The world is loud and clear that what makes you valuable is your ability to help or advance the person assigning value. If you can advance their career, benefit their family, or assist someone in something valuable to them, then you have value. Bottom line – your value is based on my perception of your ability to do something for me. Think about it, which are you more likely to spend $50 on? Are you morel likely to drop $50 on dinner for someone who might hire you or give you a promotion or are you more likely to give $50 to a guy with a cardboard sign standing at a nearby intersection? In both cases we lose $50 but in the first instance it is viewed as worth it because the $50 is more about us than it is about the other person.
God’s economy of worth doesn’t work like that. It is a great concept because there is nothing we can do to make God’s net worth go up. So our value in his eyes is not based on what we can do for him because he already owns everything. I love what Randy Harris says about this, “There is nothing you can do that will make God love you more than he already does.” That is a powerful concept. Whether we have $1 million in the bank or are in debt up to our eyeballs, God still loves us because he does not love us based on our potential to elevate or advance his position in the world.
What makes a person valuable? A person’s value is assigned by the One who has created them with value and the standards of the world can never detract from that. So beautiful or plain, tall or short, skinny or heavy, wealthy or poor…it doesn’t matter. You are valuable to God and that means as Christians…each and every person should be valuable to us as well. I wonder how often and how easily we buy into the world’s standards for what makes a person valuable rather than God’s standard?
5 Responses
Makes me think of this proverb:
“He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” (Proverbs 14:31)
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
Luke 14! I’ve got a great sermon on tape from Mark Love talking about this.
I wanna play with one concept though. You said, “God’s economy of worth doesn’t work like that. It is a great concept because there is nothing we can do to make God’s net worth go up. So our value in his eyes is not based on what we can do for him because he already owns everything.”
… EXCEPT, our hearts, which he does stake an ownership claim on. He allows us to hold back, give to something else, or give to him.
Soooooo…
Someone who was deft at turning hearts to God might be someone who God values at a higher level, no? Perhaps? I mean, James 5:19-20 says…
“My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”
Doesn’t that at least insinuates that there is a quid pro quo with God on some level?
But then of course there’s Matthew 7 which says…
“Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'”
So… hmmmm. What do you say, Dabbinator?
This post is about God’s value of us and not our value of him. I think you make some valid points of how we view God and the value we give Him in our lives. So the person turning hearts to God and the people being turned are worth no more and no less than each other. That would make a nice followup post.
I guess you could turn to the very next chapter in Luke and read about how God is willing to leave the 99 to find the 1. Is that about valuing one sheep over others or is the point the nature of God, who seeks those who are lost because they are just as valuable as those who are found?
There is so much truth in this post – I found it really touching. Just to add my 2 cents, I’m really just reiterating what you say in a slightly different way: I think it’s helpful to compare people with newborns. Is one newborn more valuable than another? I think, no. They are all equal. So why then should that newborn suddenly acquire a different value upon growing up? Our inner self – the deepest sense of “who we are” as God sees it – is the same in us as adults as when we were newborns. We may achieve all sorts of external things (money/ achievements/ prizes etc), but our core self stays with us and does not change in value. Simply being a child of God, on Earth, makes us valuable. It makes us all equally valuable. Li-Or
According to the Bible, your ability to be kind makes you valuable in God’s eyes. Read about the Sheep and the Goats. If you are unkind to the poor, you’ll go to hell.