Simplicity: Widely Praised, Hardly Practiced

Detachment from material possessions, the mark of Jesus Christ's birth. Photo provided by unsplash.com

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(OPINION) Jesus said we cannot — can not — be his disciples unless we give up all our possessions. Why then does it seem so few Christians take this seriously?

Lately I’ve been thinking about possessions, especially when I see yet another self-storage building going up. Self-storage units have been around for decades, but over the past few years, they’ve grown in popularity. Today there’s over 1.7 billion square feet of storage space in an estimated 45,000 to 60,000 facilities nationwide, according to Sparefoot.

While self-storage units are typically not aesthetically pleasing, they do tell us something about possessions. A lot of us have a lot of them — and a lot of us have trouble getting rid of a lot of our stuff. What’s going on here? Dallas Willard’s wisdom frames the answer. “Your system is perfectly designed to yield the result you are getting.”

And what sort of system makes us possessive? Dallas Willard knew.

Willard wrote how 19th century evangelical revivalists like Charles Finney introduced “gospels of sin management.” The cross was narrowed to payment for sin, so Jesus solved — managed — my sin problem. I’m saved. But what does this have to do with discipleship and not having any possessions? The connection is not apparent to most Christians.

It is to Tim Keller.

Keller founded Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. He wrote that Charles Finney introduced a form of faith that put an inordinate weight on an individual’s personal decision for Jesus. Faith shifted from church-centric to individual-centric. The church began to hire larger staffs to cater to Christians’ increasingly consumerist demands. “And this is one of the reasons (though not the only reason),” wrote Keller, “that we have the highly individualistic, consumerist evangelicalism of today.”

A highly individualistic consumerist evangelicalism merely mirrors our highly individualistic American consumerist society. Trapped inside this hall of mirrors, we forget the nature of possessions: If you can’t give them up, you don’t possess them; they possesses you.

Jesus warned us about this: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:15)

Paul told Timothy to warn the rich in his flock about this: “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth. … Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous.” (1 Timothy 6:17-18)

The word command here is a military term. It’s found only here in the Bible. It’s not a suggestion. It’s a no-nonsense command — what we rarely hear in consumerist faith traditions. Paul’s point is that whatever we possess invariably comes to possess us.

And therein lies the way out of this hall of mirrors. It’s called the “marital gospel,” Jesus “marrying” us, his bride, the church. It’s depicted in Song of Songs, in the bride’s beautiful progression in the development of her love for her lover, her husband. She becomes enraptured as she progresses from possessing her husband to being possessed by him.

It’s a subtle shift.

It’s starts with a young bride. After some early difficulties in their marriage, she declares, “My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feeds among the lilies” (2:16). In some traditions, a white lily symbolizes purity, innocence, and fertility — in others, resurrection to new life (Easter). Either way, we’re talking about church, the bride. In Song of Songs, this young bride is so happy that the one she so ardently longed for has indeed become her own possession — just as she has become his.

What follows is a season of separation and struggle. The maturing wife learns to appreciate her husband’s beauties in deeper ways. Their fellowship goes deeper. “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine: he feeds among the lilies” (6:3). Here the emphasis has changed. She finds more delight in being possessed by him than in possessing him.

This opens the door to even deeper penetration by her husband. He reveals the depths of his love (6:4-7:9). The mature wife, deeply secure in his love, no longer cares about what is hers. She cares only that she belongs to him and that he desires her: “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.” In a mystical sense, she is possessed, having no possessions.

This is the bride Jesus longs for.

This is why Jesus said you cannot be his disciple if you have any possessions (Luke 14:33). A disciple is true to Christ … the meaning of the word betrothed, “to be true.” This is why Paul writes, “I betrothed (married) you to Christ that I might present you as a pure virgin” (2 Corinthians 11:2) Discipleship is the bride preparing to be presented as a pure virgin, being so possessed by Jesus’ spousal love that we find more delight in being possessed by him than in having a whole bunch of possessions we have difficulty letting go of.

I don’t sense many Christians hear this enchanting gospel anymore. So the reality that Jesus warned us about, we cannot — can not — be his disciples unless we give up all our possessions is widely praised (we certainly don’t want to disagree with Jesus) … but hardly practiced.

I bet Jesus wants us to do better than this.

Michael Metzger is the president and founder of the "The Clapham Institute". This piece was republished with permission from the institute’s blog.