May 15
“Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come.” (Colossians 3:5-6)
Yesterday we started exploring in a little more depth areas that I think Christians tend to be blind, areas where we habitually sin and are not even aware of it. We discussed anxiety briefly yesterday, and today and tomorrow I’d like to explore the areas of greed and covetousness.
GREED. Do you desire more money? Do you desire more things or better things? Are you content with and grateful for what you have? Do you give thanks regularly for what you have? Do you ever wish you were someone else? Do you desire the things that rich people enjoy, such as vacations and vacation homes, expensive cars, jewelry, and nice furnishings? Do you desire to live in a very nice home in a very nice neighborhood? Do you desire to be able to hire people to serve you and do things for you? Do you desire to be able to retire wealthy and never have to worry about money again? Do you worry about having enough money for retirement? Do you spend a lot of time managing your investments? Do you have enough money to live on but desire more? Do you have a tendency to gamble with your money? Do you take excessive risks to gain more? Are you content with small gains, or do you find yourself taking greater risks for greater rewards? Do you tend to believe people and advertisements when they promise you easy wealth and riches or investments with supposedly very attractive returns with little downside risk? Are you more concerned about your finances than you are the suffering of God’s people and building up the kingdom of God? Do you give generously and regularly? Is your heart longing to do more for the kingdom of God? Are you storing up treasures in heaven or treasures on earth? Exactly how are you storing up treasures in heaven, and is your burden and desire to do more of it? Are you laboring harder for earthly wealth than you are for God’s kingdom? If God asked you to give everything you have away to good Christian causes, would you do this? Are your goals aligned with serving the people of God and increasing the kingdom of God, or are your goals about increasing your wealth and influence and comfort in this life? What are you desiring more than God and building His kingdom? Where is your heart, really, and how important is material wealth and physical comforts to you compared with loving the Lord with all your heart and desiring only to serve Him and build His kingdom?
This is another area where I believe I have stumbled for years and still struggle. I think there are elements of this sin in me that I still see and ask the Lord to uproot. I see some amount of greed and covetousness, I believe, in most Christians I know here in the USA, but I am confident it is a universal problem. I think that in situations where we have great material wealth, and everyone around us seems to be pursuing wealth, we tend to be tempted and influenced much more by a culture of materialism and greed than perhaps we realize. Paul makes it clear that greed is idolatry, the sin of putting the pursuit of gaining more earthly riches higher than our love for God. How are you doing in this area?