For about five minutes, nearly everyone in America is disgusted with how stores require their employees to work on Thanksgiving evening. Then, as the retail stores open, that thought gets thrown to the side. The greed of companies might be bad, but how can you pass up such good deals?
Even if you don’t go shopping on Black Friday and consider yourself above the masses, soon enough, in the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, you’ll find yourself looking for and thinking about how to buy all kinds of stuff – even if you hate shopping, like me.
You may not be in the rushing hordes of shoppers, but the love of stuff is a serious problem. Our excitement over the latest toys, gadgets, or clothes can very quickly shade over into idolatry. After all, how is our fascination with shiny new objects much different from the devotion to images of men, birds, animals, and creeping things that Paul talks about in Romans 1? We might not bow down to the things in our shopping bags, but we spend an awful lot of time, energy, and money getting them.
That’s what materialism is – the love of getting the stuff. The love of the feeling of having something new, something shiny, something that impresses everyone else. The love of feeling like you’ve achieved something because you spent 30% less on it than you would have in October. Those loves are idolatrous because they show that our attention, energy, and affection are centered on something else, in the place of God.
But the answer to materialism is not to do away with every single thing. Killing Christmas isn’t the solution. Getting rid of everything and living in a cardboard box won’t stop your idolatry. Even if you did those things, you would quickly find something else worship.
In Matthew 5:29-30, Jesus said that if our hand causes us to sin, we should cut it off. The problem (and the point) is that it is not your hand that causes you to sin. Neither is it your stuff. It’s your heart.
Throwing away all your nice things and refusing to go shopping this season will not make you a holier person than those who don’t. Only God’s Spirit can make you that.
The solution to the rampant materialism that rears its head in our culture during this season is not to do away with shopping, sales, or Christmas presents. The solution is to love Christ more deeply.
I think there’s a real, satanic reason why the love of things tends to well up in our hearts at this time of the year in particular. What better time is there to distract us from the Giver of every good and perfect gift? And what better way is there to distract us from the Lord, than to trick into settling for good things that are lesser than him who can give all those things, and abundantly more?
When we are thankful to the Giver, we don’t disregard his gifts. Our affection is directed in the right place by our remembering that it is God who gives us good things. We can be generous, and in return enjoy good things that God gives to us without fixating on the stuff.
Instead of rejecting the good things God has made, we return them to their proper place. That’s how you kill the love of stuff—not by hating it, but by loving God.
Caleb Greggsen lives and works in Louisville, KY. He serves as a member of Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville. He holds a Master’s of Divinity and a Bachelor’s of Applied Science (Psychology), and is pursuing fulltime ministry.
(This article first published November 26, 2014)
The Greatest Gift of All (and Reason) for Christmas
I heard that someone actually tried to calculate how much it would cost to give the gifts named in the classic Christmas song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas." The grand total came to about $15,000.
Some items were affordable, like a partridge in a pear tree for $34.99. Six turtledoves will run you somewhere around $50. Six geese-a-laying will cost around $150.
But the price takes off when you add 11 pipers piping. That is $1,000 right there. Then there are the 12 drummers drumming. With current union scale for musicians, they will run you another $1,000.
The price soars when you get 12 lords-a-leaping. We are talking $3,000 for them. Granted, I don't know where you would find them, but they are very expensive.
Still, the real message of Christmas is not the gifts we give each other. Instead, it is God's gift to each of us. It is the only gift that truly keeps on giving, so I want to point out four things about it.
The Greatest Gift of All
First, it is surprising. When Christmas rolls around, you often try to figure out if certain people have bought that gift you really wanted. Maybe you already know what they bought, because they didn't hide it very well. Or maybe you uncovered it by accident-or maybe not.
But when the day comes and you open the present, you have to pretend you're surprised. Yet all along, you knew what it was.
God's gift to us, however, was a complete surprise. It was not expected, and as you examine it more carefully, you realize how great a gift it actually was.
Second, God's gift came to us in the humblest of wrappings. What would you think if you saw a gift under your Christmas tree that was wrapped in newspaper and tied up with string? At first, you would probably assume that a guy wrapped it.
But think about God's gift to us. Jesus was not born in a palace of gold; He was born in a stable. He was clothed with rags. He was laid in a feeding trough.
Yet these things do not, in any way, diminish the story of Christ's birth. If anything, they help us realize God's great sacrifice for us. God's gift to humanity, the ultimate gift of eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ, came in the simplest and humblest of wrappings.
Third, we don't deserve this gift. At Christmas, we give gifts to those whom we care about, who have been kind to us over the past year, or who have given us a gift first. We don't give gifts to the person who has been slandering our name or to the angry neighbor who never has a kind word to say.
Yet God gave us His gift when we were His enemies. He didn't give this gift to us because we deserved it. In fact, it was just the opposite. The Bible tells us, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8 NKJV).
Fourth, the gift tells us something about the giver. When you want to give someone a gift, you start thinking about it ahead of time. Hopefully, you try to find what that person wants or needs.
When God decided to give us the gift of eternal life, it wasn't something that He just thought of on the fly. Long before there was a town called Bethlehem, a garden called Eden, and a planet called Earth, a decision was made in eternity that God would send forth His Son, born of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those that are under the law.
The Bible says that He was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). Make no mistake about it: this gift that God has given to us was the most sacrificial thing He possibly could have offered.
So Christmas isn't about the gifts you have under your tree right now. All of those things will be gone one day. All that will be left after this life is the human soul, which will live forever. We will put so much stock in what we have, but this will all pass away.
Life is about what happens beyond the grave. Life is about knowing the God who made you and who gave you the greatest gift you will ever receive.
- Excerpted from Greg Laurie, A New Beginning. Used with Permission
To learn how to use God’s resources responsibly during Black Friday, check out this interview with Mary Hunt:
Crosswalk.com: Ready to Have a Debt-Free Christmas?-Mary Hunt from crosswalkcom on GodTube.
What Does the Bible Say about Black Friday?
Because Black Friday shopping is a relatively new holiday tradition, the Bible never mentions Black Friday specifically. Therefore, the Bible does not say Christians should or should not go Black Friday shopping. It wasn't invented yet.
However, the Bible does have a great deal to say on the topic of money, spending, stewardship, and generosity. When we study Scripture, we find verses like these:
Proverbs 21:20 - "The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down."
Luke 12:15 - "...Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions."
Luke 12:34 - "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Acts 20:35 - "...It is more blessed to give than to receive."
1 Timothy 6:6 - "But godliness with contentment is great gain."
1 Peter 4:10 - "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms."
Because the Bible doesn't mention Black Friday shopping specifically, it's up to each of us as Christians to research what the Bible says about money in general so we can take the Bible's general principles and apply them to our lives today.
(Excerpted from Can Christians Go Black Friday Shopping? by Brittany Ann)
If you enjoyed this content, you may enjoy the following articles about Black Friday:
Don't Let Black Friday Tarnish the Meaning of Advent
Remembering a Black Friday to Die For
Is it Wrong to Go Black Friday Shopping?
10 Things You Can Do on Black Friday Besides Shop
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/nicoletaionescu
