Do we really have any needs?

[splat]

I think this is what a lot of church people are driving at when they explain away the following verse.

NASB Philippians 4:19 And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

For some reason it gets in my craw when people explain away this verse. They say but what is a legitimate need. When you actually get down to it, with some of these church people, they don't even believe you need arms and legs. Why did God give us them then if we don't really need them? Seems like they would much prefer to twist the word "need" so they don't have to examine whether what they call praise and worship is really that.

The other one is that God wants us to eat bad food with no nutrition if we can save a few bucks because that's called being a good steward of our finances. Interesting that this kind of "Christian thinking" is becoming very prevalent in my area.

 

[Faith Shield]

I think this is what a lot of church people are driving at when they explain away the following verse.

NASB Philippians 4:19 And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

For some reason it gets in my craw when people explain away this verse. They say but what is a legitimate need. When you actually get down to it, with some of these church people, they don't even believe you need arms and legs. Why did God give us them then if we don't really need them? Seems like they would much prefer to twist the word "need" so they don't have to examine whether what they call praise and worship is really that.

The other one is that God wants us to eat bad food with no nutrition if we can save a few bucks because that's called being a good steward of our finances. Interesting that this kind of "Christian thinking" is becoming very prevalent in my area.

I'm not sure I entirely understand your question. But I'd say, yes, we do have needs and thankfully God has promised to supply them. I'll even venture to say that God wants us to live a good quality of life - an abundant life. However, what can be classed as "abundant" is open to interprutation and probably varies for different people and different places.

It sounds to me like the believers in your area might be going through some kind of fad: thinking its super-spiritual to say they have no needs when they do; eating cheap, low nutrition food - which is just silly.

I can't help but think though that this verse from Philippians is probably one of the most abused verses of scripture. It strikes me as being a veritable catch-all verse which can be used to legitimise God's endorsement for anything that you label as a "need".

I just remember in the late nineties, charismatic preachers such as Jesse Duplantis and John Osteen using this verse to legitimise their need for a bigger church. Alright, its not really up to me to judge whether or not their need for a bigger church was genuine or not. But I just remember during that time, when I was rather naive and insecure, using their testimonies to believe God for all sorts of ludicrous things. These so-called "needs" of mine were not needs at all - just fantasies born out of insecurity and unfulfilment. I'm sure its not just me who made that mistake.