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Christian Anti-Consumerism
Consumerism doesn’t offer true fulfillment, but the One Who we follow does
(15) Don’t love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. (16) Everything that is in the world — the craving for whatever the body feels, the craving for whatever the eyes see and the arrogant pride in one’s possessions — is not of the Father but is of the world. (17) And the world and its cravings are passing away, but the person who does the will of God remains forever.
So reads the message of 1 John 2:15–17 (CEB), a truly important message for our era and in my opinion one of the most important ideas in Christianity, though it unfortunately gets overlooked by many, Christians included.
We live in a culture that pushes consumerism on us. It’s nearly impossible to escape because we see it all around us. “Buy, buy, buy.” Companies have mastered the art of selling us things we don’t need by tricking us with advertising to think we need them, and/or by enticing our lusts, desires, and appetites through (once again) advertising. Companies are very good at appealing to our desires, an emotional part of us, to persuade us to make an emotional, short-term decision to purchase something. In the process we may even ignore what the intellectual side of us has to say about this purchase.
