For the last 6 months I have been studying the history of many of the ancient Christian spiritual leaders of the faith. I have begun to see church history in the context of real people simply trying to follow God in their times. As I have been doing this, I saw a common thread develop in the lives of many of the most revered heroes of the church. Antony, Augustine, Gregory the great, St. Benedict of Nursia, St. Clare and Francis of Assisi for example.
All of these (and many others) deliberately left wealth, comfort, riches and position with no hope of getting them back. I don't mean they had them taken from them- they chose to give them up willingly. Each one did so, not thinking that God would reward them in kind. Each one did so with a clear statement that they believed a life of discipline, asceticism or forms of monasticism were proper responses to Jesus invitation to follow him.
They assumed Jesus words were to be literally followed when he said:
"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."(Luke 16:13)
The aforementioned people did not think it wise to be "balanced", but instead to leave all hope of their worldly possessions and abandon themselves to Jesus. In fact, some believed that to follow Christ in life meant literally we should live in purposeful poverty, if we are to follow Christ's message and example.
This is a far cry from today's general Christian message of "balance" and "stewardship". I am certainly not saying that God does not call us to stewardship, but most of the times Christ used money or wealth in his teachings, he was using them as symbols in an analogy to teach about faithfulness, stewardship and the like. What he did actually say literally about money is much more similar to the verse quoted above.
But here we are in the 21st century. What is our real concept of devotion to Christ in this regard? Should we leave possessions, money, position and comfort to follow Christ?
How do we honestly think about this today? I seriously would like to hear your thoughts on this.
Sincerely,
Kim Gentes
God,