A World Without Money

I recently came across this video on the BBC news website about American, Daniel Suelo, who has chosen to live entirely without money for the last 12 years. Although I have to admit that for most people it doesn't sound like a very practical option, I did nevertheless find his story very inspiring.

Suelo survives by foraging and scavenging and on gifts from friends and strangers. His philosophy is to use only what is freely given or discarded, or already present and available.

Suelo has proved that it is possible for one person to live like this, but what if everyone tried? If we all tried to live out of dumpsters or on hand-outs, who would do the work of producing the food and other resources that we all need? Is Suelo a visionary demonstrating a new way to live, or just a bum who lives off other people's hard work? Suelo's own answer to that question is here, but here are some of my thoughts:

First off - as I suspect many of my readers will have already concluded - it doesn't seem realistic to me that everyone should try to live like Suelo. There are 7 billion of us on this planet and we can't all survive by scavenging. There wouldn't be enough food (or caves - such as the one Suelo lives in!) to go around. I do think though, that Suelo's choice of lifestyle nevertheless presents a very real challenge to the rest of us which does deserve to be taken very seriously.

On his website, Suelo goes so far as to compare our financial system of credit and debt with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For those not familiar with the Bible, this is the tree from which Adam and Eve - the first humans - ate, when they rebelled against God in the garden of Eden. If Suelo's comparison seems a bit of a leap, consider that before their rebellion, Adam and Eve lived in a permanent state of grace. There were no rules and they had everything provided for them - all they had to do was gratefully receive it and obey God by not eating from that tree! But rather than trust God, they ate from the tree - thus choosing self-sufficiency instead. Cut off from God and His loving influence by their own choice, humanity quickly deteriorated into all kinds of wickedness. This was compounded by the guilt they now had from their new-found insight into the nature of right and wrong. Cut off from God's grace and forgiveness, they designed systems to try to control their destructive behaviour ... and to keep score!

Meanwhile, money - credit and debt - is another way of keeping score and of trying to be in control. It's all about entitlement. If I have this piece of paper, then I'm entitled to that product or those services. We all know where we stand as long as everyone keeps the rules. In the beginning though, there was no entitlement, no keeping score. In a world where love and grace are in charge, there is simply no need for these things.

Having thought this through a little further, I find myself coming to the somewhat startling conclusion that at it's core - as necessary as it may seem to modern life - money is in fact profoundly anti-Christian! The Bible never goes so far as to condemn all money outright, but it does radically undermine that sense of entitlement on which all financial transactions depend. If Suelo's way of life seems radical, listen to some of Jesus' words on this subject:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

- Matthew 6 verses 25-34 

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

- Matthew 6 verses 19-21 

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.

- Matthew 6 verse 24

If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.

- Matthew 19 verse 21

Consider these words as well, written by the apostle Paul - one of the earliest of the first generation of Christian leaders:

Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

- 1 Timothy 6 verses 6-10

Finally, consider the explosive effect that the original Christian message had on some of its earliest converts:

All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

- Acts 2 verses 44-45

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there was no needy person among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

- Acts 4 verses 32-35

One of the most immediate and powerful effects then, of the "gospel" - the message of God's grace made available to us again through Jesus, as it was originally understood - is that the barriers of "entitlement" are broken down. "No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own". It doesn't matter any more! That's grace in action!

Most Christians alive in the world today - sadly including myself - have lost the initial power and impact of this message, but whether we like it or not, this is still where we are all going!

There has been much speculation in Christian circles for 2,000 years regarding the nature of the afterlife. The idea of some sort of ethereal heavenly bliss that has been promoted so heavily by the church for centuries is now slowly giving way again in many quarters to the idea of bodily resurrection to a new/renewed creation, as was originally preached by the early believers. Whatever the next world is like though - whether it's completely disjointed from this one or is in some way a continuation of it - there are certain things we can be sure about if we take seriously anything the Bible has to say:

1. God will be very present there, and God will be in charge.
2. It will be a world ruled by love - because God is love - and by grace.
3. It will be a world free from evil. Evil will have had it's day in this world and having done its worst, will be given no place in the new one.

Will there be any "entitlement" in the new world? Will there be rules and regulations? Will there be credit and debt? Will there be money?

I suspect not!

Glorious Grace

Most religions - and Christianity is no exception - include some sort of teaching regarding what is or isn't good or acceptable behaviour.

In Christianity, the bar often seems exceptionally high - for example:

• "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
• "You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you"
• "Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven."
• "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."
• "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

(the above all come from Jesus' famous "Sermon on the Mount" in Matthew chapters 5-7)

• "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

(Matthew 22 verses 37-40)

One of the things I love most about my faith, but which in some ways also serves to compound the above, is that God isn't just standing at a distance somewhere dishing out commandments for us to follow.  He actually got involved!  The Bible teaches that God became a man in Jesus, suffered all the same temptations we do and then suffered and died - willingly, and without bitterness - for our sakes.  A Christian - by definition - is a follower of Christ.  We're called not only to obey His teaching but to follow the example He set for us by His way of life.

I have to put my hand up right here and now and say that I can't do this! I am not the sort of person that Jesus was! I am selfish, proud and competitive. I am often critical of others and get jealous of other people's success. I worry about what other people think of me. Even while I'm trying to do good I often find I'm congratulating myself on my "noble" behaviour! As the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7: "For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing."

So what hope is there for someone like me (or you, come to think of it!)? Quite a lot as it turns out! The apostle Paul has this to say in Romans 3:

"But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith."

The "law" was the instructions for living given to the Jews through Moses - their greatest prophet. God promised to look after the Jewish people and in return they were expected to live according to God's law.  The problem was that the Jews were not able to keep their side of the agreement - instead of helping them to live better lives, the law all too often just ended up showing them how bad they were! Something else was needed.

Contained within the law, were various instructions regarding sacrifices, which to some extent could be used by the Jews to atone for their failings. Sin - as we all know - has a price. When we behave selfishly or greedily it affects others - they suffer and in the end we suffer as well. The sacrificial system was a way for the Jews to acknowledge the price of sin and take some responsibility for it. It also acknowledges the effect that sin has on those who are not responsible - the poor animals used in the sacrifices had done nothing wrong, but they ended up suffering for someone else's mistakes!

In the above quote from the book of Romans, Paul is referring back to this sacrificial system when he then says, "God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood". When Jesus was crucified he completed the old sacrificial system (which as it now turns out, for various historical reasons, is no longer practised), by taking responsibility, once and for all, for my sin and yours. He acknowledged the damage that sin does, in my life and yours and in all of our relationships - with God and with each other - and He took personal responsibility for it! That's just staggering when you think about it!

Because of this it is now possible for you and I to have a relationship with God that is based, not on adherence to a set of moral instructions, but on God taking personal responsibility for us and on what Jesus has done on our behalf!  This is "grace" - God's undeserved favour towards us, based not on what we have done or will do, but purely on His love and forgiveness.

Finally, the last 5 words of the above quote from Romans are significant - "to be received by faith".  This is where we come in.  Jesus has done all this for our benefit - but we only get the benefit when we opt in, and we opt in by faith - by saying, "yes I want this, yes I accept it, yes I want to be part of it".  Faith in Jesus still means being His follower which still means learning to live the way He did - and that's not easy, but it's a process. The relationship bit is sorted though - we belong to God now and it's His job to look after us and help us to work this through.