Things

Mortimer Adler, in his classic, How To Read A Book, tells his readers that they must come to terms with an author (Ch 8). That is, you must understand the important words that the author uses in his/her writing to give you a greater understanding of a subject. How do you know what the important words are, you might ask? They, typically, are the words that you have difficulty with, words that you don't immediately understand in the context of the writing.

To understand a portion of the epistle of James you must come to terms with his specific usage of the word justification. He uses the same examples that Paul uses when talking about salvation, but uses the word justification in a different way. Without an understanding of how James uses the word, you might think that he believes in a works-based salvation (which he does not!).

In 1 Timothy, you must come to terms with the word faith. Paul uses the word faith in different ways according to the context in the letter. Paul sometimes uses the faith to mean a set of beliefs that constitutes orthodox belief, in opposition to a false set of beliefs that comes from believing false doctrine and living according to that false set of beliefs. For a further study on the word faith in the New Testament I recommend you begin by looking at Vines Expository Dictionary.

In Chapter 6 of 1 Timothy, Paul warns believers that the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. That love has the potential to draw a believer away from the faith into a false set of beliefs and, therefore, into false ways of viewing and living life. None of us, in our culture, are immune to the lure of the love of money and the false sets of beliefs that it imposes. You provide the context for the following statements:

• I can't have a child, we can't afford one right now.
• I'm too old to have children.
• I would love to do missionary work, but can't afford it.
• That's good for you, but I'm not as capable as you of doing that.
• We can't help with that, we have a house payment, two car payments, and credit card debt on all of our expensive toys.
• That's the job of the paid staff, I have to work for a living.
• Those people would be worse off if they didn't work for slave wages to provide cheap goods for us to buy.

Our present false set of teachings on materialism is termed the Health, Wealth, and Prosperity gospel. It is a tacit acceptance that the love of money is not the root of all sorts of evil. It is a heretical teaching and has consequently caused many to err from the faith...in their beliefs and in the way that they live. We need to come to terms with the fact that none of us are immune to the siren's call in our culture to have more and more and more...We then baptize it by believing that our worthless junk is a visible symbol of the blessing of God on us.

Heresy, a false set of beliefs, causes us to err from orthodox living. Things do not give us lasting satisfaction. They do give us a temporary fix (the passing pleasures of sin). We tend to need more and more. Let us use our possessions for the glory of God, for the furthering of His Kingdom, that we might take hold of that which is life indeed.