Last night, I went to The Porch, the young adult ministry of Watermark. A couple weeks ago, they started a series called Overwhelmed, and last night’s topic was on financial anxiety. Our central text was in 1 Timothy 6. While this isn’t a commentary on the sermon, I do think that this is something we all struggle with, so it got me thinking about why we struggle this way. I spent a couple hours thinking and praying about this last night, and I feel there are a couple of reasons we struggle with this so much in America.
Idolatry Inclinations
Idolatry is nothing unique to Americans, but it absolutely plays a role in much of our anxiety. We see this in part of the text we covered on Tuesday at The Porch in 1 Timothy 6:10.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
The “love of money” isn’t the root of all kinds of evil, it’s A root. This means that when our heart’s affections are centered around the things of this world, it is the beginning of “all kinds of evil” that will lead us to destruction (1 Tim 6:9). This text isn’t just about being good stewards of money, being content, or being generous; it’s about guarding our hearts against idolatry.
We see a clear example of the effects 1 Timothy 6:6-10 describes in the gospel of Luke, when Jesus met the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18-30). The young man comes up to Jesus and asks Him “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Now, there may be something that is culturally lost on me, but most of us aren’t going to go up to someone, even a pastor or priest, and ask them such a loaded question like this one unless we think they actually have the answer. In the end, Jesus told the man to sell everything and give it away to the poor. And, I think that the man knew Jesus could tell him how to inherit eternal life because of his response: “But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.” He believed Jesus could tell him the answer, which is why he was so disappointed when he heard what Jesus had to say. He walked away from eternal life for the sake of keeping earthly riches. We can’t think clearly about truth or about God when we have idolatry issues plaguing our heart.
The American Nightmare
Otherwise known as The American Dream. A cultural ethos of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Now, when it comes to social issues as slavery, racism, class systems, then yes, by all means, we each have equality and the right to pursue these things. But, overall, this is nothing if not an open invitation to self-preservation which only adds fuel to the fire of the inclination toward idolatry in our hearts.
What life is it that we are pursuing? If it’s life with Christ, then by all means, pursue life. But, if it’s life in this world, how do we define that? Is it not being oppressed? Is it the accumulation of material possessions? How do we pursue life on earth when, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer so eloquently phrased it, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die”?
Our culture tells us to pursue liberty. And in the context of tyrannical governments, yes! But Paul considered himself a slave to Christ.
And what do we mean by happiness? This clearly isn’t the call of the Christian. Jesus was homeless and rejected by His own people. Paul was ship-wrecked three times and people tried to kill him. Then he was actually murdered for the sake of the gospel. All of the apostles to the man were martyred, except for John, and that’s just because he didn’t die when they boiled him alive! Happy? I don’t know how happy John was while exiled on Patmos. Yet we are commanded to pursue real, eternal, sustaining joy in Christ.
As Christians, we seek to have life so that we may lay it down for the kingdom of God. We seek earthly freedom so we can be servants of Christ. We forsake temporal happiness for the pursuit of eternal joy in God.
Settling for our heart’s affections being centered on anything other that Christ isn’t just settling, it’s idolatry.
So, idolatry is when our heart’s affections are centered around something other than God. And, we tend to worship what we idolize, in some form or fashion, and then we place our trust in that idol. If it’s money, we look to money for validation, security, and status. If it’s sex, we look to sex for fulfillment. If it’s popularity, then it seems like our world ends when someone doesn’t like us.
God, Jesus, is the only person or thing that can handle the weight of those requirements and not falter. He not only wants, but commands us to find our identity, value, worth, validation, security, and fulfillment in Him, and Him alone.
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