Chapter Six: Self Spent Money

Chapter six of A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life draws out many of the implications from chapter 5 concerning how Christians should use their money. It is not a neutral command from Jesus that we should help the poor and not love our money. It is not a simple suggestion that the love of money will destroy us. Law shows that our affections will be formed and changed as we spend our money on different things. If we then pour our resources and invest in temporal things our hearts will be attached to those things. The Christian, however, is to use their means to obey the Lord and advance the kingdom. Law observes that living and spending money on our own desires is “like keeping money from the poor, to buy poison for ourselves.” Therefore, he concludes that “it is absolutely necessary to make reason and religion the strict rule of using all our fortune.”

Law continues by simply drawing out the implications from the text of Scripture. There is no need to be overly sentimental or to play on the emotions of people. He points to Scripture and makes observations that must be true if the Bible is trustworthy. The reality is that in our world today we are focused on getting and keeping riches and gains for our aggrandizement. What are the benefits that we can gain when we purchase something? What are the returns on our investments? We do not trust that God tells the truth to us when He says that we must seek first the kingdom, even and especially with our money.

Study Question:

How would you spend money differently if all of your priorities were controlled by the Kingdom?

Is God trustworthy when it comes to your money?

Why is it difficult to believe and act on what God says about our money and the poor?

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Book Study by Caleb Nedimyer