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Transcript 414A
—The Question of Saving Our Money
—The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Yes, Mr. Camping. I'd like to ask you two questions, and I'll take my answer on the air. One of them is: what do you think a Christian's view should be toward retirement and savings accounts and life insurance, that whole package of saving for the future? And second of all, in John and a couple of other places there's a disciple referred to as the disciple "whom Jesus loved." And in a couple of places it uses the Greek word agape, and in a couple of other places it's the phileo type of love. Could you explain why he uses it in one place and not in the other? And does Jesus here mean that He though a little more highly of this particular disciple? Or was He a good close friend of his, or what?
HC: The question is raised, first of all, does the Bible have to say anything about retirement plans, life insurance, saving for the future, saving for a rainy day, or whatever? Isn't it sufficient for us to trust in the Lord day by day, knowing that God will take care of us?
Well, certainly if we put our trust, if we put our confidence, if we put our security in riches, in the things that money will buy, then we're going down the wrong track. On the other hand, the Bible does teach that anyone who does not care for his own relatives is worse than an infidel, or worse than an unbeliever. In other words, God indicates that we have a responsibility toward our family.
Knowing that God may spare us to a ripe old age, or anticipating that this might happen, I don't find anything in the Bible that would indicate we are not to plan. Well, let's be very simple about it. Let's start out simply, and then we'll expand it a little bit.
Certainly to have a few dollars in the teapot, or wherever we would keep our money, or in the bank or in our pocketbook, so that we'll have groceries for tomorrow, we automatically would sense that would not be wrong. We know that we have to live tomorrow as well as today. Certainly to take our paycheck and budget it out so that it will accommodate the groceries for the whole month is certainly in keeping with decent stewardship as we live our life. And of course we have to say all this in the framework that we are stewards of what God has given us, and we want to plan our life so that as much as possible of what we have will be available for the Lord, as much as possible that can ultimately be used to His glory, to His service.
Now let's plan it beyond one month, and let's plan it until the day that we retire. Certainly to set aside some funds through life insurance or through a retirement program, so that we might have some funds to care for us during those years when we cannot work is God-glorifying. It would fall into the same pattern as budgeting our paycheck for the month.
If we, however, are budgeting our paycheck so that we'll have a lot of money for personal pursuit of pleasure, just to heap the goods of this world upon ourselves, then of course we're not seeking first the Kingdom of God, we're not seeking to use our lives in the service of Christ, to send forth the Gospel. We're using all that we can grasp in order that we might pamper ourselves.
By the same token, if we have large life insurance policies, and so on, so that we can live in the lap of luxury and have all and everything at our feet, it would be the same kind of a thing. But on the other hand, to budget a reasonable amount so that we would be able to care for ourselves through these years is certainly God-glorifying.
If it should be that God would take us out early, and we don't know when we will die, when we will go to our heavenly home, this can be cared for by a will, so that if God does take us out early, then we've already taken care of the disposition of our funds so that they will also be used to God's glory after our death.
Now the reference was made to the fact that there are numerous references in the Bible (or a number of references, at any rate, in the Gospel of John) to the disciple that Jesus loved. As near as we can tell from the context, the disciple that Jesus loved was the apostle John. He is the human author, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, of the Gospel of John. This is the common practice by the writers of the Gospels, not to name their own names, if they are being talked about in the Gospel message. And as near as we can tell, it is talking about the Gospel of John.
Now where we find this phileo love is particularly in John 21, but it's not in relationship to the apostle John. I don't know if it's ever used in relationship to the apostle John. I've never searched this out, but I don't really think that it is used in connection with the apostle John. But particularly it was used in connection with a conversation between Jesus and Simon Peter.
In verse 15 of John 21 we find that Jesus is saying to Simon Peter, "Son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these?" And Christ uses the word agape, which is the love of God Himself. It is a love that embraces total obedience to God. It is a love that is a self-sacrificing love. It is a love where you want the very best for the other person.
Simon Peter has just gone through this terrible experience of having denied Jesus. He's not nearly the self-assured, certain person that he was before the time of the cross, where he was ready to declare, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God," and "I will never betray Thee," and so on and so on. Now he says very tentatively, "I love Thee," and he uses the word phileo. That is, I am your friend, or it is the love that exists between father and son, or the love between mother and child. It doesn't have nearly the weight of agape love.
And then a second time Jesus said, "Lovest thou Me?" using the word agape. Do you have that love for me that is required of God when there is perfect obedience, when you really want to be altogether obedient to me? And again he answered with the word phileo..."I love Thee," indicating that Peter has learned a great lesson at the cross. He has been broken. He is not nearly as self-assured as he was before the time of the cross.
And oh, how we need this sometimes! How often we can get into that snare where we really think we've got all the answers. And just because we've learned something about the Bible, we really think we know it now. And the Lord has to deal with us perhaps a long time before we realize that there is a lot that we don't know, there's lots that we have to learn, and we have to be much more humble than we ever were before.
And then a third time in verse 17 Jesus said, "Lovest thou Me?" And this time He used the word phileo. Are you my friend? Are you my friend? Do you love me in this way? And Peter answered, "I love Thee," and again he answered with the word phileo.
Then in verse 20 of John 21 we read about the disciple whom Jesus loved. "Then Peter turning about seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned on His breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is He that betrayeth Thee?" And this, as near as we can tell from the context, is talking about the apostle John.