I have said a number of times across recent weeks that Christians have something of a Gnostic tendency around this time of year. Spirit = Good; Material = Bad. Therefore, it is often assumed that all the material stuff around Christmas is just bad. The focus on Christ, the nativity, the scriptures and the coming of the promised Messiah = Good. The sharing of presents, eating of nice food, the decorations, and the filthy lucre spent on all these trinkets = Bad. Very, very bad! The thing is, it just isn’t biblical.
Let’s just consider a few bits of scripture (and there are plenty of others we might think about), to see what the Bible says about enjoying material things:
1 Timothy 6:17 instructs us to set our hope on God ‘who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.’ God wants us to enjoy things. Things. That is, stuff. Indeed, Paul goes on in 1 Timothy 6:18-19: ‘Instruct them [the rich] to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to share, storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of what is truly life.’ Those who have ought to be generous, giving, willing to share. I take Paul to mean here that not only does God give us good things to enjoy, but he actively encourages us to be generous so that others may also enjoy these good gifts too.
Let’s think about Ecclesiastes 9:7-10:
7 Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works. 8 Let your clothes be white all the time, and never let oil be lacking on your head. 9 Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life, which has been given to you under the sun, all your fleeting days. For that is your portion in life and in your struggle under the sun. 10 Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength, because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.
The writer has been saying that death comes to all. So, knowing that death is coming, we ought to find enjoyment where we can as circumstances allow. We don’t know if our life will be hard or easy in the ordinary run of things. Therefore, the writer says, enjoy life as and when you are able. Those who are godly will both enjoy life as circumstances allow and (v7) acknowledge such enjoyment is due to God’s favour on them (cf. Ecc 2:24-26; 3:13).
But perhaps the point is made clearest of all in another section from Ecclesiastes 5:
19 Furthermore, everyone to whom God has given riches and wealth, he has also allowed him to enjoy them, take his reward, and rejoice in his labor. This is a gift of God, 20 for he does not often consider the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart.
What does the writer say here? God has given riches and wealth to some and – most notably – allowed him to enjoy them. Such a person will not focus on the darker realities of life because of the greater joy he takes in the good gifts God has given to him (riches, wealth, stuff and the enjoyment thereof). But the writer couldn’t be clearer: God gives us good gifts to enjoy, and these gifts include money, wealth, possessions and all manner of material things. Scripture says the enjoyment of material things is both entirely legitimate and actively encourages in it as those who recognise such things are God’s gift to us.
An illustration I have used a number of times before – and always seems more powerful at Christmas – centres on our own gift giving. I would be absolutely devastated if I gave my children an expensive, amazing gift that I knew they really wanted only for them to open it, thank me for it and then refuse to use it unless they could discover or create some specifically spiritual way to enjoy it. I would not be pleased if they kept thanking me for it but never actually using it or playing with it. In the end, I buy my children gifts because I want them to enjoy the gift and I get joy from seeing them enjoy it.
There seems to be something in us as Christians, however, that refuses to believe – even though God expressly says so a number of times (we could have looked at other passages of scripture that make the same point) – that God is actually pleased with us just enjoying stuff. Material stuff. Stuff that doesn’t have any apparent or overt spiritual value. Stuff that we don’t strictly need, that costs money, that uses up time, that has little to no other value other than the sheer enjoyment we get out of it. And yet, that is expressly what God’s Word says!
We understand that God is pleased if we read our Bible. If someone gifts us a Bible, and we enjoy reading it, we understand he might take pleasure in us enjoying his Word. But we don’t really believe that God takes pleasure in us as we enjoy playing computer games, watching films, playing sports, jumping in muddy puddles, or whatever it is you might just enjoy for its own sake. The Bible says that God gives us bread to eat – a basic, fairly boring staple food – so we can get our heads around him being pleased to give that to us. We need it and God takes care of our basic needs. We can’t quite accept that enjoying nice, but not strictly necessary, food like chocolates, cakes or whatever it is that floats your boat counts as God’s good gift to us too. Even when the Bible says wine is one of God’s good gifts (cf. Psalm 104:14-15; Judges 9:13; Ecclesiastes 10:19) – which is neither strictly necessary for us and, in some people’s eyes, is downright problematic – we still don’t quite believe it.
On the point of wine, some of us might need to take another part of God’s Word seriously: ‘Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter’ (Isaiah 5:20). God calls wine good. Indeed, he calls the many material things in the world that he has specifically given to us to enjoy, good. Who are we to say to him that he got it wrong? Who are we to say his gifts are bad? Sorry, Lord, but these things you’ve given us to enjoy are actually evil! Not only are we in no position to say this to God, how galling to create a world full of such good gifts and give them to your creatures to fully enjoy only for them to tell you that you never should have given them to us in the first place!
All of which brings me back to Christmas. The gifts, the food, the drink (yes, even the wine!) are all good gifts to be enjoyed. The Psalmist tells us in no uncertain terms: ‘the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof’. Everything in the world belongs ultimately to Jesus and Paul tells us that we, as believers, stand to inherit everything as co-heirs with Christ (Rom 8.17; 1 Cor 3:21-23). If the whole material universe and everything in it belongs to Christ, and we are co-heirs with him, then everything in the material universe will ultimately belong to us also (cf. Rom 8:32). Whatever is not sinful to enjoy, that we can fully enjoy to the glory of God (cf. 1 Cor 10:31) knowing that God delights in us as we enjoy his good gifts.
We don’t need to spend our lives worrying about whether our enjoyment of this or that thing is truly glorifying to God. When Christians encourage this falsely pious fear of enjoyment it is a prime example of what Paul is talking about in Colossians 2:
Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day… Let no one condemn you by delighting in ascetic practices and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm. Such people are inflated by empty notions of their unspiritual mind… If you died with Christ to the elements of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”? All these regulations refer to what is destined to perish by being used up; they are human commands and doctrines. Although these have a reputation for wisdom by promoting self-made religion, false humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.
Christmas and all its trappings is there to be enjoyed. The material aspects of Christmas are as much there to be actively enjoyed and are equally gifts from God as any of the spiritual aspects. The gifts, the food, the drink and all the merriment is legitimately enjoyable and God takes delight in our enjoyment of it whether you eat or drink or whatever you do.