THE UNCOMFORTABLE EXAMPLE OF PAUL

Warning: this post might cause some discomfort. It does for me. But here we go ...

Have you noticed an epidemic of American Christians preoccupied with building their own little "slice of paradise" here on earth. We spend lots of money to bring comfort and pleasure to our ourselves and our families. (Sometimes we spend money we don't even have.)

If I am honest, I fight the temptation myself. 

Other times I just give in. 

Thankfully, so far this particular temptation has been consistently held in check for me by the fact that God has never put enough wealth into my hands for me to build much of a paradise - at least not by American standards. (But does that matter? It's all relative.) 

Do we even hesitate before we pull out our wallets to pay for the biggest TVs, the most elaborate vacations, the newest gizmos, the most beautiful yards, and the most expensive toys? 

We, who are promised an eternity of heaven's joys, work hard in the meantime to insulate ourselves from the hardships and pains of this fallen world. 

We are trying to start vacation early while there's still work to be done. 

This striving after a pre-heaven paradise is so aligned with our culture's values that the church as a whole hardly even notices the inconsistency, much less preaches against it. 

After all, most pastors can't address this problem without being labeled hypocrites themselves. 

But then you have the Apostle Paul. 

Nobody could ever accuse him of being materialistic. He didn't spend his lifetime acquiring things. His experience of the life of faith was the exact opposite: he lost everything. 

If you are like me, you find Paul's sentiments in Philippians 3 to be both admirable and uncomfortably radical: 

But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.     (Phil 3:7-11)

Paul had a pronounced goal to his life, one he was willing to sacrifice everything for.

And it was not to own a bigger home in a nicer neighborhood.