The Other Word For Spend
You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. James 4:3
Spend – James would never survive in this world of politically correct speech. You see, he doesn’t try to soften the vocabulary at all. He uses the Greek verb dapanao. While it is true that it can mean “spend”, in the negative sense it is much stronger. Here it really means “waste.” James was a student of his big brother. He remembered the parable of the prodigal. He never forgot that the prodigal did not spend his inheritance. He wasted it! So goes the story of every man and women who takes what God has given and spends it on anything except what God intends. It is not just exchanged for something else. It is wasted! It is thrown to the pigs. As Samuel said centuries before, it is tohu – worthless – because it neither profits nor delivers.
“Wasted on pleasures.” That is a truly frightening indictment. Go ahead. Make the list of all those things you just had to have – those things that you needed to satisfy your longing for hedone (the Greek word translated “pleasure” – do you see the English hedonism in it?). That beautiful piece of jewelry you just had to have, that nice car, that vacation home you use three times a year, that ATV in the garage, that Bowflex gathering dust, that bulging retirement account. I am sure you will be able to find at least a dozen “had to have” items in the closet. It’s a good thing that God is forgiving. How else could we possibly stand before Him and justify our lavish extravagance and affluent arrogance in the face of the question, “What did you do with the least of these?”
Oh, yes. Don’t think that you escape just because you drive a ten-year-old car and don’t wear a Rolex. The issue is not how much you have (or how little). The issue is why you have what you have. I have observed plenty of people who have nothing and are saturated with the desire to spend on themselves. Motive – not results. It works in reverse too. That’s why the widow’s two pennies were more valuable than the rich religious leaders’ bags of gold. You can be a have or a have-not and still suffer from a deep desire to satisfy yourself.
Does that mean I must become a hermit? Does that mean I must sell all I have and give it to the poor? Yes, it does – if that is the only way I can deal with my wicked intention to have what I want. Didn’t Jesus say as much? Better to enter the kingdom of heaven without an arm or an eye than to spend (pun intended) eternity in hell.
Spend lavishly, my friend. But first determine the reason for your expenditure. Get God’s go ahead. He never wastes a thing.
