Unattached to Things

"If someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well."
Matthew 5:40

In Jesus' code of ethics, there is no room for a desperate attachment to possessions. He never says we can't have them, but by example and by His teaching we learn that they are never to get in the way of our discipleship. Just as a demonstration of the kingdom of God is more important than a defense of our reputation in the opinions that don't really matter, so is it more important than the things we own. No material possession is worth sacrificing the display of God's kind of grace. When given the opportunity to show what is really important to us, we must take it.

What is it about our possessions that makes us so attached to them? Is it the way they make us feel? We have complete validation and security before God in our relationship with Jesus. What piece of property can add to that? But we hang on to our things as though they define us. What a misappropriation of God's mercies! He has defined us already, and our position in Him is high above the things of this world. Yet we cling to them with misplaced passions. What must God think when the heart He gave us is so earthly directed, even when offered such heavenly joys?

Things are temporary. We can be unattached to them because they offer us nothing we don't already have. We can't take them with us when we go, and we wouldn't want to. They will pale in comparison to the treasures that have already been laid up for us in Christ. Our hold on them - or their hold on us - reveals how much or how little we believe that.

When a situation compels you to choose between demonstrating grace to another or maintaining your grip on your things, which do you choose? We must decide which is more important to us: a defense of our physical possessions on earth, or a demonstration of the kingdom of God.

"God made man to be somebody, not just to have things." ~ Anonymus