I have come to one overwhelmingly clear answer.
NO!
While many things are not specifically spoken about in the Bible, one thing is clear; my faith in Christ needs to be all-consuming. Not just a belief system, but a way of life that is totally evidenced in who I am and how I live. My attitudes, my actions, my words, my habits, my spending, my relationships. All of these are to scream that I believe that not only did Christ come and die to ransom me from sin, but to start His work in me RIGHT NOW.
My life, due to my relationship with God, needs to look so different from the people around me that the world looks at me and thinks I am crazy.
But I don't think that is popular teaching in the church.
I think that we (yes, I am TOTALLY including myself in this) make so many excuses daily for the things we do and the people we are. Our culture has so infiltrated our way of thinking that we have grown to accept not looking or living like Christ. We even try to use the Bible to justify it.
I ask myself if I spend my money appropriately.
I ask myself why I am okay gossiping.
I ask myself why I am so self-absorbed and self-glorifying.
Then I ask myself why I don't do something to change these things. And I realize something. I don't change because I am stuck in my head. I think too much and rarely apply. Of course, thinking about these things does have some affect on how I live over time, but I think that this is where the church needs to step in.
We are so scared that we are going to offend people that we forsake discipleship on tough issues such as spending habits and narcissism. And to be honest, it is the way we as a church spend our money that sits least well with me.
I hear the whole 10% thing preached fairly regularly and think, “yeah, that sounds obtainable.”
But is that even Biblical? Did you know that 10% is never even mentioned in the New Testament? And when I read the New Testament I see Jesus asking for ALL of me. Not just 10%. Mark 12:41-43 speaks of many rich people giving away large amounts of money while a widow gives all she has, two small coins, and it is her gift that is called great. Another man asks how to get eternal life in Matthew 19. Jesus tells him to sell all of his possessions, and he goes away sad. I wonder how many of us would truly be willing to sell everything we have for the sake of the kingdom. I wonder if we find enough value in the kingdom to truly be willing to do it. What's sad is that not only am I very reluctant to do something so extreme, I am reluctant to even forgo SOME, just a portion, of my luxury spending for the sake of the Kingdom.
I have a friend who was a sponsored child through Compassion International in Ecuador and who is quick to speak of the difference that made in his life. He found Christ because of his sponsor. And that only costs $40 a month to do! What if we were to give up eating out, buying new clothes, getting coffee, and going to the movies? What if we stopped buying stuff and bought into the kingdom?
I am at a place where I am wondering if I should abandon all luxury spending and use that money instead to invest in the kingdom of God. And to be honest, I am not in a place right now in my walk with Christ where I am willing to do that. There are things I want to buy. They feed something selfish in me. And I am getting more and more uncomfortable with it. And I pray that I will get more uncomfortable with it.
