GREED

Webster defines greed as"excessive acquisitiveness".

The Bible says... the law commands that we shall not covet anything belonging to our neighbour. His house, his family, his employees, and his belongings: All that is his falls under this commandment. We are commanded not to covet any of it. In short we are NOT to.. "Enviously" wish for other people's property.

Greed is NOT the desire to gain material wealth for oneself since material wealth can be used to bless others. It is not even an excessive desire to gain material wealth for oneself since this desire may have its roots in an excessive desire to use that wealth in a godly manner.

Rather, greed is the desire to gain personal advantage at the expense of another person. Using this definition shows that greed is a heart attitude that affects your relationship with everyone you associate with, regardless of your level of income.

At its root, greed is not about the acquisition of money. It appeals much more to your desire for power and control over your environment. Using this definition shows that greed is a product of "Rebellion" and "Witchcraft."

Paul warns in 1 Timothy 6:10... that greed seduces people away from the faith... "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil". People who covet after it have been seduced from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows. That is why greed will affect your relationships long before it will affect your income.

One possible cure for greed is to try to be deal fairly with all those around you. The Bible seems to imply that greed requires a far more extravagant cure than that. The definition for greed needs to be stood on its head.

Greed is: the desire to gain personal advantage at the expense of another person.

The cure: the desire to bless other people at the expense of your personal benefit.

Instead of asking, What's in it for me? the cured person asks "How can I be a blessing?"

In time this question will develop into, "No matter the cost to myself, How can I be a blessing?"

How can we keep from becoming greedy?

(1)...Learn the secret of admiring without desiring. If you can look at something and admire it without feeling you have to own it personally, you will save yourself thousands upon thousands of dollars. Develop the ability to look at something in a store window and say, "Wow, that's really awesome," but don't say, "That's really awesome, so I've got to own it."

Refuse to allow "Material Things" to become gods.

(2)...

Learn the secret of giving stuff away. About once every three months I try to give away something that I truly value. No strings attached. It helps me to stay free of greed and to put things into perspective. We're to love people and use things to show love to people. Greed sets in when we start to love things and use people to get things.

(3)...Learn the secret of being generous toward God. When the former rip-off artist Zacchaeus told Jesus what he planned to do with his wealth, Jesus replied, "Today salvation had come to this house" (Luke 19:9). Jesus didn't mean that Zacchaeus's soul was saved because he gave away money. He meant that Zacchaeus was on the road to getting things right with other people and with God because he'd repented of his greed and was making a move toward generosity. When things lose their hold on us, we truly are free.

(4)...Learn the reality of death in its relationship to things. Death marks the final failure of things. We might flash our cash on this earth, but we cannot take anything with us when we die.

"Money don't get everything, it's true, But what it don't get, I can't use.

Just give me money....That's what I want."--B. Gordy

Whether it is Donald Trump, Jim and Susan McDougal or any number of others, those lyrics echo a sentiment which threatens to overtake Americans. In truth, there are those who are much less wealthy, people like me and you, who are just as greedy, just as covetous as the billionaires who can never seem to get enough.

Everywhere in our nation, people are trying to "make a fast buck," and anyone who tries to stand in the way of me and my fortune had better look out. The main character of the film "Wall Street" a few years ago pronounced, "Greed works. Greed is good." And don't be deceived into thinking that greed was confined to the 1980s and Republican administrations. Greed, for many people in the 1990s, is still working and is still "good."

This is not new. This is not a subject about which the Bible is silent because it is some 20th century phenomenon. Greed is as old as law. In the Ten Commandments, God instructed man, "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor" (Ex. 20:17).

Greed was not uncommon in the days of Jesus either: "And when Jesus heard this, He said to him, 'One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess, and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.' But when he heard these things, he became very sad; for he was extremely rich" (Lk. 18:22-23). The rich young ruler is easy to hold up to ridicule, for he is "extremely rich." On the other hand, I have very little. It is only natural that I should want "just a little bit more" (then world's richest man J. Paul Getty's answer to the question, "How much money is enough?").

One of the most condemning factors involved in greed is that it causes us to despise the blessings we already have. We leave our air conditioned homes, drive in our air conditioned cars to an air conditioned church building, where we sing, "Living below in this old sinful world, hardly a comfort can afford." Can we honestly say that we are not immensely blessed by God in this country?

Even more troublesome is that we seek to carry our greed to the next life as well. "I'm satisfied with just a cottage below/A little silver and a little gold/But in that city where the ransomed will shine/I want a gold one that's silver lined." It is not enough that Jesus has promised to prepare a place for us (Jn. 14:2), we want to write the architect's specifications to meet our desires (our greed?). We have based the idea of a mansion on the King James translation of this verse, which is better translated "abode" (as in v. 23) or "dwelling place" (as in NASB).

The truth is, few of us are "satisfied with . . . a little silver and a little gold." We want new cars, new homes, new clothes, new toys, new this and new that. And we are shamed by the apostle's words in Philippians 4, ". . . I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need" (vv. 11-12).

What was Paul's secret? Read one more verse: "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me" (v. 13). Paul's secret was the same as the one he gave Timothy, "Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy" (1 Tim. 6:17). Paul's secret was that he trusted in his God, and not in whatever he had, be it humble or rich.

The teaching is actually that of our Lord. "Do not lay up for your- selves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matt. 6:19-21).

The uncertainty of earthly wealth is far too fragile on which to fix our hope. Hope must be moored to something great and powerful and strong. Our hope must be fixed on Jesus, who gives us the gift of eternal life in His sacrifice for us. While it may be true that "money can't buy happiness," it is even more true that money can't buy salvation. Only our faith in Christ can give us such hope.

Matthew 6:33.... "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."