Spending Money on Pleasure - Part 1

James 4:3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

It appears from this verse that it is categorically wrong to desire more money so that we might afford more pleasure. Pleasure-seeking is a wrong reason to ask God for more money and the reason he withholds money.

Is it therefore always wrong to spend money on pleasure? Is there legitimate pleasure, despite its financial expense, that we should be purchasing? Can pleasure afforded with money, lead to holiness or does it always detract? Where do we get our answers? Do we simply compare ourselves with others, justify our spending with private answers, or is there a biblical answer? In order to have confidence and peace before God in this issue, we need a Consumer-Theology.

Is there a right amount, a justifiable percentage, a dollar figure that God wants me to spend on my pleasure? Is pleasure that requires spending always wrong? If not, what verses would I point to?

1Ti 6:17 Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.

In this verse, God recognizes our “need” for enjoyment and meets it. And if God gives “all” we need to enjoy, surely this points away from material wealth and towards the “all” that comes with Christ as in Ro 8:32 “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

The “all things” we have to enjoy and anticipate here are divine forgiveness, acceptance, and love. We have the Church, the Kingdom, holiness, the sure hope of a perfectly happy eternity, but these things are not afforded with money, so how do we really decide how much money a believer is entitled to spend on his pleasure? Are we prepared to listen to God on this point?

If the best things in life are free, how much does God want us to spend on making life a little better? If the believer learned to authentically enjoy Christ, would it free up money for mission? How can I look at my own habits without being condemning of others?