking after his people and the Bible includes many other examples.
No matter how important money becomes to the
society in which we live, it will never be important to God. A cynic might
criticise this series of Reflections by saying, ‘Well, you just try living without
money!’ But that misses the point.
Money was invented as a tool, and we should accept
gratefully and use wisely all the tools God gives us, but we must flee the
idolatry that grips the rest of society. We can trust God and free ourselves to
live as Jesus' disciples, to help others see who he is and to be saved – and to
secure our own inheritance in the Kingdom of God. I invite you to look again at
the questions about your relationship with money posed on Days 7, 11, 14 and 20
in this series and to reflect further on the case studies in Day 9.
I have previously suggested that if Christians are disciples in name only, not
really living as Jesus taught, we lack the ability and authority to make more
disciples. I write this not in judgement but as someone who committed to the Lord Jesus aged 14
years but has lived the past 46 years in inconsistent loyalty to a
consistently faithful God.
I hope you enjoy a happy Christmas. I plan a final
Reflection for 2013 at the weekend.
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2013. You are welcome to copy these Reflections for circulation to family and
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Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
Handling
money and dealing with debt can be complicated and neither the author nor
anyone else involved in the production of these Reflections is responsible for
any action you take, or fail to take, based on what is written here.
