I am naturally a black and white thinker. I thrive on clarity. When I became a Christian in 2011, I headed straight for the theology books. Sin is this, not that. God is like this, not that. We follow God like this, not that. Out of what I believe was a earnest desire to please the Lord, I absorbed convictions from those whose books I read. And then in an equally immature and self-righteous manner, placed these convictions on others. Christians should evangelize everywhere they go. They shouldn’t cuss. They should give away all their money except for absolute necessities.
It wasn’t until a few years ago that my purely objective theology could not hold up anymore. I encountered harder questions and began to realize there is a lot more gray than I wanted to admit. Some sin is subjective. What is sin for you may not be sin for me. I am not saying all sin is subjective. The Bible is clear on what not to do: Don’t commit sexual immorality. Don’t steal. Don’t covet. Don’t get drunk. Don’t murder. Don’t commit idolatry. (To name a few). It is also clear on what Christians should do: Love God. Love neighbor. Share the gospel. Give generously. Do justice. Work wholeheartedly.
Yet, the question of how God’s commands play out practically may be radically different from one person to the next. Contexts like personality, culture, and season of life must be considered, and for that we need wisdom. We need an ongoing relationship with God, sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, and to be filled with the Word of God.
Joe Rigney discusses subjectivity when it comes to wealth. In his incredibly helpful book, Things of Earth, he writes:
So we must be mindful of how subjective our perceptions of what a faithful use of wealth can be. We must resist imposing our context-specific, personality-driven application of wartime* on other people. This isn’t to say that we should never raise questions about how money is used. It does mean that we shouldn’t treat wartime as if it’s a game of “How low can you go?” Because the answer to that is always “Lower.”
This game of “How low can you go?” as Rigney puts it, is the reason we may walk around with low-grade guilt for not sacrificing as much as we possibly can. This guilt can make us think we need to purchase the cheapest house, live in the darkest unreached people group, or give our lives to become justice activists. Certainly God calls some people to these things. But to assume we can become full-time activists for racial justice, gender equality and sex trafficking while living in an unreached people group and fighting poverty is perhaps a little impractical. And yet, our low-grade guilt reveals how we think we should be all of these things. I mean they are biblical! God cares about the poor and oppressed. He desires the gospel to spread to the ends of the earth. But supposing God’s call to these things entails I must give myself completely to all of them is impossible and misdirected.
I think this idea is misdirected because it assumes the question is, “How much can I give?” to which our response is “all.” Not all of us are the rich young ruler, called to sell all we have and give to the poor. Some of us are. Some of us aren’t right now but will be later. Some of us never will be. We are called to give all to Christ every day. What if for some us that looks like buying a big, expensive house and showing hospitality? Or paying someone to clean your house when you could do it yourself? What if that looks like buying flowers simply because we enjoy them?
What I’m trying to say is, sometimes the best use of our time is not fighting poverty. Sometimes the best use of our money is not giving to the poor. But hear me: sometimes it is! That is why we need the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom to tell the difference and the blood of Christ to cover us when we fail to.
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