So far in Hebrews, the author has contrasted the Old Testament and the New Testament ways of worshiping and he has highlighted the emphasis of loving others as well as God’s design for our sexuality.
We come now to the third element — the new worship and our money. Read Hebrews 13:5-6. One of the key features of this worship lifestyle is that our lives are to be characterized by freedom from the love of money, by material contentment rather than by materialistic greed. We can worship God in this way because God has promised to care for us and meet our material needs.
What a radical, counter-cultural form of worship — especially in our setting! We live in a culture that spends billions of dollars every year in advertising to stimulate avarice and discontent with what we have. We live in a culture whose economy is built to a great degree on consumer spending on non-essential luxuries.
How would you know if you are worshiping God in this way?
We should avoid simplistic answers such as the amount of your salary, the value of your house, how much you spent on your car, and so on. This form of worship, like all forms of the new worship, is rooted in our hearts attitude rather than these outward things. That is why it is possible to have very little materially and be full of money-lust and material discontent. That is why it is also possible to have material abundance, be largely free from money-lust, and be content.
However, there must be some outward manifestation of this form of worship, or there would be no purpose in even talking about it. I will suggest a couple of ways we can monitor the quality of our worship in this area — whether our consumer credit debt is growing or diminishing, and whether our charitable giving is growing or diminishing. The direction of our credit debt is significant, because credit debt is usually accumulated when we spend more on non-essentials than what we earn — and this indicates that we are not content with what we have. Likewise, the direction of our charitable giving is significant because frugality that ends in selfish hoarding is not worshiping God — while contentment that leads to generosity is loving people, which is central to worshiping God (see Hebrews 13:1-3 and 16).
Evaluated by these two standards, American Christians are not worshiping God very well at all. There is no measurable difference between American Christians and other Americans in their ever-growing credit debt. And there is virtually no difference between American Christians and other Americans in charitable giving. Consider evaluating yourself in this area of your life; how are you doing?
If you are like me, you know that your worship in this area can greatly improve. Let us turn to a parallel passage that gives us four practical steps we can take to improve the quality of this part of our worship — 1 Timothy 6:8-19.
Read 1 Timothy 6:8 — note the same subject of material contentment. Read 1 Timothy 6:9-11a. The first step is to reject materialism’s empty promises. Notice the uncompromising language in these verses — Paul is adamant that all, not some, who seek happiness, security, or significance through material wealth will be bitterly disappointed. You may think you will be the exception, but you will not be. You will end up hurting yourself very badly if you go down this path.
Of course, this is directly contradictory to the “American Dream” propaganda that American Christians are inundated with their entire lives. This sounds more like what we are warned against concerning drug addiction. If you replace “want to get rich” and “the love of money” and “eager for money” with “become substance abusers” and “drug addiction” and “eager for more drugs,” this warning makes intuitive sense to us. But Paul is saying that money-lust will destroy your life just as certainly as drug addiction! Consider these dangers:
Do you have convictions about the truthfulness of Paul’s warning? Are your convictions growing and deepening, or are they being gradually weakened by qualifications? Are you in more danger of fanaticism in this area — or of selling out?
Rejecting materialism’s empty promises is necessary if you want to worship God in this area, but it is not enough. Negative warnings may wake us up and motivate short-term change, but deep-seated, long-lasting change requires the positive motivation that comes from experiencing a healthy alternative. That is why Paul does not stop with “flee from these things''; he also says “pursue...” Let us look at the three positive replacements he points us to.
Read Hebrews 6:11-14. Timothy is not only to flee from materialistic lust — he is also to pursue God’s good and significant purpose for his life. Paul speaks of God’s purpose in two ways: growth in godly character (see Hebrews 6:11b) and faithfulness to the specific ministry role God gave Timothy (see Hebrews 6:12-14). The implication is that as long as Timothy is experiencing the real thing — satisfaction of giving his life for God’s purpose — he will be free from the counterfeit — love of money and material discontent.
How true this is! This is what one author calls the “expulsive power of a new affection.”
When I met Christ in my late teens, I was obsessed with having the best car I could afford, the best stereo, the best clothes, the best of everything I could. I had never given money away, and I worried a lot about having enough money, even though I always had an ample savings account. Fast-forward eight years — I was driving a 15- year old, unreliable car , I had the same stereo, I wore clothes from a charity, we had virtually no savings — and yet I gave regularly and was far less worried about money. There was only one reason for this change. I had discovered the excitement and satisfaction of living for Christ. Learning His Word, seeing Him change my life, discovering that He had gifted me to teach His Word, helping other people meet Christ and grow in Him — and doing this with Christian friends — this way of life was so exciting and fulfilling that I did not miss all of the “best” things I had strived for and I stopped worrying about not having enough to live on. To this day, I see a direct connection between my pursuit of God’s purpose and freedom from money-lust.
And I have seen this over and over again with others through the years. Christians who hold back from committing themselves to God’s purpose for their lives almost always end up enmeshed in materialism. They cannot experience the joy and satisfaction of God’s love and power coursing through their lives to help others, so they are drawn back into the counterfeit stimulation of getting more things. They cannot experience the security of God meeting their needs, so they are drawn back into the “worries of the world.” But when I see someone “get it” — that sharing Christ and mentoring younger Christians and using their spiritual gifts to advance God’s kingdom is the heart of their Christian life — then I know they are far less vulnerable to money-lust.
How about you? Are you convicted about being too attached to money and things but unable to liberate yourself from this? You have to replace it with the adventure of following Jesus. If you have never done so before, open your heart and invite Him in. If you have Him in your heart, abandon yourself to follow Him into the life of self-giving love that He has planned for you!
Read Hebrews 6:17. Notice that Paul refers to the rich in the third person — “those” — but then he switches to the second person “us”. God richly supplies all of us, not just the “rich”, with things for us to enjoy — and cultivating enjoyment of these things is a key to worshiping God in this way.
What are these things? They are the “simple things” in life that are free, or nearly free.
I love to multitask in this area: run along the river on a frosty morning while talking with friends; discussing a good book with others around a fire with good food and drink; spending time with family and friends around the table for holiday dinners, and so on.
The more you attune yourself to appreciate and enjoy these things, along with embracing and pursuing God’s purpose for your life, the more rich you realize you truly are — and the less you feel the need for constant materialistic stimulation.
Read Hebrews 6:18-19. Here is the fourth key to worshiping God by being free from the love of money and being content with what you have — be generous with your money. Hebrews 13:16 also makes this connection. Generosity involves both consistent, disciplined giving to ongoing ministries as well as creative, spontaneous giving to one-time needs.
When you see through materialism’s lies, and commit yourself to God’s purpose for your life, and learn to enjoy His simple blessings — you usually have more money left over because you are not wasting it on frivolous acquisitions. This means you have more to share with others who need it.
There are many reasons why it is good for us to give financially:
Is God calling you to worship Him with your finances?
