The Abundant Life
In John 10:10 Jesus promised His disciples "life more
abundantly". Some people interpret this abundance very broadly to
include material abundance. If this interpretation is correct then we’ve
got a problem, because Jesus’ disciples never got rich. If Jesus
promised these people wealth and they didn’t get it, then how can we
trust anything Jesus says.
In John 16:1 and 2 Jesus tells the eleven apostles that they would be
kicked out of the synagogue and would eventually be killed. To be cut off
from the synagogue meant financial and social disaster for Jews. We see
the result of this excommunication in Acts 3:6 where Peter and John
verbally "confessed" their poverty, something that good
prosperity people would never do. No wonder Peter and John were poor. You
should never speak a negative confession.
John 10:10 cannot be used to name, claim and expect material prosperity
because Jesus was speaking about spiritual abundance, a life with Him.
Material abundance would come in Heaven.
Poor But Content
At times Paul lived in moderate comfort. Other times he lived in
poverty, as he did in a rat infested prison in Caesarea for two years.
That jail cell was far from the Caesarea Hilton. That didn’t matter to
Paul because he learned to be content in every situation he faced.
Godliness was great gain to him. (Phil. 4:11-13)
We should be preaching contentment, not the pursuit of wealth. If a
foundation of contentment is lacking in your life, you’ll always want
more, and this wanting will produce frustration. But if you are content
with what you have, and when the tendency to desire more rises within, you
will not be frustrated. Remember what Paul said, "godliness with
contentment is great gain". (Phil. 4:11-13 )
But There Were Rich People In The Old Testament
Yes, Abraham, Solomon, David and some other Old Testament men were
rich. To this statement I’d like to say, "so what", but I won’t.
(O, maybe I just did)
We should be careful in how we emulate these men of old, unless you
want to take off your clothes and dance in the street as David did. (2
Sam. 6) We should emulate things like David’s heart, for He had a heart
that sought after God. We should emulate Abraham’s faith because he
trusted in His God despite the uncertainties of life
The real point here is that we are New Testament people and we should
emulate New Testament patriarchs, including Jesus Himself. They lived a
much different life, because their purpose in life was somewhat different.
These godly men of the Old Testament were not all that godly at times
anyway because of their limited understanding about spiritual things. We
have access to a better understanding of the ways of God than many Old
Testament people had. We should live according to the New Covenant with
help from the Holy Spirit, something these men did not have.
So yes, Solomon , Abraham and others were wealthy, but to me, that
means little to the topic at hand. There’s lots we can learn from these
great men of old, but our learning should be filtered through the pages of
the New Testament.
Humanistic Thinking
Webster’s Dictionary defines "humanism" as the
"doctrine, philosophy, attitude or lifestyle dedicated to human
interests". In itself, humanism is not all that bad, but apart of
God, and especially apart from Jesus, humanism is not Biblical, even
though it has beneficial results.
Humanism taken to its extreme, as we’ve taken it in our society,
becomes self centered, and even hedonistic (hedonism – the pursuit of
personal pleasure). Our society is obsessed with the love of self. This
love of self has found its way into North American Christian culture and
can be seen in the name, claim, and make me personally prosperous
movement.
I saw a commercial on TV advertising the latest in TV technology. It
said, "when TV is this real, life is good". Jesus’ stomach
would turn at the sound of these words for He said, "beware of
covetousness, for a man’s life consists not in the abundance of the
things which he possesses". (Luke 12:15) How clear can you get on
this topic.
From my perspective the North American church in general seems bent of
the accumulation of material possessions, and that gets expensive at
times. I’ve recently heard in our small city of the following. One
church is spending $10,000.00 on electric drums, $50,000.00 on a new sound system, thousands more on expanding and paving their parking lot,
as well as an addition to their building. Another church is spending
$50,000.00 on a new cooling and heating system. Another church needs to
spend $500,000.00 on fixing their steeple. I could go on.
Have all these expenditures helped to spread the Kingdom of God to our
society? I don’t think so. What it has done is create an atmosphere of
competition between church groups. Ironically speaking, just today I was
told that the church with the new sound system should attract the best
Christian musicians to its congregation. And where would these good
musicians come from? Other churches of course. Do you see my point? I’m
a musician. I know how musicians feel about good sound.
It takes lots of money to run a modern day church these days, but I’m
not convinced that it needs to be this way. The New Testament church
spread the gospel with very little money. Many third world churches are
probably doing the same today with more success.
The pursuit of prosperity is humanistic. Prosperity in church life
should mean people coming to Jesus, finding their place in the Body of
Christ and becoming effective representatives of Jesus. Prosperity shouldn’t
be defined by the size of your building and the height of your steeple.
Positive Thinking
The "positive thinking" movement has risen from the ranks of
humanism. Like humanism, positive thinking in itself isn’t bad. The
problem occurs when we promote positive thinking as a means to material
wealth, which we do.
Positive thinking teaches we should never utter a negative word lest a
great calamity befalls us. We should only speak positive confessions which
bring forth positive results. Read the Bible closely. Paul wasn’t always
positive, and neither was Jesus. They spoke the truth as they saw it,
whether it was positive or negative. Too much emphases on the positive
confession in my thinking is not realistic or Biblical. We need only to
refer back to Acts 3:6 and Peter’s negative confession to see this.
Confessing prosperity, believing that the confession itself will bring
wealth is more humanistic than New Testament.
The Reformation
I do believe that Christians live a better all around life because they
follow Jesus. It’s simple and logical. If you don’t steal, you won’t
end up in jail. If you don’t commit adultery, you won’t find yourself
in divorce court with AIDS.
This can be seen in those nations that participated in the Reformation
of the 1500’s. Western nations today have a higher standard of living,
in education, law, politics and other aspects of society, all because of
the Reformation’s influence. Those nations that have not allowed the
Reformation to take hold are in much poorer shape. This accounts for some
of the disparity between the west and other nations.
Western society has been strategically and progressively moving away
from its Reformation roots and is now reaping the results. We are in the
process of decline in education, law, government, finance among other
areas.
We benefit greatly from following Jesus, but we don’t follow Him for
the benefits. We didn’t give our lives to Jesus to get from Him. We gave
our lives to Jesus because we came to know that He is the central truth of
the universe and we have no other logical choice than to give ourselves to
Him And if Jesus wants us to prosper, so be it. If He doesn’t. So be it.
Part 5
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