Christian Beer Economy
When you help someone, what do you expect in return?
I don’t drink beer, but the Tooheys Beer Economy ads have caught my eye. According to the official Beer Economy website, this is how it all works:
“Lending your mate a hand when it’s needed is just a part of being mates. The deal is that when the jobs done, it’s his shout at the bar of the bottle shop. It doesn’t matter if you’ve mowed his lawn or helped him re-tile his roof, he owes you a beer. The question is: how many? Find out what it’s worth with the Tooheys Beer Economy.”
The various ads then go on to explore the different ways you can help your mate (fixing his car, helping him at work, or fixing a leak), and how much beer it is worth.
Now it is a good thing to do to help a mate. However, Christians should not help their mates out because they will receive something in return.
Check out 2 Corinthians 9:8
“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all you need, you will abound in every good work.”
Christians don’t help their mates out because they will receive something in return. Christians help their mates out (and their enemies) because they have already received something from God; GRACE! Grace is God’s undeserved generous gift to us rebels through Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension to heaven. And it is this grace that should motivate us to live a life that always abounds in every good work.
One of the things that stops us abounding in every good work is that we are worried that if we spend our lives looking after others, who will look after me? But notice in this verse that God’s grace continues to give us not only Christ, but all that we need. How good is that!
And the “return” that Christians should be looking for, and longing for, is not beer. A few verses later we are told that the “return” that Christians should be looking for is thanksgiving and praise to God, and not to us (verse 11-15). That’s why Christians do good. That’s our “economy”. We always abound in every good work, helping our mates, helping our enemies, so that God may be thanked and praised.
So which “economy” do you think you most you work under? Too often I work under the “beer economy”. Too often I do good things in order to get something in return. I do good things so that people will like me, respect me or thank me. This means I do good things when other people are around to notice me.
What I need to do more, (and maybe you are the same?), is look to God’s amazing grace, realise that in Jesus I have all I need, and help my mates out in a way that means God gets the glory, and not me.
So keep mowing other peoples’ lawn, fixing their leaks and changing their light bulbs, not for what you can get out of it, but so that God gets thanked and praised. And maybe the first place to start doing these things is at home!
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