A Poverty Mindset

     The one who owns everything has no need to be attached to anything. He has no need to hoard, because everything belongs to him. 

     I've been meditating on the end of 1 Corinthians 3 this morning, as well as the need for Jesus' disciples to let go of all of their attachments, including the property they own.  Those who belong to Christ, also belong to God. They are one thing with Him. Everything belongs to God from one end of creation to the other. Therefore, everything also belongs to Christ, and everything also belongs to those who are one with Him. 

     For this reason, clinging to anything, any property as uniquely one's own and to be protected, is absurd. It's to adopt what has been called a "poverty mindset." It's the same as the son of a very wealthy man choosing not to make use of his family's wealth, even though his father would freely share it on a "what's mine is yours" basis, but to try and gain his own through his own efforts. While working for your own wealth may be ethically admirable, it is absurd when you already have access to everything you could ever need. It's digging through the garbage for your provision when you need only go to the family storehouse.

      This, more than anything, drives the conditions of discipleship to let go of anything and everything which becomes an obstacle to Jesus Christ, whether it's personal relationships, personal wealth or property, personal self-identity, or anything else. It is all to be let go as so much crap ("skubala" according to Paul in Philippians) as we learn to make use of the shared wealth of literally the entire creation, the shared inheritance which we have through our union with Jesus Christ which He receives from the Father.