Is buying a house worldly?

[hojun1978]

It is very expensive to buy a house in the City like Beijing or Shanghai,
most young people just graduated from colleges have a dream to buy a comfortable house plus a car, which would spend almost their whole life to compensate the mortgage debts. What should we christians think on that problem?

 

[Christoffer]

This is a good question. Personally I have two options - live on rent or buy a house and pay mortgage until I am 60.

 

[Michael]

Well, it depends on why they are pursuing it. If they simply desire a worldly status and temporal comforts, then their efforts are pretty much in vain. But if the house and transportation are used to God's glory in raising a Christian family, home worship, and a car providing means of suitable work...well, such is the custom of the people of God. No different really than desiring a tent and a donkey in OT times...

 

[TimV]

The goal of property ownership is taken for granted in the Bible, and the Jubilee law for returning land and the restriction of buying up properties except in urban areas allow one to invest in property and still prevent a few people from owning most of the land. Lots of the rot that comes from poor people crammed into big cities in the third world would slowly disappear if those laws were enforced today.

It's perfectly alright to want to buy a house, even if the motive is financial gain and personal comfort.

 

[Tim]

Please also see my recent thread:

http://www.puritanboard.com/f32/larger-home-country-vs-smaller-home-city-59336/

 

[Jack K]

You need a place to live. And we need Christians in all communities, not just the rich ones but not just the poor ones either. If we're living modestly and contentedly within the community where God has placed us, it's no sin to spend what's needed to have housing.

 

[JoyFullMom]

For us, in the area in which we live, we felt buying a home was good stewardship. We could not rent a house that would even squeeze our family in and a shop for our business for the price we pay for our home and shop on acreage. We see it as God's provision.

 

[SolaScriptura]

Of course we need a place to live, and there is NOTHING wrong with property ownership... but a common problem among people who are just finishing college and they've got their first "real" job is that they look back at what their parents have and these people want all that RIGHT NOW, not realizing that their parents took years to accumulate all that stuff... and so these young, fresh from college, folks way over extend themselves.

Property ownership is good, but prudency and wisdom must reign in our appetite for wanting the biggest, best place possible.

 

[Andres]

I think a bigger issue is what purpose we want our possessions to serve. For example, in the U.S. we have warped view of the purpose of cars. Their purpose is simple - transport us from point A to point B safely, but in U.S., we tend to view vehicles as status symbols and we are more concerned with the look of the vehicle and all the features more so than it's function! The same could be said of a place to live. What is the purpose of a house? To provide shelter for a family. When we stray too far beyond this simple purpose and begin to desire oppulent homes with amenities that we don't really need, but simply desire things because of greed, then yes, I think it is sin. For example, does a family of 2 or 3 need more than 2 or 3 bedrooms? Does a newly graduated person need a home with a swimming pool and a gameroom? It is imperative that the Christian live within his/her means and be content with God's provision.

 

[OPC'n]

You're gonna owe someone money no matter where you live. If you rent, you will always owe your landlord. Might as well buy yourself a house pay it off and let the government own it for the rest of your life....I love property taxes!

 

[Andres]

I think a bigger issue is what purpose we want our possessions to serve. For example, in the U.S. we have warped view of the purpose of cars. Their purpose is simple - transport us from point A to point B safely, but in U.S., we tend to view vehicles as status symbols and we are more concerned with the look of the vehicle and all the features more so than it's function! The same could be said of a place to live. What is the purpose of a house? To provide shelter for a family. When we stray too far beyond this simple purpose and begin to desire oppulent homes with amenities that we don't really need, but simply desire things because of greed, then yes, I think it is sin. For example, does a family of 2 or 3 need more than 2 or 3 bedrooms? Does a newly graduated person need a home with a swimming pool and a gameroom? It is imperative that the Christian live within his/her means and be content with God's provision.

To an extent, Andrew, we can agree. However, we cannot possibly know the motive of every person who buys that which they don't need. We do this all the time. We could go buy a bag of beans at wal-mart and put them in the crock pot each night for food the next day, but we don't always do that. Why? Because we like variation in tastes, etc. that we don't need. But we certainly wouldn't argue that it's wrong to experience those other tastes. So we go out for dinner, or we have Tex-Mex one night, and a steak the next. That doesn't make us greedy (necessarily), just as I would argue that a 3 member family purchasing a 6 bedroom home with pool and other needless amenities is doing so out of greed (necessarily). The mark of a Christian is what do you do with what you have. Since you have a home with more bedrooms than "needed," do you provide a place to stay to brethren in need? Are you giving generously to the church as God has generously given to you? Those kinds of things. We have to be careful not to make presumptions about other folks according to their worldly goods and, instead, place the best construction on the matter. If people are outspending their means and gaining debt, well, that's something with which the elders should deal.

Josh, you make an excellent point, with which I agree. I apologize for not clarifying better, but I was speaking all in regards to living within means. In my opinion this is the heart of the OP's question. There is a huge difference in a Christian buying a $300k home when they make a salary of $100k a year and the Christian who wants the same home on $40k salary. Although, I will say that if one's decision are motivated by greed, then it will always be sinful, regardless if they have the means or not.

 

[sdesocio]

Yeah Im echo some of the other comments. It depends on motivation. If we need a house as part of our identity then we in for a big disappointment. But if its cheaper to buy than to rent(as it is in Pittsburgh right now) than it could be a good move.

 

[JennyG]

The hard part is often to keep from setting our hearts on such things and instead follow Philippians 4 v 11-12
....Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need...

 

[Edward]

Over time, the cost of renting and the cost of buying are about the same where we live. At the end of 20 years, we should have significant equity built up in our house, however. But you have to compare similar size homes.

In Germany, the economics are completely different, however.