Luxuries and necessities … exploring the tension
Today a good friend asked in a Tweet what
luxury is he asks, “define luxury?$2 a day? $4?” He responded to a Clement of
Alexandra quote I posted, “It is monstrous for one to live in luxury, while
many are in want”.
This is obviously an immensely complicated
question and I believe the reason why it is so difficult is because there are
so many factors that determine a truthful answer. So without trying to be prescriptive, let me describe some
of the elements I feel are needed to answer that question.
- 1.
If we want to define luxury it
is really helpful to explore that question with other people. I (and I think you) have an amazing ability
to rationalize our luxuries into necessities. In the last few years I’ve kept an informal “rationalization
journal” in which I write my rationalizations down. To give you an example, I
am about to upgrade my phone and I’m seriously considering an Iphone. My reasons are …. So I write those reasons down and
discuss it with people who know me.
Having other people speak into our lives help a lot. - 2.
BUT. When you have people of more-or-less the same socio-economic
level in a church/group you will find that the rationalizations are the
same. Our creative ways of moving
luxuries into necessities are not that many. So I recommend having the luxury chat with people who are
not in your socio-economic subculture.
This is tough, I know.
Sometimes by just having people who are poor(er) in your house, the
rationalizations get challenged. So in order to truthfully answer the luxury
question become friends with poor people. - 3.
Have a yearly chat as a family
about a standard of living that you feel comfortable about. Pray over it and study the Bible with
your budget in mind. Become so
comfortable about this ‘holy cow’ that you won’t mind sharing the details of
your budget with trusted friends. - 4.
Go through your house and look
at items that are taking up closet space.
Those luxury items that have become such a luxurious item that you never
use it (like that beautiful china set or the golf clubs signed by). Give it away or sell it and then give
the money away. By walking through
our house and noting the excess, we engage with the luxuries of your life. - 5.
Another way to determine if something is a real necessity is by
abstaining from it and seeing if you can still function.
Defining
luxuries in our lives are definitely not clear-cut or easy … but well worth to
explore. The idea is to take the
extra resources spent on luxuries …. and give it away.
About the Author
Tom loves life and enjoys exploring as much of it as he can. He is sharing life with Lollie, Tayla and Liam as well as friends and family. He is passionate about the kingdom and how it takes expression in South Africa.
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WOW! This statement is an emotionally loaded one which has historically often been geared at the presumed wealthy to induce guilt, some may say remorse but I don’t buy that.
If we step back, far enough, and breathe, you will find that this question is not as straightforward as it at first appears.
For one, it is based on an assumption that something is good and something else is bad. It therefore locks you into a very specific type of paradigm and you become trapped.
But what about God? Does He not live in “luxury” while men live in abject poverty?
And doesn’t Luxury come with benefits? Remember the golden rule; those with the gold rule (Celente). If it wasn’t for Frederick big bucks the III who protected Martin Luther, we might not be living in the post-reformation era, at least not because of Luther.
Clement runs the risk of operating from a poverty minded paradigm instead of a Kingdom minded paradigm and if we are not careful we run the risk of doing the same.
Jesus said : “pray…Gods will…on earth as it is in heaven”. We know that every verb in the Pater noster is in the imperative, which suggests that the answer is not within my power but in Gods. Notice I said power not responsibility.
I don’t have enough (resources) to solve this massive problem and neither does anyone else – but we have a Partner who does (Chavda). More to the point, if we are really serious about this and are willing to permanently forsake the emotional “self-stimulation” that our ego’s so enjoy(need), we can help effect The Solution – God's Blueprint.
Luxury is not inherently bad, it is a blessing. Greed is bad. Being able to give a hand-up is in itself a “luxury” and does not necessarily require you to take a step down – that would be poverty mindedness that assumes that there is not enough for everyone to live in “luxury”.
These kinds of statements make people feel bad when they are actually being blessed by God.
Does God not bless the “house of the righteous with riches and treasure”? Back in the day, Job was the richest man in the east and Holy Scripture commends him as being “perfect, upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil”
As you can see, luxury is a relative term and sometimes a selective term. It really depends on what you mean on a linguistic level and how you hope to either encourage or manipulate people.
The “bigger” issue here is not one of Luxury or poverty, which is merely an outward manifestation of inward spiritual reality (See 3 John 2); it is rather a question of access! Deal with the root of the problem, not the fruit.
Some of these situations no amount of wealth will fix (resolve) – they are spiritual black holes. You can’t make pacts with demons as many South Africans (for generations) have done and expect that those very demons aren’t going to clean them out and leave them broke.. and sick & dead.
If you apply the principle of factor sparsity, you have a more realistic approach and an opportunity for a better perspective on solving the issue at hand. You will also avoid getting entangled in the peripherals.
I don’t negate brotherly love and faith with works, or doing good to all men, what I am questioning is: the current SA context, its true causes and which battle we are really called to fight within this context; not which battle is at hand or which battle we think we ought as good Christians to fight.
Shalom
Great post. Well thought out. I found your blog via Twitter, via Idelette. Glad I did. She re-posted a quote of St. John Chrysostom's I had Tweeted." When you are generous to another person, you are not bestowing a gift, but repaying a debt. … the repayment of a tiny fraction of God’s blessings." ~St. John Chrysostom The quote came from a little book: On Living Simply: The Golden Voice of John Chrysostom. Thanks again for your post. I look forward to more.
Tom, a very timely and contextual post. Much food for thought and challenge to myself and my family.
Another practical thought – we have a box in which we try to constantly be putting things we no longer use or need (including books for me)and we try to encourage others to go through it when they are here and if they want anything it is theirs.