How Concerned Should Christians Be with Consumerism?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome back to the podcast.
00:00:05.400 | We hope your Christmas was delightful and Christ-honoring.
00:00:08.880 | I'm guessing the holiday did not pass
00:00:10.400 | without you feeling its cost too.
00:00:12.300 | Reports say that American adults spend over $900
00:00:15.320 | on Christmas gifts each,
00:00:16.760 | a total of over $1 trillion shelled out on electronics,
00:00:21.060 | video games, clothes, books, jewelry, music, toys,
00:00:23.820 | and one of the most beloved gifts of all, gift cards.
00:00:27.420 | While it's now thick with those gift cards,
00:00:29.520 | how do we live contentedly
00:00:31.120 | in this overabundant consumer culture?
00:00:33.700 | The question is not only on the minds of Americans.
00:00:35.500 | In fact, today's question arrives from South Wales
00:00:38.020 | from a podcast listener named Lauren.
00:00:40.660 | Hello, Pastor John, thank you for your ministry.
00:00:42.640 | My question is regarding ethical consumerism.
00:00:45.620 | As a Christian, I wanna live a non-exploitative,
00:00:47.820 | Christ-honoring life, and as part of that,
00:00:49.800 | I've recently been making efforts
00:00:51.260 | to make lifestyle decisions which are more ethical,
00:00:53.740 | such as switching to meat,
00:00:54.900 | which does not arise from inhumane or cruel treatment,
00:00:58.100 | and buying clothes from sources where workers
00:00:59.780 | have received fair treatment.
00:01:01.580 | However, having started down this path,
00:01:03.300 | I see that it could become all-consuming,
00:01:05.340 | using reusable containers,
00:01:06.780 | carrying my own takeaway cup everywhere, et cetera,
00:01:09.860 | and I also anticipate that it could have
00:01:11.120 | a fairly negligible impact as I'm just one person.
00:01:14.900 | So how do we navigate a life
00:01:16.740 | where consumable goods are so abundant?
00:01:20.940 | I think Lauren puts her finger on a key issue,
00:01:25.100 | even in answer to her own question,
00:01:27.220 | on a key issue with the words,
00:01:30.860 | "Ethical consumerism could become all-consuming."
00:01:35.740 | I don't even know if she meant to make it that clever.
00:01:39.180 | Consumerism consumes.
00:01:41.620 | That would be a great irony, wouldn't it,
00:01:44.180 | to be consumed by ethical consuming,
00:01:48.780 | and what would make it more than an irony,
00:01:52.140 | namely a tragedy, is if being consumed
00:01:57.380 | we're not just being preoccupied,
00:02:01.020 | but actually being eaten and destroyed.
00:02:05.060 | Now, is that possible?
00:02:06.060 | How might we avoid that?
00:02:08.340 | 'Cause she raises that specter
00:02:11.300 | that we might be consumed by ethical consuming.
00:02:16.300 | Now, in principle, I can't see why any of us
00:02:21.220 | should oppose being more discerning about what we consume,
00:02:26.860 | discerning about its origin, just or unjust,
00:02:30.860 | discerning about its effects, harmful or healthy,
00:02:35.860 | discerning about its process of delivery,
00:02:39.460 | honest or black market.
00:02:41.420 | So forming judgments about these things
00:02:44.860 | based on truth is a good thing to do.
00:02:48.820 | So being a discerning consumer
00:02:50.660 | rather than an undiscerning one is a good thing.
00:02:55.180 | Just origins are better than unjust.
00:02:58.820 | Healthy effects are better than harmful.
00:03:02.500 | Honest delivery is better than black market.
00:03:06.780 | But what Lauren is making clear
00:03:10.020 | is that discernment takes into account other realities.
00:03:15.020 | Besides product origins, product effects, product delivery,
00:03:22.020 | she points out that the life focus and life effort
00:03:27.020 | that go into discerning origins and effects
00:03:30.820 | and deliveries of dozens and dozens of products
00:03:34.220 | could become so all-consuming
00:03:37.740 | that it's totally out of proportion
00:03:40.040 | to the amount of good being done
00:03:42.340 | and might be doing damage elsewhere.
00:03:45.220 | In other words, more needs to be discerned
00:03:47.820 | than it first meets the eye.
00:03:49.740 | She asks, how can we navigate such issues?
00:03:54.620 | Now, it sounds to me like she already has a good grasp
00:03:58.060 | on the main answer to that question,
00:04:00.180 | namely, don't let the effort to be discerning
00:04:04.000 | about origins, effects, and delivery of goods
00:04:07.420 | cloud your discernment about how to be a good steward
00:04:12.420 | of your limited life focus and life effort.
00:04:16.880 | Be discerning about that as well.
00:04:19.380 | So maybe what I could do is provide a little more food
00:04:24.380 | for this bigger discernment to feed on.
00:04:28.020 | So here are a few tastes of what I have in mind.
00:04:31.620 | I have often said Christians care about all suffering,
00:04:36.620 | especially eternal suffering.
00:04:39.660 | Christians are people who see that God has warned
00:04:43.720 | about eternal suffering for guilty sinners,
00:04:46.380 | and they have seen that he provided the one way of escape,
00:04:50.220 | namely, the death and resurrection of his son, Jesus Christ,
00:04:53.980 | in the place of sinners who trust him.
00:04:56.280 | That perspective on the world changes everything.
00:05:01.220 | We care about all suffering,
00:05:03.660 | but especially eternal suffering.
00:05:05.700 | So let's restate that in three ways
00:05:10.700 | that make it more obviously relevant
00:05:13.520 | for ethical consumerism or ethical consuming.
00:05:17.820 | One, Christians care about all good deeds,
00:05:22.620 | especially the good deeds that are the effect
00:05:25.500 | of saving faith and the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
00:05:28.740 | In other words, Christians are glad
00:05:32.980 | when unbelievers act justly and do what leads to health,
00:05:39.400 | but we are more glad when justice and health grow
00:05:44.400 | in the soil of saving faith by the power of God's Spirit.
00:05:48.820 | These are the only good deeds
00:05:50.840 | that will survive the judgment.
00:05:53.580 | Second, Christians care about all environmental damage
00:05:58.580 | that hurts human beings,
00:06:01.780 | especially the final burning up of the earth
00:06:06.580 | that leaves only the faithful and the works done in faith.
00:06:11.180 | Second Peter 3:10,
00:06:12.700 | "The day of the Lord will come like a thief,
00:06:15.260 | and then the heavens will pass away with a roar,
00:06:18.620 | and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved,
00:06:22.180 | and the earth and the works that are done on it
00:06:25.080 | will be found out."
00:06:27.460 | In other words, it matters what happens to human beings
00:06:31.700 | as an effect of what happens to the planet.
00:06:35.060 | And Christians know that what is going to happen
00:06:37.700 | to the planet is that it will be purged as by fire
00:06:42.080 | of all that is unbelieving and ungodly and unrighteous.
00:06:45.140 | They care about that more than they care
00:06:47.300 | about what happens to the earth
00:06:48.700 | and the damage it does to human beings now.
00:06:50.860 | Not that they don't care about that, but more.
00:06:53.360 | It's a matter of proportion.
00:06:54.620 | And number three, Christians care about all honest work
00:07:01.500 | and that it be properly rewarded everywhere in the world.
00:07:06.500 | But we care especially about the final reckoning
00:07:11.380 | when everyone is rewarded with perfect justice
00:07:14.340 | according to our deeds.
00:07:16.380 | First Peter 1:17,
00:07:18.040 | "God judges impartially according to each one's deeds.
00:07:22.900 | So conduct yourselves with fear
00:07:24.340 | throughout the time of your exile."
00:07:26.540 | We want people now to receive from man
00:07:31.540 | what will result in a life of health and longevity.
00:07:35.420 | But oh, how much more we want for people to receive from God
00:07:39.580 | what will result in perfect health and eternal longevity
00:07:43.060 | at the end of the age.
00:07:44.820 | So here's the point I'm making.
00:07:46.640 | Yes, we need to be discerning about the justice
00:07:50.900 | of the origin of consumable goods.
00:07:53.980 | And yes, we need to be discerning about the health
00:07:58.140 | of the effect of the consumable goods.
00:08:01.020 | And yes, we need to be discerning about honesty
00:08:05.420 | and the way goods are delivered.
00:08:08.500 | But Christians are people who see such things
00:08:12.920 | in a much, much, much bigger context
00:08:17.920 | than this world sees them and then this world is.
00:08:22.860 | And we must also be discerning therefore
00:08:26.020 | about the proportion of life focus and life effort
00:08:31.020 | that is allotted to such concerns.
00:08:36.220 | And I'm suggesting that one of the keys
00:08:39.100 | to navigating our way among these concerns
00:08:43.420 | is to know the bigger issues
00:08:46.980 | and be even more passionate about them
00:08:51.340 | than we are about the smaller ones.
00:08:53.780 | - Very good, Pastor John, thank you.
00:08:55.340 | And wherever you're listening right now,
00:08:57.300 | in South Wales, South London, South America, South Dakota,
00:09:01.060 | thanks for joining us today.
00:09:02.520 | Be sure to subscribe to Ask Pastor John
00:09:04.540 | in your favorite podcast app in YouTube or in Spotify.
00:09:08.020 | And for our episode archive
00:09:09.420 | or to submit a question of your own,
00:09:10.660 | go to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:09:14.400 | Well, we approach a new year, 2020 is upon us.
00:09:18.520 | And the new year brings with it new Bible reading questions.
00:09:22.020 | And I think that's up on Monday.
00:09:24.380 | I may be wrong.
00:09:25.380 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke,
00:09:26.300 | and together we'll find out on Monday.
00:09:28.500 | We'll see you then.
00:09:29.500 | (upbeat music)
00:09:32.080 | (upbeat music)
00:09:34.660 | [BLANK_AUDIO]