Aug 21, 2008
Be careful not to join Judas when you judge people for how they spend money for Jesus.
They spend money on such-and-such when they could use it for the much-more-important so-and-so.
Criticism like this is almost always blatantly hypocritical.
John 12
My other favorite expositor (along with your Dad) was an a country preacher with little education. When he preached on John 12, and got to verse 7, he kept shouting Jesus’ response to Judas:
“LET HER ALONE!”
I still remember that sermon 25 years later.
A very wise post. . . . Lowell, it’s a good reminder for me of the potential effectiveness of a repeated phrase in preaching. I’m filing with the appropriate passage
nice-use-of-dashes to keep-it-at-22-words :)
thanks for the helpful reminder/criticism. i’ve (sadly) done that far too many times in my short life.
I’m not sure I get this one… For instance, our local association spends $3,000 a year on printing annuals for our 40-some churches (3 per church). I’ve been critical of that recently because they could be distributed electronically for free or reduced to one copy per church and a lot of money could be saved. These are books that get looked over maybe once and then placed on a shelf.
Isn’t there a time to point out waste?
Yes Brent, it is always necessary to re-evaluate where budgeted money goes…I see this more in line with not letting your eyes follow your gift…
Such as, I give to my church…I trust they will wisely use my gift and I don’t except in rare occasions tag it. If I can’t trust the church’s board to use the funds as God is directing them…It is time to find another church…or examine my heart.
Amen.
Hypothetically speaking, if that money had been used for the poor could the woman have argued that they spent money on such-and-such (that is to say, the poor) when they could have used it for something much-more-important (that is to say, Jesus)?
“Criticism like this is almost always blatantly hypocritical.”
Often true. But isn’t labeling the criticism as hypocrisy (Judas-like hypocrisy!) just as often a blatant attempt to minimize the kernel of truth in the criticism?
MCL,
I don’t think it minimizes whatever truth there might be at all.
I think it serves to maximize the truth by scraping away the fake holiness that the kernel of truth is coated in.
Oh, also, it’s only Judas-like because Judas did the exact same thing, not because it’s necessarily worse than other hypocrisy.
Okay, Abraham, if there is a kernel of truth in it, how should the kernel be communicated?
Or shouldn’t it?
The problem with this kind of criticism is that it reduces you, if you’re consistent, to only ever giving money to the most important thing. This is, of course, impossible.
So it’s the reasoning that’s flawed, not the desire to redistribute wealth differently than someone else.
I’m all for disagreeing about how money should be spent, but Judas went about it all wrong.
He should have valued what was praiseworthy about buying the perfume. And then, as a completely separate issue, he should have given to the poor.
Correlating the two like he did, leads to an untenable position.
That’s good clarification, Abraham, Thanks.
“They spend money on such-and-such (sold by my competitor) when they could use it for the much-more-important so-and-so (sold by me)”.
Isn’t this another way of saying “Being wasteful is bad. Such-and-such seems wasteful to me. Such-and-such is bad. But so-and-so is good. Instead of such-and-such, so-and-so?” That seems to me to be normal evaluation.
Could it be that the real issue is that Judas judged the value of the action wrong – not that he made a judgment? (He did just say that so that he could take his cut as treasurer, not because he really cared about either Jesus or the poor.)
If something is wasteful, it is wasteful whether you compare it to anything or not.
If something is wise, it is wise whether you compare it to anything or not.
It will put us into an unending moral quandary, however, if we call something wasteful because something else, unrelated, is wise.
Like when my husband overnights me flowers 2,000 miles across the country and they last 5 days? I think it’s a waste and I’m finding it hard to be grateful, because I think about all the bottles of shampoo $X amount could have bought…or even how many pizza deliveries…or a Gap gift card…or Amazon gift card for that matter – do you know how much STUFF you can get on Amazon with $X?!?!?!?!?!??!
I mean technically it’s OUR money…dead in a week.
I know he bought me flowers because he wants to show God’s love to me in his own way, but I basically told him “thank you but please don’t do that again” and I think I seriously hurt his feelings…
What? So I’m the only girl who hates getting flowers.
Please help me out here.
AP: I figured your chief objection was to the form and timing of his crticism, which you seem to say, rather than with the idea of criticizing certain uses of money.
You write:
“If something is wasteful, it is wasteful whether you compare it to anything or not.
“If something is wise, it is wise whether you compare it to anything or not.”
And I think, in the case of the woman with the perfume, you have something that falls into neither category. And I think THAT is Jesus’ chief point in this case. It’s not a discussion of what is wise or wasteful, but of an act (worship and extravagent devotion) that shouldn’t be subjected to EITHER criteria.
That’s why I would tell someone in Tara’s place, I think you’re mixing categories. I would think that what your husband was trying to do should transcend judgment according to wisdom and waste. It’s “economic exultation,” if you’ll allow me to coin a term in mimicry of my Pastor.
Exultation knows no practical bounds and shouldn’t be given them.
I just don’t judge people for how they spend their money for Jesus. Why would I? What’s it got to do with me? If it’s theirs to give, it’s between them and God, isn’t it? I’ve got enough to bother me without having to judge people for anything like that.
I LOVE getting flowers Tara. However, my husband does know – never bring me a big box of chocolates. (Unless their Ethel M’s.)
*they’re* in the above post – I must be weary or something. Unbelievable!!!
“If something is wasteful, it is wasteful whether you compare it to anything or not.
If something is wise, it is wise whether you compare it to anything or not.”
So, what makes something wasteful or wise? Is there a helpful idea that can help me assess my own expenditures? Ultimately it would seem to come down to motivations and deeper heart issues, so I don’t want to make a checklist or anything. Anyway…if you have time…what helps you decide if a certain expenditure is wasteful or not?
[...] Abraham Piper shared something similar this morning which prompted me to write this post: [...]
I once thought about this because my church was definitely wasting money… and then I remembered that in the O.T., people brought their gift, laid it on the altar, and then SET FIRE TO IT.
This is truly giving to God, and it would make for a fantastic illustration some Sunday morning; though it might set off the smoke detectors, and also probably be the last you’d see of some people!
Tara-
My wife doesn’t care for roses all that much. She’d prefer other types of flowers. She slowly clued me into that. The first time she hinted at it, I thought she was not grateful, and it stung a bit. But, I began to realize that while she loved it that I got her something, what she loves even more is me getting her something that she loves. Getting her something shows her I love her, getting her something she loves shows her I love her and that I know what she really enjoys.
So, my little bit of advice is be VERY gentle in responding to a gift-bearing husband. We really are trying! But, we do need help and some steering at times.
Your comment was “how they spend money for Jesus.” So I do not know if this is off topic but in our Christian community I see many who are have publicly stated they are believers purchasing Hummers, platistic surgery for cosmetic reasons, and building mansions. Is it judgemental to challenge them that how they are spending their money is not on the heart of God? I can’t grasp how their motives can be for Jesus on such extreme status stuff. Maybe that is judgmental. It has lead to so many others in the community struggling with envy and confusion about wealth as a believer. I am curious about your thoughts on this.
Yes, challenge them if you think they’re doing wrong. That’s what friends are for.
But the evidence that what they are doing is wrong will be if they are not doing it for the sake of Christ.
The evidence that they are wrong will not be that there are more important things to spend money on.
As soon as we make that the grounds for judging people, we will likely become hypocrites, because we all buy things that are, ultimately speaking, not important.
Tara…It’s not only the flowers…I feel the same way about paper greeting cards…Free electronic ones GREAT…My husband learned early in our marriage…I want his time…and stuff that we can share together…*: ) Not particularly interested in presents…I shared that in a Sunday School Class once and was not popular for quite awhile seems like there are lots of ladies that REALLY want the presents…i would much rather have the presence.