Luke
12:15: “And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's
life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth”.
Greed is the
selfish or excessive desire for more than is needed or deserved, especially of
money, wealth, food, or other possessions. Other names for greed include avarice,
covetousness and cupidity. A greedy person is one who values
material acquisitions and possessions more than God. His sole desire is the inordinate desire to acquire or possess
more than one need.
The BIBLE
There
are many warnings in the Bible about giving in to greed and longing for riches.
Jesus warned, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s
life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). “Do
not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and
where thieves break in and steal… You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:19 and 24). Did
Jesus pursue the acquisition of money? No. On the contrary, He became poor for
our sake (2 Corinthians 8:9) and had “no place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). The
only disciple concerned with wealth was the embezzler Judas, who betrayed Jesus
for 30 pieces of silver. Greed and the desire for riches are traps that bring
ruin and destruction.
Nature of GREED
Greed can
follow from early childhood experiences or situational circumstances in life,
which develops to be ones character and aim in life. Early negative experiences
of greed consist typically of insufficient or inadequate nurturing which could
be natural and unavoidable. For example, the death of a parent , living in a
time of famine or a deliberately imposed situation on a child, such as the case
of willful neglect by parents or family. Whatever the circumstances, the effect
on the child is a sense of deprivation, of never having enough. Based on these misconceptions and early negative
experiences, one becomes gripped by a specific kind of fear. In this case, the
fear of lack i.e. of having to go without something essential as
there may not be enough of it tomorrow. Because of this constant fear, the
individual will obsessively crave the “needed” thing. They will also tend to
envy those who have that thing. The basic strategy for coping with this fear of
lack is to acquire, possess and hoard the “needed” thing which typically
involves: obsessively seeking the chosen substitute for the original lack; compulsively
acquiring it; hoarding it; preventing others from acquiring it; criticising
what is available (in the hope of eliciting something better) and blaming others
for failing to provide enough.
Dangers of GREED
The easier our lives become, the more enjoyment we derive from our
wealth and the greater the temptation to store up treasures on earth, instead
of in heaven. If we focus on earthly things like material wealth and
possessions, we fail to give God the glory and worship He deserves. Why should we avoid greed? God warns us
about GREED because:
1. Greed DECEIVES us.
The sinful desire of greed motivates
us to try to earn more than we need, own more than we can use, and ache for
stuff that never satisfies. Greed lies to us and promises things that it does
not deliver. Greed tells us that if we get what we do not have and what we
desire, we’ll be happy. You see, greed is VERY deceptive. It promises happiness
but it always leaves us wanting, One reason God warns us to avoid GREED is
because He knows that wanting is an endless search for joy that fades.
2.
GREED often leads us to other sinful BEHAVIORS.
1Timothy 6 says, “People who want to get rich fall into
temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men
into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”
For example, in 1Kings 21, King Ahab’s desire for Naboth’s land resulted in
finally the murder of Naboth. The king’s GREED gave birth to lying, murder, and
theft.
3. Greed blinds us to what is really
IMPORTANT in life.
This is what Jesus was
warning us about in Luke 12:15 that “a man’s life does not consist in the
abundance of his possessions.” There are some workers who would literally work overtime
non-stop if you let them. Their pay-cheques were huge-but ironically they never
had any time to spend the money and even worse, they never saw their children
or wives because they were always at work. Greed led them to forget that, “a
man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
If we are not careful,
GREED can make you care more about furniture, cars, buildings, clothing,
popularity, big pay-cheques and earthly success than what is truly important. Wanting
can keep us from LIVING! GREED is indeed deceitful, it blinds us to what is
truly important and leads us to other sinful behaviors.
4. Greed can lead us to push GOD out of
our lives.
GREED is a form of
coveting- a behavior the 10th commandment
forbids (Exodus 20:17). In Luke 18 (Matthew 19:16-22), Jesus met a rich ruler
who asked what he had to do to inherit eternal life. When Jesus instructed him
to give up his money, the man could not obey to follow Christ because he was
following money. His negative response revealed that his true God was mammon- money/ wealth. Are you serving other
gods, joining secret societies, refusing to avail yourself for God’s work, not
being able to pray or study and obey the word of God because of greed for wealth?
Come out of GREED
Once greed takes control of the personality, it does not
care who it hurts in the process of getting what it “needs”. All things are
secondary to the fear of lack. Too
often, the wealthy become complacent and self-satisfied and ascribe their
riches to their own efforts instead of acknowledging that every good gift comes
from God. We can overcome and come out of greed, if we:
1. Acknowledge
the reality of greed in our life.
Don’t say you are exempt
because to do so would be kidding yourself. The truth is GREED affects all of
us in one way or another. Many times it’s hard to see because society
encourages it. To deal with it, we have to first of all be honest and admit
this is true. Our refusal to give of our time for ministry and mission or having
more clothes than we can possibly wear is greed. When you keep too many clothes
in the closet without wearing them, you rather wear yourself out, taking care
of them. To break free from this powerful sin, we must begin with CONFESSION.
We must ask God to open our eyes so that we can cultivate an awareness of how
often we find ourselves planning, scheming and dreaming of ways to get more and
more and more.
2. Expose the Lies of GREED.
Much of GREED’S power to
enslave us lies in its exaggerations and deceptions. It leads us to think, “If
I could only HAVE that car or those clothes, I would be happy for the rest of
my life…Those things would give me LASTING JOY!” When GREED tempts us with
thoughts like this we must remind ourselves that this is a lie, mainly because
nothing on this earth lasts and therefore nothing GREED gives us brings lasting
joy! Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount warned us that on earth, “…moth
and rust destroy… everything”. (Matthew 6:19). Our Lord is telling us that
everything on earth is temporary. Everything is vulnerable to rust and decay. All
those clothes in your closet, moths are going to get them eventually. The
principle here is that Greed lies. THINGS don’t last. To break free of GREED we
need to ask God to help us look at life through the lens of eternity so that we
can see GREED’S promises for the lies they really are! And then the most
important thing we must do to DEFEAT greed.
3. TRUST God for your needs.
GREED leads us to believe
we cannot trust our Heavenly Father to give us what is best for us. But God
knows our needs even better than we do and He promises to take care of us. In
Matthew 6:25-34 Jesus said, “Do not
worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we
wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father
knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and
all these things will be given to you as well.” In Philippians 4:19 Paul
reminds us that, “God will meet all our needs according to his glorious riches in
Christ Jesus.” 1Timothy 6:17 says, “Command
those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their
hope in wealth which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, Who richly
provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” Greed leads us to distrust
all these promises of God. These days FAITH is out and CREDITing is in for most of us. Let us trust
God to give us what we need in the right quantity and at the right time.
Finally
Breaking
free of GREED requires us to embrace a patient trust in the CHARACTER of God.
We must realize that in His infinite WISDOM, He knows our needs and our
children’s needs. We must realize that in His infinite POWER, He is able to
meet our needs…and that His limitless LOVE will prompt Him to give us what we
need. This should be the thought of the man who wants to break free from GREED.
AMEN!
Sample Prayer.
Father God, Help us control our wants….mold us to “set our
affections…our desires….on things above not things of this earth.” Teach us to
be content with nothing but Your will…and to trust You for our needs. Help us
get to the point where we can pray with the Psalmist, “Earth has nothing I
desire besides You…God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
(Psalm 73:25). In Jesus’ name I pray…AMEN.
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