Material Possessions

Does filling a shelf with personal belongings and striving to obtain more of them mean one is by necessity materialistic, apathetic towards all else, or enslaved to greed?  In Christian moral theology, are material possessions evil or at least impossible to desire without stooping to evil?  It is not so in either case.  The likes of consumerism and workplace exploitation for the sake of greed are irrational and unbiblical, but neither of these things is the same as having or wanting physical belongings for the sake of practicality or excitement.  To marvel at and actively seek to own such things is not itself a betrayal of anything deeper and higher than material comforts.

The Biblical God is certainly not opposed to monetary wealth or a wealth of possessions other than money. Mosaic Law, the only truly precise, clear, and holistic presentation of Christian moral obligations (all the others do not have all three qualities at once), does not condemn wealth acquisition even as it acknowledges that there are no sins Yahweh has not in one way or another condemned in the Torah (Deuteronomy 4:2). Though narratives are entirely secondary or irrelevant to direct moral revelation, God is also said to have blessed Job with an immense personal wealth (Job 42:12), granting him far more than what God allowed to be taken away earlier in the book to demonstrate his resoluteness to Satan. It would obviously follow if Christianity is true that the envy, greed, or emotionalism-driven pursuit of wealth and possessions is morally invalid, and the desire for money and what it can access could motivate every sort of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). These items are nonetheless amoral or good on their own.

As long as someone can afford it without resorting to theft or other sins and is not motivated by any form of irrationalistic philosophy--and as long as they are not ignoring the ways their resources could resolve more pressing problems like major health concerns for them or their dependents--then they are Biblically free to collect, use, admire, and long for material belongings.  Whether for the sake of subjective emotional enjoyment or practical convenience, each person who does so without falling into irrationality, greed, or injustice of any kind has done nothing wrong even by loving their physical possessions.  This does not usurp the love of reason, truth, God, justice, and humans unless it is allowed to.

Ownership of physical necessities and luxuries alike is not what is spiritually disruptive or morally tainting.  Enjoying them and hoping to gain more of them is not even problematic unless a person cares more for materialistic ownership of goods than grand logical truths, God himself, moral obligations, or their fellow humans.  It is only the confusion of material possessions for the heart of all things or for some kind of ultimate priority that is erroneous: erroneous logically by default since this is an invalid belief to have (and thus acting as if it is true is invalid), as the necessary truths of logic and the uncaused cause are more fundamental to reality by far, and erroneous morally according to Christian ethics, the only moral system to have any evidence in its favor.

To worship or to shun material possessions is a common attitude of non-rationalists towards them.  Some seek them out in the asinine hope that they will be able to erase or ignore their failings and limitations by drowning themselves in material comfort, pleasure, and security.  They will neglect the core truths of reality as they cling to possessions they temporarily hold onto in a relatively brief life.  Others will denounce or forgo material possessions irrationally, perhaps thinking they are virtuous just by avoiding them.  They might react to greed and consumerism by jumping to another fallacious philosophy or simply be driven by dislike of those they are envious of.  To the left or right of the truth is where many reside although all false or assumed beliefs can be avoided in full.