One of my favorite shows growing up was the Jefferson’s. Remember George and his wife Louise? If you forget (or are too young to remember) here is a little clip that may refresh your memory.
The theme of the show was that George was a very successful business man. As a result of that success he was able to move to an upscale neighborhood to improve his standard of living. Do you ever wonder what the proper standard of living is for a Christian?
In America today our standard of living is determined by our paycheck or our credit limit. We select a house based on the largest mortgage the bank will give us. We buy the nicest car we can afford. And we decide where to go on vacation based on how much is in our vacation account (or available credit). It is all based on how much we think we can afford.
Did you ever think that instead of just looking at our paycheck or available credit to decide our standard of living, we should look at the Bible? I do believe that one of the ways that God tells us what neighborhood we should live in or what car we should drive is by what we can afford. But I also believe the Bible gives us a lot more guidelines for these decisions than just looking at our paychecks or available credit.
Here are a few principles that should help us determine a suitable standard of living:
Be content: In Philippians 4:11-13 Paul tells us to be content with what God has blessed us with. This hits pretty hard at the idea that we need to run our credit card limits up. If we are carry a balance on our credit cards, maybe we better do a little contentment self-analysis. 1 Timothy 6:8 says if we have food and clothing we should be content.
Avoid coveting: Exodus 20:17 is pretty clear that we shouldn’t covet, but so is Ephesians 5:5. Today we don’t call it coveting; we call it “keeping up with the Joneses”. It is not easy to watch everyone in church drive up in their shiny new BMW and we drive up in our 1998 Chevy clunker.
Simplify: 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 says that we should lead a quit life. Does this mean that we need to sell everything and live like the Amish or maybe even as a monk? Absolutely not, but the Bible is very clear that things can become so much a part of our lives that they can take our attention off God. 1 John 2:15 is pretty clear that we need to love God and not the stuff of this world.
Enjoy God’s blessings: God loves us and wants us to enjoy His blessings; however we must be sure that our enjoyment for the blessings does not replace our love for Him.1 Timothy 6:17b
So the next time we make decisions about the houses, cars and clothing we buy and the vacations we go on and where and if we go out to eat, we must look at lot deeper than just our checkbook and credit limit. We must look at the Word of God. If Jesus Christ is Lord of our lives and we live to please Him, how much money we make is just part of the formula in determining our standard of living. The Word of God should be the main source.
I can assure you we will have many more problems and issues than George and “Weezy” did if we as Christians just look at our bank account and available credit to determine our standard of living.
No comments:
Post a Comment