Cotton Mather once commented that the faithfulness of the people begat prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother. Put another way, we may state it as a general principle that whenever Jeshurun waxes fat, he kicks.
In some ways the irony is a perpetual one. When a man comes to Christ, and begins to obey Him, this means working with his hands and living a quiet life in all diligence. One of the consequences of this behavior is that the cocaine bill goes way down. The man is no longer sinning his money away and begins to live within his means. He begins to tithe, which the Bible describes as putting seed corn in the ground. Soon, in spite of himself, he finds himself not only a believer in Jesus Christ, but one in possession of a substantial amount of material goods.
All this can be considered as fruit of sanctification. These are truly God’s blessings, but the blessings will always bring with them the temptations of the blessed. When a man enrolls in a math class, we hope he is not surprised when he encounters math problems. When a man is living under the blessing of God, his temptations will of course come from those blessings. Now one of our central temptations, according to Scripture, is to forget God and develop a undue fondness for stuff — “then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day” (Dt. 8:17-18).
Periodically this man under blessing, with his first love many years behind him now, will hear a message on materialism which begins to convict him. He begins to worry about it until someone reassures him. “God doesn’t mind His people having money. He minds money having his people.” The conscience is thus dabbed with true words, instead of being pierced with the truth, and the man goes back to raking it in. Now it is quite true that wealthy men can be saved — look at Abraham — but it is equally true that the Bible is filled with stern warnings about the seductions of wealth. And we need to remember that a seduction need not be brazen to be effective.
Modern Americans are among the wealthiest people ever to have lived. So surely, when we consider the warnings of Scripture, more is warranted than mere head nodding. If we do not turn to a biblical examination of our blessings, we will soon become the prey of those who seek to manipulate our guilty consciences. This is very commonly done with biblical terminology draped around some socialist foolishness or other. “The Bible says to share. This is why we need minimum wage laws.”
But the biblical instructions on this go to the heart of the matter, which, not surprisingly, is the heart. For example, Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:17-19 how he should instruct those who are rich in this present world. If Timothy were with us today (and in an important sense, he is), these instructions would be passed on to American Christians with a great deal of urgency and enthusiasm.
The first principle is that we should not set be haughty or proud of our wealth. One of the silliest things we do is elevate the nose to the same altitude as our bank account.
Secondly, we are told not to set our hopes on riches, which are as unstable as a house of Federal Reserve notes. That is to say, pretty unstable. Who wants to worship a god subject to interest rates? Who wants a god tied to Wall Street?
The third is to acknowledge that God gives to us while intending us to enjoy His gifts. The writer of Ecclesiastes notes that this can only happen by the grace of God. “As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor — this is the gift of God” (Ecc. 5:19). By grace are ye enabled to enjoy the wealth — lest any man should boast. This principle of enjoyment is alien to many who are concerned about the problems of consumerism. But it is part of the necessary foundation for any successful rejection of the worship of wealth.
So the last principle is to have the richness of wealth be matched by a richness of good works. We are not to give to others because we have been infected with wealth, and we the guilty want to pass on the cooties. We are to give from a sense of enjoyment and gratitude. A man plagued with guilt will give only enough to bring down the level of the guilt. A man giving from gratitude will always give much more.
The suffix ism is very helpful. Consumerism is an ideology — an idolatrous ideology. But we are not to forget who we are. As men and women, we must all be consumers. Not to belabor the obvious, this is because God made us with mouths. And here, as grateful consumers, we may exhibit our gratitude and thanksgiving for all the stuff. “You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance” (Ps. 65:11).