Bible study series: week 5: Money and Materialism; Frugality and Sacrifice

Money and Materialism: Frugality and Sacrifice

 

1 Timothy 6:10: For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Hebrews 13:5: Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

James 4:13-15: Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

Mark 12:41-44: Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.  Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on."

Ecclesiastes 5:10: Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.

Matthew 6:19-21; 24: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also… No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

Matthew 6:24-34: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 21-26; 29-30: Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."… And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

Frugality:  In frugality, we abstain from using money or goods at our disposal in ways that merely gratify our desires or our hunger for status, glamour, or luxury.  The spiritually wise person knows that frivolous consumption corrupts the soul away from trust in, worship of, and service to God and can injure our neighbors as well. Frugality frees us from concern and involvement with a multitude of desires that would make it hard or even impossible for us to “do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with they God” (Micah 6:8).  It makes it possible for us to concentrate upon God alone, who is the one thing needed.  Frugality also can keep us out of the spiritual bondage caused by financial debt, which leads to a diminished self worth, dimmed hopes for the future, and elimination of our sensitivity to the needs of others. 

            John Surin was once asked why, when so many people seem to wish to be great in God’s eyes, there are so few who are truly saintly. The chief reason, he replied, is that they give too big a place in life to indifferent things.  Frugality frees us from indifferent things.

Sacrifice:  In sacrifice, we abstain from the possession or enjoyment of what is necessary for our living. Here, we forsake the security of meeting our needs with what is in our hands.  It is total abandonment to God, a stepping into the darkened abyss in the faith and hope that God will bear us up.  Abraham knew about such abandonment when he was prepared to sacrifice Isaac even though God had promised to bless the nations through that lineage.  The cautious faith that never saws off the limb on which it is sitting never learns that unattached limbs may find strange, unaccountable ways of not falling.  Obviously, this dimension of faith is challenging, and we are often surprised at its results.

Questions:

1. What verses stick out to you and why?
2. Do you think money and possessions have power over you or do you feel pretty free to be generous and hold it with an open hand?
3. What do you feel is the take home message/ main theme of all these teachings?
4. How hard or easy do you think it is to honestly practice and follow Jesus’ teachings about money and possessions in this time and place?
5. Are these disciplines attractive to you and if so why? What would you hope that God would set you free from through the exercise of these disciplines?