Needs and Wants: The Complexity of Distinction

At a basic level, needs are essential for survival and well-being—things like food, water, shelter, and security. Wants, on the other hand, are things we desire but can live without. This distinction sounds clear-cut, yet in practice, the line between needs and wants is often blurred.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs helps us understand this complexity. His model is structured as a pyramid, progressing from physiological survival needs (food, water, air, sleep) to safety needs (security, shelter), then to relational needs (love and belonging), esteem needs (recognition, self-respect), and finally, self-actualization (personal growth, purpose, fulfillment).

At the lower levels, needs are clear-cut—without food or shelter, survival is impossible. But as we move up, things become increasingly subjective. A need for belonging can make us feel like we must have the latest gadget to fit in. An esteem need might drive us toward expensive clothing, mistaking status for security. Marketing, cultural expectations, and social comparison further blur the lines. Our ability to determine objective needs becomes entangled with subjective wants.

I see this confusion in those closest to me—my family. They say, I need a quality caffeine fix or I’ve worked so hard, I need to spoil myself. And when I’m honest, I realize I do the same. Disentangling wants from needs is harder than we admit.

This same dynamic impacts the life of faith. God is an objective “other,” and Scripture is an empirical text that conveys His truths. Yet my capacity to encounter God as He is, and to hear what He truly says, is complicated by my own subjectivity. I come to Scripture with assumptions about how God should posture Himself, and what His Word should say. These assumptions are shaped by culture, experience, and personal bias. While I must try to set them aside, I can never fully remove my own interpretive lens.

John Calvin recognized this tension. In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, he begins with the paradox that to know God, one must know oneself—and to know oneself, one must know God. It is difficult to say which comes first, says Calvin. In faith, as in life, objectivity and subjectivity remain deeply intertwined.