Thanksgiving Day is a day to be thankful for the things we have.  There is usually a large dinner with family and/or friends.  There is usually turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberries, etc., depending on what your particular tradition happens to be.  It is probably the one day a year that we express our thankfulness more so than any other day of the year.  The day after Thanksgiving has become known as “Black Friday.”

Black Friday has traditionally been the first day of shopping for Christmas.  And it became such a successful day for retailers that it became know as the day of the year that the company went from being in the “red,” referring to a net loss for the year thus far, to being in the “black,” referring to a net profit for the year.  With so many people doing so much shopping on that day, retailers would put considerable effort into that day, including sales on products to get even more people to shop and to get people to spend even more money.  It become a monster that fed on itself, so to speak.

There have been additional branches off this shopping day, including “local Saturday,” where shoppers were encouraged to shop at local, mom-and-pop stores, instead of big box stores on the day after Black Friday.  This then led to “Cyber Monday,” the Monday after Black Friday, where people were encouraged to do more shopping online.  It has devolved into a feeding frenzy of shopping.

For well over a decade, I have gotten up early, usually around 4 am, just to get out and stand in line so I could be one of the first to get into a store and spend money on things.  This is the first year in a long time that I have not done that.  But even before I opted out of going this year, I couldn't help but wonder . . . is Black Friday(and all its offshoots) materialistic?

The only reason I even ask the question is because materialism is clearly spoken against throughout the Bible.  In Luke 12:15, Jesus warned His disciples to beware of covetousness, which is basically greed.  Jesus is not referring to the basic necessities of life – food, shelter and clothing, although even those things could become the object of greed.  Jesus wanted people to understand that life was more than just things.  If our focus is on things, that means our focus is not on God.  In Matt. 6:24, Jesus stated that you cannot serve two masters, as you will either love one and hate the other or you will be loyal to one and despise the other.  The two masters Jesus was referring to are God and money.  Here money is being used more generically of physical possessions(see Matt. 6:19, where Jesus is referring to “treasure”).

Jesus wants us to realize that our life is more than just what we see in this physical world.  Do we need things like food, shelter and clothing?  Yes.  But are those things what are most important in this life?  No.  In Matt. 6:25-34, Jesus explains that God understands that we have needs.  He knows we need food and clothing(the two examples Jesus uses), but instead of telling us to just worry about those things, Jesus says that we should not even worry about those most basic of needs.  Instead, He tells us to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first.  Then the other things, like food and clothing, will fall into place.  It could be very easy to read this passage and think, “As long as I pursue God’s kingdom and His righteousness, God will provide me with food and clothing.  But that is not what Jesus is saying.  Food and clothing will not miraculously appear to you if you are doing what is right.  That being said, if you are doing what God wants you to do, there will likely be others in His kingdom who will be willing to help you.  But as with everything else, we have to read the entire Bible.  Paul warned in II Thes. 3:6 about people being lazy, stating that if someone would not work, they shouldn’t eat.

With all that being said, is Black Friday materialistic?  In general, I would have to conclude that it is.  This does not mean that a person should not shop on Black Friday.  If you are buying gifts for others, that is not necessarily materialistic.  If you are buying things that you would have been purchasing otherwise, but you just waited until the sales to do so, you are likely just being a good steward of the blessing you have(I Pet. 4:10).  This year I used a Black Friday sale online to purchase sheets for our bed, which needed to be replaced.

It is important to remember that we live in a very materialistic society.   But as God’s people, our emphasis is not on things, but on God.  We love God.  We love people.  We do not love things.  And because of the constant bombardment of materialism that we experience on a daily basis, it can be easy to succumb to what “everyone else is doing.”  But we are not supposed to be like everyone else.  So let’s be God’s people.  Let’s put our emphasis on God’s kingdom and His righteousness.  The rest of life will work itself out.