Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper
Week 4: Chapter 4 — Magnifying Christ Through Spending and Being Spent
Read Chapter 4 of Don't Waste Your Life. Key passages: 2 Corinthians 12:15; Luke 12:15–21; Matthew 6:19–21.
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Piper confronts one of the most seductive forms of a wasted life — the quiet accumulation of wealth and comfort — and calls Christians to a radically different relationship with money and possessions. These questions are designed to move beyond theory into honest self-examination.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Piper tells the story of a couple he knew who had worked hard, retired early, and spent their remaining years playing golf and collecting shells on the beach. He uses this — tenderly but pointedly — as an image of a wasted life. Does his assessment feel fair or harsh to you? Why?
2.He argues that the problem with the 'retire and relax' dream is not rest or enjoyment per se, but making personal comfort the *goal* of one's remaining years. What is the difference between resting in God's goodness and making rest your god? How do you tell the difference in your own life?
3.Piper draws on Jesus's parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12 — a man who built bigger barns to secure his future and died that very night. What does Jesus say the fool's fundamental error was? How does that error show up in contemporary life, perhaps in ways that look more respectable than hoarding grain?
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