TEXT: I John 5:21

SUBJECT: Family Life #20: Home Ownership

Today, with God’s blessing, we’ll continue our study of Family Life. Before I announce the topic, though, let me tell you a story. It’s made up, of course, but I fear it’s more true than we’d like to admit.

Five hundred years from now, archaeologists will dig up the Bay Area and be utterly amazed at our bizarre and self-destructive ways. They’ll learn, for example, that:

1. Husbands and wives both worked, leaving their children to the tender mercies of Day Care Centers, Public Schools, Television and the Internet.
2. Men often commuted two to four hours a day on roads built for speed, but choked with traffic.
3. Couples took out huge loans and repaid the principal three or four times over thirty years of monthly payments.
4. Young, healthy couples limited themselves to one or two children. If other pregnancies occurred, they were terminated.
5. Families moved into dangerous neighborhoods, exposing themselves to violence, burglary, prostitution, and drugs.

Historians will be asked to explain the insanity of our times. Was it poverty that forced them to live that way? Or, a Dictator? Or, were they poisoned by something in the environment? What caused otherwise rational people to live so foolishly?

For a long time, no one will have the answer. Economists will say, "No, they had money". Political scientists will say, "There was no dictator in those days". Doctors will say "There was nothing wrong with their brains".

Everyone will be stymied. Until a theologian looks into the matter. He’ll study the documents with great care and say, "Ah ha! It was religion that drove them mad!"

That has occurred many times before. The Dark Gods always drove their disciples to madness. But which one was it that ruled America in the Twentieth Century?

Was the worship of Baal revived? Or Molech? Possibly the Nordic gods? Or, who knows, maybe the Aztec gods came back to life.

No, it was none of these gods that did it. But a god much more cruel and demanding than they were. It was new god who ruled in those days; he ruled with an iron hand. People offered their health to him, their marriages, their children—they laid everything on his altar. We he accepted their offerings they rejoiced; they wept when he turned them down.

What was the name of this god of darkness and blood? It was…Home Ownership.

I don’t know what Russian men most want. I don’t know what the Chinese long for most. Or, what altar the Germans now serve. But I can tell you, right now, in the Bay Area, the most feared and loved god of all is Home Ownership.

What will men not do to buy a house? What sacrifices will a family not make to get a place of their own?

Paul Tillich defined Religion as one’s "Ultimate priority". If he’s right, then I can say with confidence that the religion of the Bay Area is not Christianity or Judaism or Islam; it’s not Hinduism, Buddhism or Atheism. The religion—the ultimate priority of most people who live here is Home Ownership. If you don’t have it, you want it more than anything. If you have it, you’re scared to death of losing it. That is a religion. That is idolatry.

Is home ownership a bad thing? No it isn’t. For many people, it’s a good thing. But good things, when worshiped, become idols. The Brazen Serpent was a good thing—a very good thing. Commanded by God, it represented His healthy power and grace. But when it was worshiped, King Hezekiah broke it to pieces. And God praised him for it!

A healthy body is another good thing. But if a man’s eye or hand or foot makes him sin, it is better to pluck it out or cut it off than to go to hell with the body strong and well.

When is owning a home sinful? That’s an easy one: It’s sinful when it makes you sin! Let me give you some examples:

1. Owning a home is sinful if you’re not satisfied renting. There’s nothing wrong with preferring your own place to a rental, but if renting eats you up inside, something is very wrong—I Timothy 6:8.
2. Owning a home is sinful if you have to lie to qualify for a loan. I’ve known Christians who have hid their debts—big ones too—in order to obtain a loan they’re not qualified to have. Call it what you will, that’s lying. And that’s wrong—Exodus 20:16.
3. Owning a home is sinful when it makes you neglect your family. The Bible nowhere commands a man to buy a house. But it does tell him to "Love his wife" and to "Bring up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord". If you can’t do these things—and own a house too—give up the house and obey the Lord.
4. Owning a home is sinful when the mortgage so straps you that you can’t support the church, promote missions, and give to the poor. These are duties; we’re obliged to do them. And to arrange our lives so that we can. If your house payment takes up 50-60% of your income, forget it, you can’t own that house and tithe at the same time. (At least most people can’t).
5. Owning a home is sinful when it enslaves you. The Bible does not forbid slavery or tell slaves to escape from their masters. But it does tell them, "If you can be made free, rather use it". In other words, if a man could buy or work his way out of slavery, by all means, do it. Unlike the slavery of Paul’s day, our servitude is voluntary. If paying for your house—or keeping it up—keeps you busy all the time, keeps you from serving the Lord or loving His people or taking care of your family, get rid of it and find something you can afford—even if it’s smaller or older or tackier or in a worse neighborhood or owned by somebody else! You have a Good Master! Why serve that Tyrant?

Other things could be said here. But this will have to do for the moment. Just remember: If home ownership makes you sin, it’s sinful.

Most people like expensive cars. But very few will make big sacrifices to own a Maserati or a Rolls Royce. Why the obsession with owning your own place?

I’m not sure I can answer this one, but I’ll give it a try. In talking to people, I’ve found most of them who want a house want it for one of three reasons:

1. Permanency. They want to quit moving around all the time and settle down in one place.
2. Investment. In recent years, the price of real estate has skyrocketed. In the twelve years we’ve lived in our house, its value has tripled or quadrupled—and they want in on the bonanza.
3. Dignity? I’m not sure I’ve got the right word here, but I couldn’t think of a better one. I know a man who rented for twenty years and was humiliated the whole time. To him, it suggested failure; it put his manhood into doubt.

What do you make of these arguments? I don’t make much of them. The first is wrong factually—I think—and ethically for sure. Owning a home doesn’t mean you’ll stay there for thirty or forty years. Most people move every three to five years. But that’s not the worst of it. Saying you’ll live there for years is forbidden by God, James 4:13-16,

"Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will

The second is also presumptuous. Houses have been a great investment in recent years. But the bottom could fall out at any time, and leave you with a mortgage costing you much more than your house is worth. In 1929, this happened to millions of people. It will happen again. Maybe soon.

I don’t know what to call the third. Will a house make you feel better about yourself than being loved by God, redeemed by Christ, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit?

If someone calls you a "loser" because you don’t own a house, tell him, "You may be right. But I’m a loser loved by God!"

Idolatry does two things: It makes a false god look good and the True God look bad. If you want to quit worshiping other gods (including home ownership), you’ve got to reverse that thinking.

Home ownership may be a good thing, but it’s not as good as you think it is. For every problem it solves, it creates other ones. If you own a house, your rent won’t go up—but your property taxes will. If you own a house, you’ll have a yard for the kids to play in—but also a yard to take care of. In buying, you trade one set of problems for another.

On a deeper level, owning a house won’t give meaning to your life. St. Agustine said,

Homes are not permanent. They burn down; they’re destroyed by earthquakes and floods; eventually they just wear out.

Even the best home, lived in for longest life, will one day be lost. On the day you die or when Jesus Christ returns. In short,

Remember these things and your idol will lose its luster.

But don’t leave it there. Remember that you already own a Home. It’s there right now, though some remodelling is going on at the moment. But when it comes time to move in, everything will be just right!

Is it all right for believers to buy a house? Sure it is. But never to prefer it to their True Home. We’re pilgrims and strangers; let’s be content with our cabins and tents for now. Because we’ve got a Mansion back home. We’re going to it. Soon.