The Irony of Security
Financial security is one of the major goals of modern Americans. People plan and work hard to have money in the bank, an insurance program, investments, or some means of guaranteeing adequate money for any eventuality. This course of action is only logical, for money is the medium of exchange, and in our highly interdependent society there is little if any self-sufficiency. Thus one must have money to get what he needs and wants.
Underlying this concentration on money is a perhaps unconscious philosophy. The tragedy is that this philosophy is deceptive, and thus gives rise to the irony of security. It is deceptive because it goes by what appears to be self-evidently true, but is in reality not true, for things are not always what they seem.
What appears to be true is that the physical is the most substantial component of the universe. We can see it, feel it, hear it, taste it, smell it. By contrast, ideas are vague, insubstantial. They are quiet, whereas the physical clamors. This clamoring so captures our attention that we assume without thinking that this is real substance. Ideas are ignored – quiet, they simply do not impress themselves upon us as do physical things with their appeal to our senses. Perhaps the reason for this fact is that sensing is passive and thinking is active. Our senses work automatically; we have to choose and exert effort to think.
I will never forget sitting in a college philosophy class in a discussion of idealism (simply, the belief that ideas are the only reality) and materialism (the belief that the physical is the only reality). Naively I said something about “just an idea” as opposed to something physical (and therefore obviously more real and substantial). The teacher’s reply was “Just an idea!” I learned something that day. I learned that the truth is that those ideas, which do not appear, are stronger than what appears. Anything physical can be destroyed, but ideas live on. Furthermore, everything, absolutely everything, physical was first an idea in someone’s mind.
Since those college days more study and thought have led me to believe that there is reality that transcends our ideas, for they come from our minds. This reality is spiritual, and it is eternal. The Christian faith believes that the physical is real, for God created it. It believes that ideas are potent (“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he”). But ultimate reality is spiritual.
Let us turn now to Scripture to see what it says about the question of security with which we began. Heb. 11.13-16 is a good place to begin. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah
all died in faith, not obtaining the promises, but seeing them afar and greeting them, and confessing that they were strangers and sojourners on the earth. For those who say such things reveal that they are seeking a homeland. And if they remembered that homeland from which they went out, they had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is heavenly. Therefore God was not ashamed to be called their God, for he prepared for them a city.
This passage reveals a certain mentality on the part of people of faith. It is a sojourning mentality with regard to this earth. These people know that what appears to be so real is actually passing away (1 Cor. 7.31). There is no real security on this earth. Those things that appear to be so safe, so substantial, are only temporary. Real security lies in things which cannot even be seen. Paul puts it this way: “Therefore we do not lose heart, but even if our outer man is decaying, our inner man is being renewed day by day…. not looking to seen things but to unseen things, for seen things are temporary, but unseen things are eternal” (2 Cor. 4.16, 18).
America was originally characterized by a pioneering, risk mentality. Our forefathers faced a vast, untamed land. There was great risk involved in attacking that wilderness, but there was great reward for those who tried and prevailed. Their willingness to risk their lives resulted in our inheritance of the richest nation in the world’s history. The hard work of men who inherited this nation and went to work just after World War II led to the incredibly high standard of living that most Americans enjoy.
There is nothing wrong with security, and indeed it is a psychological necessity. The problem is that the obvious substance of the material coupled with the vast wealth of this nation have beguiled people into seeking security in the wrong place. We have all heard the old saying, “You can’t take it with you.” Economic conditions being what they are today, we are beginning to see that not only can we not take it with us, but it is not even safe while we are here. If we do not lose it ourselves, the economy may fail and take it from us. Then all those who have worked so hard for financial security will have no security.
All this is designed by God to help us see the truth that real security never was in the material anyway. The cities of this world, with all their wealth, have no foundations. We need with Abraham to “wait for the city which has foundations, whose designer and maker is God.” It is the unseen, spiritual things that are eternal, and thus are really secure.
There are two steps Christians can take in response to these truths. First, we can seek our security in the Lord, not in the material things of this world. The materialistic philosophy is so subtle and so pervasive that even serious Christians are affected by it. Let us resolve not to be deceived, but to sojourn in the world and to look for a city which has foundations. This is not to say that we should dispose of all material possessions. They are not inherently bad. Let us just not rely on them for security.
The security we are discussing here is not the security of heaven, but of now. We have no fear of not going to heaven, for we know that God has saved us, but we become scared when the bank account gets low and wonder what will happen now. We must see that God is our security now as well as eternally, and trust him for daily bread as well as for eternal life (Psalm 37.15-26).
Second, we can commit ourselves to evangelism in a new way. If the economy fails, as many say it will, the materialistic philosophy of the world will be revealed for the lie it is. Then desperate men will be open to the truth that real security lies in God. And even if the economy recovers, there are many well-to-do people in this country who have made a lot of money and are still empty inside. Right now they are gripped by fear, not by peace, because they sense the possibility that that upon which they have relied may vanish. The gospel is not only for the poor, like the laborer who found a treasure in a field and sold all he had to buy that field (Matt.13.44). It is also for the rich, like the pearl merchant who found pearl of such great value that he sold all he had to buy it (Matt. 13.46-46). The gospel is better than anything this world offers, no matter how good, and it is secure – forever.
We share the fate of that to which we give ourselves. Let us not be deceived into giving ourselves to that which appears. Rather, let us confess that we are strangers and sojourners on this earth looking for a heavenly homeland, and let us share this good news with a world building on sand. We have found genuine security. It is ironic, for it has no apparent substance, but it is eternal. Our commission remains: “Go… and preach the good news.”
Copyright © 2021 by Tom Adcox. All rights reserved. You may share this work with others, provided you do not alter it and do not sell it or use it for any commercial purpose. “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10.8). Also you must include this notice if you share it or any part of it.
Quotations from the New Testament are the author’s translations.
