There’s an ongoing debate in the Christian community right now: whether or not we should have life insurance.

On one side you want to trust God with everything, while on the other we think, “What if God would provide for us through life insurance?” On one hand we can say biblically that the Church (meaning people, not institution) should care for my family if I die, while on the other we could say that I shouldn’t place that burden on others.

The question for me is something a bit different though. It’s not really about life insurance. Aren’t questions like this really a matter of whether or not we want to REALLY live biblically? We all say we do, but do we really desire that…or is it something else and we just say that because we feel better? When it comes to issues like life insurance, which perspective is actually biblical, and which one is American that we rationalize using the Bible? It seems to me that Scripture is much more counter-cultural than we would like to admit, or even realize. It’s “grey” areas like life insurance where we enter the gauntlet of intellectual debate and, I’m afraid, end up much more in human-American wisdom than we do in Godly-spiritual understanding of these issues.

Oh, to be filled by the Spirit and freed from cultural influence and ideals! Maybe it was because Christ constantly walked in the Spirit and in Godly wisdom that caused church people in his day to not fully understand him.

I do know one thing to be certain: it is often people in the church that try to rationalize away my convictions. They’ll call it extreme, or unnecessary. It does however seem that what we would call radical today, Jesus just held as necessary to be a follower of him. What we deem as radical, or even unnecessary, people used to just call Christian.

Well, how far do you take it then?

It’s asking that question that’s the problem. Is it just me, or am I the only one that’s asked that just so I could rationalize away having to actually live the way Scripture calls us to…